Take measures to protect university women from exploitation and violence
The tragic death of Ms Mercy Keino has brought the nation face-to-face with how vulnerable university women are to exploitation and violence.
Institutions of higher learning can blunt this vulnerability.
To do so, they must, on an ongoing basis, expand their view of education and offer a more nurturing environment.
The pursuit of higher education is not just a technical endeavour involving face-time with professors, taking notes, and sitting exams.
It is a rite of passage, a cultural experience, training for wholesome civilian life.
In view of this, universities and colleges ought to do at least three things. First, provide education without bias. Second, provide a safe space for self-discovery, exploration, experimentation, and risk-taking. Third, foster an ethic of care, good judgment, and community citizenship.
This will give the right to education meaning and make investments in our youthful population worthwhile. An institution defines itself
through what it tolerates. Learning requires a respectful environment.
It is common knowledge that many female university students endure sexual harassment by lecturers, and often feel helpless to stop it.
hose who succumb, fearing retaliation, do not escape ridicule that they have received “sexually transmitted degrees”.
This cannot be equal access to education as envisaged by our Constitution.
Institutionalised humiliation and disrespect is a gross negation of the right to education. It diminishes the ability of female students to compete on equal terms. It shatters their self-confidence where university education ought to do the opposite.
Preying on their natural (or acquired vulnerabilities) becomes acceptable practice within and outside campus. This corrupts the idea and experience of being educated, to everyone’s detriment.
University, the one place that should be different from the rest of society, becomes a repository of its worst tendencies. Admitting women to university without changing how universities do business is not empowerment.
Many parents approach the moment children go off to college with great trepidation. However, children must enter new phases of life and parents must let go.
When children leave, they take youthful curiosity and energy to universities and colleges.
These institutions have the privilege of being the landing pad for an intelligent and energetic, albeit restless, segment of the population.
Over and above providing chalk and board, institutions have an obligation to provide a safe space for children to become adults.
To make colleges and universities conducive to youthful exploration and development, a two-pronged approach to education is necessary.
First, improve the on-campus experience, and second, diminish threats to safety and well-being off-campus.
Ending a culture of harassment will definitely improve the on-campus experience for all students, but it is not enough. Making campuses self-servicing will reduce their exposure to off-campus activity. Locating essential amenities on campus means students will make fewer forays outside.
Besides, institutions can generate revenue by leasing space to private vendors to provide food, health-care, bookshops, gyms, laundry, entertainment, recreation, and other facilities, round the clock, if necessary.
Yes, recreation and entertainment facilities are also “essentials”.
Zoning laws are useful tools for creating college towns open only to businesses serving the unique needs of a youthful learning community, and that will discourage the presence of more mature patrons.
Such would be a big enough community to warrant a special police unit to which students in distress can call for assistance.
Of course, for this to work, university students would have to end their acrimonious relationship with the police.
This is not to suggest that university students should not take personal responsibility for their safety and well-being. It is to acknowledge that they are a vulnerable segment of the population with unique needs.
It is also to insist that universities are not exempt from reforms sweeping through other public institutions. As new universities mushroom around the country, it is imperative that they should be located in neighbourhoods tailored to learning, safety, and the needs of the young and vulnerable.
Ms Kang’ara is a professor at the University of Washington School of Law. ([email protected])
