A small group of Rhodes University students yesterday held a graphic protest to highlight management’s alleged slow response to their demands that students suspected of rape be suspended.
Supporters of the #RUReferenceList campaign, which named 11 students who were accused of rape but had not been charged, stuck sanitary products, panties, bras and other items smeared with what appeared to be tomato sauce in the main administration building.
The peaceful protest lasted several hours.
Attempts to get comment from university spokeswoman Catherine Deiner were unsuccessful by the time of writing.
Staff working in the building, who did not want to be named, said about 20 students took part in the protest and placed “gross art installations” inside the main entrance.
“It was not a noisy protest and even though they were not disrupting our work it was visually disturbing,” a staffer said.
Students also cooked food on the front steps to mark Africa Day, claiming nothing was being done to feed poor and hungry students.
Some student media declined to post graphics of the soiled sanitary products and panties on its tweets following claims it could be a trigger for rape survivors.
The protest forms part of ongoing student and staff dissatisfaction over what they call a rape culture on campus.
They started last month when the campus-based Gender Action Project claimed 23 cases of alleged rape and sexual assault had taken place this year. — davidm@dispatch.co.za
Rhodes students in graphic protest over alleged rape culture
Supporters of the #RUReferenceList campaign, which named 11 students who were accused of rape but had not been charged, stuck sanitary products, panties, bras and other items smeared with what appeared to be tomato sauce in the main administration building.
The peaceful protest lasted several hours.
Attempts to get comment from university spokeswoman Catherine Deiner were unsuccessful by the time of writing.
Staff working in the building, who did not want to be named, said about 20 students took part in the protest and placed “gross art installations” inside the main entrance.
“It was not a noisy protest and even though they were not disrupting our work it was visually disturbing,” a staffer said.
Students also cooked food on the front steps to mark Africa Day, claiming nothing was being done to feed poor and hungry students.
Some student media declined to post graphics of the soiled sanitary products and panties on its tweets following claims it could be a trigger for rape survivors.
The protest forms part of ongoing student and staff dissatisfaction over what they call a rape culture on campus.
They started last month when the campus-based Gender Action Project claimed 23 cases of alleged rape and sexual assault had taken place this year. — davidm@dispatch.co.za
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