The University of Melbourne Student Union (UMSU) stands with all Gender-Based Violence (GBV) victims and strongly condemns any actions that threaten women’s safety or prevent women from speaking up about their experiences.
Women deserve to feel safe@uni, and safe@home. The University of Melbourne Student Union (UMSU) stands with all Gender-Based Violence (GBV) victims and strongly condemns any actions that threaten women's safety or prevent women from speaking up about their experiences.
Women deserve to access public bathrooms with dignity and without fear of being filmed or having their privacy breached. GBV has no space in our Union and we won't be silenced for actioning women's safety. The UMSU Women's Department and UMSU President support any women wishing to report GBV.
Prior to the recent developments regarding Bao Phuc Cao, UMSU Women's has already been pursuing the following action: Termination of Union membership.
This requires the UMSU General Secretary to send Cao a Student Termination Notice via email at least 21 days prior to the next UMSU Students' Council meeting. Students' Council Meeting 10(26) on Wed 30 Sept was an opportunity to discuss this case, alongside other topics relating to GBV. However, the meeting could not go ahead as we didn't have enough voting councillors present to reach quorum.
In our next Students' Council meeting, we will be voting to terminate Bao Phuc Cao's UMSU membership. It is crucial for the next Students' Council to reach quorum.
If you are a University of Melbourne student, we are inviting you to attend and show up for women.
Call on your elected UMSU councillors to show up for women.
If you're a councillor and you care about women, show up for women.