Professor Eileen Baldry1
1Deputy Vice-Chancellor Equity Diversity and Inclusion, UNSW SYDNEY
In 2015, against a background of 30 years of Australian university student activism pressuring universities to respond to and prevent sexual misconduct on campuses, the UNSW Human Rights Centre and THGAP project initiated a discussion on developing a project around the release of The Hunting Ground documentary in Australia. As a result, UNSW secured a partnership agreement with the AHRC Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Elizabeth Broderick, and the CEO of the AHRC, Padma Raman to undertake a national student survey on the experience of and responses to sexual violence and harassment in 2016-17. Building on research undertaken by the National Union of Students (NUS) in 2011, the UNSW AHRCentre worked with the Australian Human Rights Commission and Universities Australia to design the first ever National Student Survey on Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault.
Screenings of The Hunting Ground were held across campuses, helping raise awareness of the terrible scourge of sexual misconduct in our societies and on campuses. The survey was implemented by the Australian Human Rights Commission (Commission) and Roy Morgan, launched in August 2016 and was rolled out across all 39 Australian universities between September and December 2016. The results of the survey were released 1 August 2017.
All these initiatives have resulted in a number of major reports and recommendations across the Australian Higher Education sector. Universities have responded in various ways but all have committed to trying to change the culture that encourages and enables sexual misconduct. UNSW has committed to addressing all the recommendations from all the reports and is well on the way to implementing most of them. International students may experience particular challenges in regard to sexual misconduct and the work underway takes their concerns most seriously and takes a number of approaches to support them.
Biography:
Eileen Baldry (BA, DipEd, MWP, PhD, FASSA) is Deputy Vice-Chancellor Equity Diversity and Inclusion and Professor of Criminology at UNSW Sydney. Professor Baldry has held senior positions in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, serving as Interim Dean, Associate Dean Education and Deputy Dean and is appointed the first female Deputy Vice-Chancellor at UNSW.
Professor Baldry has taught social policy, social development and criminology over the past 30 years. Her research and publications focus on social justice and include mental health and cognitive disability in the criminal justice system; criminalised women and Indigenous Australian women and youth; education, training and employment for prisoners and ex-prisoners; homelessness and transition from prison; Indigenous justice; Indigenous social work; community development and social housing; and disability services.
Professor Baldry has been and is a Chief Investigator on the Australian Research Council (ARC), NH&MRC, AHURI and other grants over the past 25 years. She has been involved in a voluntary capacity with a number of development and justice community organisations and is currently a Director on the Board of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC).
Professor Baldry serves as Deputy Chair of the Disability Council NSW; whose role is to monitor the implementation of Government policy and advise the Minister and public authorities on emerging issues relating to people with disability.
Professor Baldry was awarded the NSW Justice Medal in 2009 and in 2016 was named in the AFR/Westpac 100 most influential women in Australia.