#shameonyouwarwick

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Warwick Police haven't prosecuted anyone for these vile rape threats and Warwick uni are now letting (some of?) the perpetrators back in to study at the same university alongside those they discussed threatening to rape.

Would you be happy sending your child here?

Warwick students suspended over rape threats allowed to return earlyly*_

Two students banned from the University of Warwick for 10 years for their involvement in a group chat that threatened rape will be allowed to return later this year, it has emerged.
One woman who was targeted said she felt "terrified at the prospect of having these boys in my seminars".
Several of those in the chat encouraged others to rape specific students.
The university said it had reduced the length of their bans to one year after they appealed.

In a letter, seen by the BBC, a university official apologised to the women for not informing them of the appeal's outcome sooner - citing "my delayed summer break".

One of the two women who received the letter, in October last year, said she was talking about it now because she wanted to highlight what she describes as "horrendous" treatment by the university.

I don’t think it’s the uni caving in (thingss don’t work like that in the real world it’s not some mass conspiracy against women)

In the real world, higher education institutions are often pretty inconsistent and terrible about student welfare issues like this, and more willing than you might expect to just cave in to make legal hassles go away.

All universities will have a code of conduct which sets out clearly that they can and will expel/suspend students for various types of misbehaviour. Warwick get to set their own rules on what type of behaviour they won’t accept, and they are not obliged to readmit anybody who breaches that.

I notice the BBC article also says one of those students received a lifetime ban from the campus, and that isn’t one of the ones who appealed. Wonder which charmer that was? And where he’s ended up now...

imo, Private opinions not intended for publications that are merely insulting shouldn't be punished
However, there should be no privacy about fanatsies of rape or torture.

If those men had been fantasising about being terrorists instead of rapists, I'd expect a very harsh response

Without being rude the views of the women involved are in the article in the opening post of this thread. A quick read is probably a good idea before posting.

To the pp who said the men had been through trauma because of this - yes, so traumatised they started another group chat.

40+ years since Germaine Greer wrote 'women don't understand how much men hate them'. Plus ca change.

It's not a mass conspiracy against women,
just society's usual minimising of harm to us and ensuring the men responsible don't have their futures damaged

Those thinking of their sons and defending the right to share a desire to rape & torture,

would you be so tolerant if if had been homosexuals fantasising about raping & torturing young male students ?

boasting about having underage sex with young boys ?

And once again, some people are more concerned about the future impact on the boys who said these things, rather than the women who are forced into sharing a space with them.

This - in spades. Women who could have enjoyed a great education at Warwick now put off applying.

Maybe women should just stay at home and not go to university at all so that men can "banter" away in peace without worrying about any complaints.

I agree that Warwick probably caved under threat of legal action from the men's families (I'm not calling them boys, they are adults).

A very little more about the SU, from the article linked in the OP:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47060367
Liam Jackson, the president of Warwick Students' Union, said the union would continue to push for a review of the university disciplinary procedure.

But it was private. I am not defending them, but from a legal standpoint that makes a big difference.

I'm fairly sure it was on a uni network, that means it isn't private, most, if not all universities have policies on the use of IT.

NotBadConsidering - Excellent comments in your posts. Exactly what I feel, but am unable to adequately portray. We all encounter this type of 'banter' in our everyday lives, but when you are one woman arguing against a group of men, you often don't even get the chance to say how you feel about it, as you just get shouted down and labelled 'paranoid' or 'bonkers', etc. "Oh, it was just a joke, Evans - get over yourself". Ad infinitum It wears you down.

There is absolutely no chance I would be happy about any of my nieces being sent to Warwick University. Universities have certain obligations, one of which is meant to be to act in loco parentis. These young people are often leaving home for the very first time, and are under the care, in part, of the Universities they attend. If our young women are not safe, and the young men are not being reprimanded for such appalling behaviour, then what hope is there for womankind?

@53rdWay Jesus, that's awful. I am an academic now and have a deep mistrust of the safeguarding policies supposed to protect my students as a result.

"When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” ~Maya Angelou

I have a dd in Y12 who will be applying to university to study from 2020. Frankly I am terrified for her- she is quite a shy person and certainly not a garrulous combative type.

According to *MrsAriadneOliver she will just have to tolerate rape threats and constant sexual harassment because ...well...life's tough. As long as she's not actually physically attacked or murdered she should just suck it up, yes?

The apologists on this thread really ought to be ashamed of their disgusting comments. You are colluding in the belittling and sexual objectification of your own daughters. Bloody shame on you.

I think universities need to start giving serious consideration to having single-sex (and I mean single-sex, not single-gender) accommodation blocks. If I was a student now, I wouldn’t be happy sharing a flat with 20-year old males. I was quite happy with it in the 1900s, but now when I hear what some of my female students think they have to put up with - well, it is horrifying. Things have got a lot worse for young women in the last 20 years.

Good grief - this is appalling.

I'm going to send a message right now to make sure that our Uni's social media policy makes it clear that anyone making rape threats will be permanently excluded.

The important thing to note is that students and universities are in a customer - provider agreement situation that is governed by a contract. If the contract says we will exclude you for making rape threats on social media, and the student signs up then excluded they can be.

The problem is whether or not the contracts are sufficiently robust to tackle these kinds of behaviours.

I was quite happy with it in the 1900s

FFS. I meant in the 1990s. I’m not that ancient!

Not RTFT but have read the screenshots of the conversations which I find appalling.

One thing that I find annoying is multiple references to these male students as ‘boys’ which to my mind trivialises the situation & encourages the mindset of “boys will be boys”.

I am saddened by Mrs Oliver’s view that words are not harmful -suggesting that the young women should just toughen up. Real damage can be done to self-esteem and feeling of personal security by words leading to anxiety and depression. Lucky you if you are not affected but not everyone is made the same way & I believe (and thinking back to the beginning of the holocaust instigated by Hitler et al) that hate and ‘otherism’ begins with words.

How deeply sad and troubling that the attitudes of these men are still held in our society.

That did make me GC!

For those who haven't seen it. Watch the Hunting Ground on Netflix. It's about situations such as these but in the US.

Sorry Mrs Oliver - just catching up with the thread & I am so sorry that you were racially abused -that is horrific.

My ‘lucky you’ comment was not phrased well & not aimed at you. What I should have said was that those who are able to be robust in the face of having derogatory and unpleasant comments made about them or too them are fortunate but I don’t feel that is an argument for declaring that words don’t hurt.

I have just emailed the admissions dept and also press and media relations at Warwick expressing my disgust. Please everyone, do the same - they need to be absolutely inundated with complaints.

ScarlettSahara that hate and ‘otherism’ begins with words. Indeed it does - first dehumanise your proposed victim/s by the use of language history is full of examples of this right up to present day. Interestingly one of the students at the heart of this studies History and, shockingly, has chosen to repeat rather than learn from history.