The Centre for Gender Studies, Gombe State University, has urged students and staff to familiarise themselves with the institution’s sexual harassment policy and promptly report violations.
The Director of the Centre, Dr Aishatu Abubakar-Kumo, made the call on Wednesday during a campus-wide awareness walk organised to sensitise members of the university community on the policy.
Abubakar-Kumo said the awareness campaign was aimed at ensuring that students and staff understood what constitutes sexual harassment, how to prevent it and the channels available for reporting incidents.
She said, “We want to make sure that almost everybody is aware of the policy and understands the rules and regulations and abides by them so that we can have a peaceful and respectful environment where students can feel free to study and live like a home.”
The director said the university launched the sexual harassment policy in April but could not immediately embark on the planned awareness walk.
According to her, copies of the policy had been distributed to various offices, while electronic versions were also being circulated through different online platforms to enable students and staff to access and study the document.
She said the policy was designed to help members of the university community understand the “dos and don’ts”, including behaviours and actions that could amount to sexual harassment.
Abubakar-Kumo also urged students to be proactive in protecting themselves and others, stressing that bystanders could play an important role in preventing sexual harassment.
She said, “Even as a bystander, if you see something happening, what do you do? How can you help? You can just say a word or two. If you can find a way of reporting it, our doors are open.”
She disclosed that the university had established desk officers across its departments and units to receive complaints, noting that about 50 desk officers were operating across the main campus, Dukku and the university’s other locations.
The director said the centre had not received any formal complaint of sexual harassment since the policy was launched, although there had been informal reports of alleged incidents.
“There is none that has been brought to us. But we have heard that this and this and this is happening. So, we told them our doors are open. You have to have evidence; just bring your complaint and we are going to follow up with it,” she said.
Abubakar-Kumo advised students to make effective use of their smartphones to document incidents where possible, urging them to “be smarter than their smartphones”.
She added, “They have smartphones, so they can utilise their smartphones to catch anybody who is trying to harass them, whether a lecturer, any student or anybody.”
She stressed that the reporting mechanism was open to everyone irrespective of their status, saying, “Our doors are open to all, irrespective of your position in the university.”
The awareness walk began at the Rashidi Multipurpose Hall and passed through several parts of the university, including the faculties of Social Sciences, Education and Science, the hostels, medical college, part-time and Open Distance Learning areas, library and postgraduate facilities before ending at the T-junction.
Abubakar-Kumo said the university made arrangements for water and an ambulance during the exercise, adding that no incident was recorded.
She urged members of the university community to study the policy carefully, saying doing so would help them distinguish between conduct that amounts to sexual harassment and behaviour that does not.
“My advice is for all the university community to study the document. If you study the document, you understand what is meant by sexual harassment,” she said.
She added that understanding the policy would enable students and staff to know when to report an incident and how to respond appropriately.
The director also disclosed that the university was putting mechanisms in place to investigate allegations and ensure that complaints were properly handled, stressing that the absence of formal complaints did not necessarily mean sexual harassment did not occur.
“We cannot say it is not happening, but we cannot specifically say this is the rate because they did not complain. If somebody did not bring the problem to you, you cannot count it,” she said.