A University of California student on the Education Abroad Program was allegedly sexually assaulted on Nov. 13 in her dormitory bathroom at approximately 1:30 in the morning at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in Durban, South Africa.
Friends of the victim said they believe the incident was a culmination of EAP’s failure to respond to several student complaints of poor security and theft in the area.
Bruce Hanna, EAP director for strategic marketing and communication, said that though he acknowledges student security had been a problem, EAP cannot control the response by the university and campus staff.
EAP has responded to the incident by suspending all programs in Durban as well as relocating the remaining students to the Pietermaritzburg campus, which is set in a rural area about 50 miles from Durban.
Despite these measures, Christine Kim, a UC Berkeley alumna who attended the program in Durban, said there had been many safety concerns leading up to the alleged assault.
Kim said she had reported theft earlier in the semester and received little response after sending e-mails to UKZN security force, the International Student Support Office and EAP advisors at UKZN and Berkeley.
“The gates that were supposed to separate the men and women’s quarters were not being separated,” she said.
She added that UC EAP advisors did visit the campus three weeks later, though they neglected to visit the dorms or have the security tightened.
“Communication was not there from the beginning. Effort was not made. That is something they should have been responsible for, which was in their ability to do. Information is very important,” Kim said.
Hanna also said EAP had responded just an hour after the incident on Nov. 13, and an investigation is under way.
But other students who studied abroad in Durban felt that the response had come too late.
“They neglect students once you’re abroad ““ once you’re there, you’re on your own without their guidance. EAP had already been alerted about someone’s identity being stolen ““ they knew security was bad. UC-wide EAP could have easily threatened to pull the program or have it suspended,” said Nimeka Dupree, a UC Berkeley alumna.
Dupree recalled that she and her friends teased the victim about running back and forth from the shower, mainly because the dorm she lived in was reputed to be so unsafe.
“Many of the female students felt unsafe. There were often strange men loitering in the halls,” Dupree said.
But Dupree also said that the host university did not often adequately address gender-based violence and that the initial response to such allegations was to “brush it under the rug.”
“There have been a lot of unreported incidents,” Dupree said. “At orientation, we learned that there was a student who was sexually assaulted by a local guy she was dating a couple of terms prior.”
“The UC needs to make a point to fully disclose what the living situation is,” Kim said. “Everyone here is very aware of personal belongings ““ even when you go to the bathroom, you lock the door.”
In response to the alleged sexual assault of Nov. 13, Michael O’Connell, the director of EAP, issued a statement and said he felt deep sympathy for the victim.