#AUCSpeakUp: Our Ticket to a Safer Campus

By: Doha Wang
@DohaWang

During a virtual media roundtable discussion on September 28, President Francis Ricciardone said there is progress in the investigation of alleged sexual misconduct of some AUC students recently made public on social media.

Ricciardone explained that earlier this month, an anonymous AUC alumnus reported his observation of the inappropriate behavior which took place on the WhatsApp group, “El-Ekhwa”.

“Thanks to his report, we were able to investigate and we’re taking the necessary steps to punish active students who were involved,” Ricciardone said.

The WhatsApp group was recently brought to light mid-September and has since caused a lot of controversy on the Facebook group “Rate AUC Professors.”

Screenshots of private conversations on “El-Ekhwa” circled the Facebook group. The conversations contained inappropriate images of girls, which were exchanged on the group without their consent. The group members also used threatening language against the girls who rejected them. 

The university investigation revealed that some of the group members are AUC alumni while others are undergraduate students.

Ricciardone emphasized that the behavior of those members was done privately using their own private phones. However, he added that AUC has taken some measures to punish students whom they’re able to investigate.

“We have taken steps to make sexual harassment as impossible as we can possibly do,” Ricciardone said. 

Ricciardone also introduced the #AUCSpeakUp campaign, which is a university-wide initiative created to raise awareness about sexual harassment within the AUC community. 

“The other big awareness-raising step is we are requiring every member of our faculty, staff, and student body to take training on what harassment is, why it’s unacceptable, and what it means. It goes way beyond simply physical touching. Things like distribution of photographs that are on any unwelcome advances, and so forth,” Ricciardone said. 

To further stress its importance, Riccardone said that he himself underwent that training with the senior leadership. 

In order to ensure that a high level of sexual harassment awareness is met at AUC, the university has engaged in national conversations with the government, Civil Society Forces, and the National Council of Women to help raise more awareness on the subject.

“I’m very proud of what we’ve done, and we can never rest. It’s never acceptable to have harassment based on sex, or anything. No bullying of any kind is tolerated on our campus or off by our students, faculty, and staff where we have any authority or jurisdiction to act,” Ricciardone said.

The university has also strengthened the Office of Institutional Equity, which is responsible for sexual harrassement and discrimination cases, to guarantee its effectiveness in receiving reports from either a student, a faculty or a staff member in case they are involved in a harassment incident or are merely witnesses to one. 

Since the case of Ahmed Bassam Zaki, which came to light last summer, the university has assigned a Title IX Coordinator, Reem El-Mograby, under the Office of Student Conduct and Community Relations. 

“Title IX is a U.S. federal law that prohibits discrimination based on sex in all activities. It actually started with athletic activities, but now it covers sexual harassment, sexual discrimination, sex discrimination across the board in all aspects of academics,” Sunanda Holmes, general counsel and chief compliance officer, said in an interview with AUCTV.

In the event that a report is placed, the victims’ identities and names of accusers will remain anonymous to everyone except the investigators handling the case, even Ricciardone himself won’t have access to their identities.

To report any cases which violate the Code of Student Conduct, students are urged to either contact the Title IX Coordinator [equity@aucegypt.edu], or to fill out a Public Incident Report [https://aucegypt-advocate.symplicity.com/public_report].

To find out more information about AUC’s anti-harassment and anti discriminatory policies as well as the steps to report any related incidents, visit the website [https://www.aucegypt.edu/speakup].