The Control Yuan on Thursday passed a motion to reprimand the Ministry of Education for failing to appropriately address incidents of sexual harassment and bullying that took place during a student orientation program at Jinwen University of Science and Technology.
Four of the university’s departments jointly hosted a student orientation program from Oct. 7 to Oct. 9, which included games that required incoming freshmen to strip down to their underwear and engage in lewd behavior, Control Yuan member Kao Feng-hsien (高鳳仙) said.
As a result, 25 of the participating freshmen asked to drop out of the orientation program, Gau said.
In its own investigation, the university found that the three main organizers of the program had violated the school’s policy on gender equality and it gave out demerits and penalties of community service, she said.
However, the university did not report the violations to the ministry within the required 24-hour period, Gau said.
When the school did report the matter, it said that it did not know how many students were involved, which the ministry accepted, failing to hand out any punishment, she said.
This amounted to a failure of the ministry to carry out its duty, which was to punish the university for failing to report a case of sexual harassment on time, Gau said.
Since 2013, there have been formal complaints against 11 universities of sexual harassment and bullying during orientation programs, Gau said, citing data valid as of last month.
Three of the schools failed to report the incidents on time, while eight filed the wrong report, and three did not comply with the required investigation after the reported incidents, she said.
In all 11 cases, the ministry did not do its part to supervise the universities’ investigation of the allegations and to carry out much-needed reforms, she added.
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