University Grace on harassment WITHDRAWN

A Grace which was proposed to change the procedure with which the university dealt with cases of harassment and sexual assault, has been withdrawn.

It was due to automatically pass at 4pm on the 23rd December.

The proposed policy would have altered the way the university dealt with such cases, enabling the Academic Secretary the power to impose restrictions on those accused of such an offence. It would also have provided  to settle the outcome with both parties, or to have punishment imposed on the offender by the University should a resolution not be reached.

CUSU clearly showed their support for the proposed Grace

According to the rules of Regent House, a Grace could be withdrawn should a vote be requested, an amendment proposed, or the Vice Chancellor has discretion to withdraw a Grace himself. Currently it has not been disclosed what the reason behind withdrawing this Grace was.

The Grace had already received the approval of the University Council, as well as several high profile individuals within the University including the President of Murray Edwards and the Master of Churchill. CUSU had also strongly issued their support for the move.

A University spokesperson said “The collegiate university is committed to dealing with any sexual harassment or misconduct. To ensure we can offer timely, informed and appropriate support to our students, we are establishing a new procedure and code of conduct to deal with student complaints of student harassment and sexual misconduct. We are continuing to consult widely to ensure the new procedure can deal effectively with these complex cases. While it had originally been intended to implement this at the beginning of 2017, some late amendments to the detail of the procedure has led to a short delay and we now hope to implement it later in the academic year.”

The Tab has contacted CUSU for further comment and will update the story as and when more information is received.