Female students (62.9%), transgender students (62.8%) and students who were non-binary or identified as another gender (76.8%) were more likely to have experienced sexual harassment in their lifetime than male students (26.0%). Younger students aged 18 to 21 years (11.7%) were more likely to have experienced sexual harassment in an Australian university context in the past 12 months compared with those aged 22 to 24 years (8.4%), 25 to 34 years (5.5%) or older.

At MULSS, we believe in creating a safe and respectful environment for all our members. Unfortunately, sexual misconduct is a pervasive issue that has affected our campus and university events.

Not enough is being done to prevent this behaviour and protect victim survivors. It is time for that to change. MULSS, with the support and encouragement of faculty, will be holding mandatory sexual misconduct and bystander training sessions to educate and empower our members to be active promoters of a safer community. 

To attend ticketed LSS events, all members must attend one of the training sessions, unless a valid exemption applies. This will equip you with the knowledge and skills to prevent and respond to instances of sexual harassment and assault. 

Who: Training will be facilitated by upper-year students. Our special thanks go to Tulsi Kavar and Alice Rowling for assisting with the development of the content of the course.

When: Our second year of training began in February this year, with additional places opening throughout the year.

Duration: 2 hour workshops in person or on Zoom

Location: On campus at Melbourne Law School

Cost: Will be provided free of charge. 

Registrations: Registration for each session is available via Humanitix. Please see the MULSS Newsletter or your cohort JD Facebook Group for registration links.

Exemptions: Exemptions will be granted for victim-survivors and on religious grounds. The exemption status will remain confidential. If you require an exemption on these grounds please email training.exemption@mulss.com with your full name, student ID number and the grounds on which you are seeking exemption.

Accommodations: Only victim-survivor or religious grounds will result in a complete exemption from training, medical or personal hardship grounds will require rescheduling outside of the listed session times. If this is required, please email the request to smtraining@mulss.com. 

By working together, we can create a positive and supportive environment for everyone at law school.