What shook me most is that when Dr Ní Shúilleabháin was living through that nightmare ordeal, university management in UCD were being alerted to the problems not just of harassment, but also sexual violence, in UCD and were being asked to act. With this problem happening in my place of work I felt compelled to alert my colleagues in UCD management to what I was hearing and to offer to help. The students’ union was running a consent campaign that year to persuade university management to run mandatory consent classes for all students. I wrote to a senior member of university management expressing my concern about what I called “sexual violence on campus”. Do not forget the pastThis week, the Minister for Higher Education, Simon Harris, announced his determination to apply a zero-tolerance approach to the problem of sexual harassment and sexual violence in Irish universities.

Source: The Irish Times September 12, 2020 05:00 UTC