By Clubs & Socs Editor, Zöe Percival.
Over a year ago, DCU student Vincent Hynes drafted his report, “Sexual Misconduct Review: Students’ Perspective on Creating a Safer Community”, and sent it to the Student Union and DCU administrators.
The idea for this report came from distressing experiences he and his peers encountered, in what he described as, “the current unacceptable situation within Irish nightlife and society of sexual harassment in spiking”.
His research delves into the rise of spiking, currently in Ireland spiking is only recorded as an incident in three specific forms: poisoning, assault, and sexual offences leaving us guessing the official number of incidents. A bill was drafted in May of this year, Non-Fatal Offences against the Person (Amendment) (Spiking) Bill, which has not yet been enacted.
He discusses how spiking is not only just harmful physically, “with symptoms of feeling sick, lightheaded, and paranoid, but also mentally, afterwards, emotionally, anxiously and a loss of trust in people around you. Spiking is a traumatic experience and makes people feel vulnerable and lose some self-dignity that everyone has a right to have and not be violated”.
Vincent never received a reply from the Student Union or DCU administrators after giving them his report.
He was able to meet with the Student Union Policy Officer, Deirdre Moloney last year, who DCU advises you to contact, “if you have a query regarding a policy, procedure, or campaign”. Their meeting went on for over an hour
“She brought me through all parts of the review, raising the points in college procedures, difficulties with policy in the area of spiking and sexual harassment, and confirming that they have recorded the review on file for any relevant meetings in the future.”
Currently he has not received any update on the report, while DCU has enacted twenty four new policies this year.
In DCU’s “Student Drug and Alcohol Policy”, it notes that the University has adopted a harm reduction approach, “drink or needle spiking, which is defined as the act of putting a drug in someone’s drink or injecting a drug into someone’s body, to make them unconscious, extremely tired or unable to function properly will be considered a breach of the Student Code of Conduct and Discipline, and disciplinary measures will be taken as appropriate”.
The policy is not set for a comprehensive review until 2029.
Lauren Joyce, VP for Wellbeing in DCU, has introduced anti-spiking drink covers for College Christmas Day this week in Nubar, working alongside Vincent and his report, this may become a permanent feature.
He also believes students may benefit from spiking “warning” signs, so students understand the threat is not just reserved for a night out in town.
“How many young people know what to do if a friend is spiked? Who do they contact? How do you help someone with symptoms, and importantly, if they wish to report the incident, how does someone record any evidence before the short time span of substances leaving the victims’ system? If people are not aware of how to answer these general questions and why they are important then we have failed in making people aware of the problem”.
In terms of the University, Vincent believes it could step up to protect its students. With regards to legality, there are restrictions on pursuing people guilty of spiking others, but it can act in other spaces.
He used the example of UCD’s system, “UCD books venues for College Christmas Day to help coordinate the safety of their own students better and ensure it is a safer environment. DCU should follow suit for their own students and cooperate with venues on big student nights, allowing DCU students to have fun and stay safe”.
Currently if you have an emergency on campus, you are encouraged to use the DCU SafeZone app to contact security. Information on this can be found on the DCU website.
Image credits: RTE