Protesting Rhodes University students are expected to gather early on Monday 25 April following a week of action against rape culture that ended with a vigil last night outside the Drama Department in Prince Alfred Street. And at a meeting of the university students, staff and management on Saturday, a picture emerged of a community wounded by a harrowing week.
Protesting Rhodes University students are expected to gather early on Monday 25 April following a week of action against rape culture that ended with a vigil last night outside the Drama Department in Prince Alfred Street. And at a meeting of the university students, staff and management on Saturday, a picture emerged of a community wounded by a harrowing week.
Actions on the university campus began last Sunday night following the circulation of the so-called #RUReferenceList naming 11 past and present students. A group went to residences demanding the named students, and forced three to accompany them as they proceeded around the campus.
The action came a week after a newspaper published a report saying 22 students on the Rhodes University campus had been raped since the beginning of the year.
Five days of meetings and demonstrations against rape culture followed.
Tensions rose after police arrested five protesters on Wednesday.
On Thursday the University obtained a high court interdict prohibiting intimidation of staff or students, or the interruption of academic activities. Staff and students later marched in defiance of the interdict.
On Friday the Vice Chancellor Dr Sizwe Mabizela held a press conference which was immediately followed by an oppositional press conference by the protesters.
Rhodes management staff were visibly drained, and many students very emotional at a meeting in the university’s Great Hall on Saturday 23 April to chart a way forward following what the VC described as a “long and difficult week for all”.
At the centre of the week’s protests has been criticism of the University for a lack of adequate mechanisms for handling rape and sexual assault on campus.
A task team established to address these deficiencies had been dismissed the previous day because the students said it had been set up without consulting them.
Convenor of the task team, Professor Catriona Mcleod attempted, apparently unsuccessfully at Saturday’s meeting to have it endorsed as a joint tool for addressing inadequacies in university processes. The gathering was opened by Mabizela, who emphasised that rape was at the extreme end of a prevalent patriarchal culture which had to be changed.
Students directly challenged Mabizela and other senior management about their actions during the past week. Five management members faced the packed Great Hall to answer questions about their failure to prevent police entering the University grounds and arresting five students.
Most strongly in the students’ sights is the interdict and they have repeatedly demanded it be removed,
Mabizela emphasised that the interdict had been sought to protect students in residence and did not prevent any lawful protest. The Law Faculty’s Dr Rosaan Kruger was delegated to elaborate on why the interdict had been sought, including a death threat to a residence warden by a group demanding one of the named students.
Also high among the students’ complaints was what they saw as lack of respect by management.
Director of Student Affairs Dr Colleen Vassiliou made a strong plea for a healing process on the campus.
“Our campus is bleeding,” Vassiliou said.
She said staff at the university’s counselling centre had been overwhelmed by the numbers of students who had found the past week’s events traumatic and needed support.
“We have seen many students this week who are just not coping,” Vassiliou said. “Many students have been forced to deal with trauma and pain at a time when they are not ready to.”
She described the painful dilemma of traumatised students, including rape survivors, whose coping method was to continue with their routine. “For some students the only way to cope with their pain is to go to class,” Vassiliou said.
Emphasising the importance of choice [of how to respond to the protests]was the most important thing at that time, she said.
“We’ve almost cut the jugular,” she said.
“We cannot stop the work of making Rhodes aware that rape exists, and that it’s a terrible problem, but we have to explore other means.”
Vassiliou asked staff to ensure there would be no assessments today or tomorrow, but pleaded with students to allow others to attend classes on those days.
She and Mabizela emphasised that it was definitely not business as usual because the Silent Protest committee would organise activities over the next few days, culminating in a candlelight vigil on Freedom Day, Wednesday 27 April.
Immediately after Saturday’s meeting ended, a group of around 80 students congregated on the Drostdy Lawns, where they agreed that lecturers would be asked to present content or facilitate discussion addressing rape culture.
Soon after, under the hashtag #webelieveyou a plea was put outon social media for staff, students, community members, religious and faith leaders and other members of the communities of Grahamstown east and west to offer “a service that you feel that you can offer acknowledge that our society is bleeding. We also acknowledge that this is not purely a ‘psychological’ trauma and that it lives in our spaces, our bodies, our spirits and our minds.
“Please join us as we are seeking ways to stand in solidarity with each other and to acknowledge that we are wounded,” the plea continues. “This can take any form including one on one conversations with those who are struggling to sleep at night, tai chi sessions, yoga, photography, drawing, poetry workshops, music, lectures, etc. over the next three days.”
A vigil that began outside the university’s Drama Department at dusk on Sunday 24 April continued late into the night.
sue@grocotts.co.za
