SANTIAGO – After occupying Playa Ancha university for over 100 days, some students have increased the pressure. Four students started a hunger strike last Sunday to force the university to establish a protocol that tackles sexual harassment. They also demand the creation of a gender department that would develop programs and university services to eradicate gender inequality.
Four students of Universidad de Playa Ancha started a hunger strike on Sunday. They demand the authorities take measures in response to cases of sexual harassment, and also the creation of a gender department. The students complain that the university continues to ignore the matter, even as they have protested for 104 days. If the university won’t act, the students warn, more will join in.
“The commission the university has offered us is not enough, as it doesn’t guarantee any protection for our classmates who have been abused and harassed,” the students said.
According to a release by the art faculty’s assembly of women and dissidence, the decision to go on hunger strike came after the unsatisfactory answers from the university leadership, which only prolonged the talks with students during the first two months of protest.
“It has been an endless coming and going of responses and counter responses, breaking the dialogue, publicly, in the last meeting, when the leadership imposed an agreement from a folder with no possibilities of amendments, thus declaring the end of the protest,” the assembly said according to Ahora Noticias.
Alumnas de toma feministas de U. de Playa Ancha inician huelga de hambre tras más de 100 días de movilización https://t.co/V2qia2M3Ny pic.twitter.com/4lZBjPN3FX
— Ahora Noticias (@ahoranoticiasAN) August 28, 2018
Student Demands
The students outlined requirements that would make the institution a better and more gender equal place. They also clearly pointed at the university head as the one responsible for the lack of response.
“Despite the economic reality in the university, we consider the actions we are demanding as being vital for the well-functioning of a dignified educational and labor landscape, with respect for students, professors, and employees. That’s why we are questioning Patricio Sanhueza’s actions, as he is the president of the Valparaíso Rectors Council (CRUV), and also member of the Gender Equality Commission,” the students added.
Authority
Sanhueza said he understood the protesters but thinks that the institution’s response to their demands was more than adequate. “I don’t understand why, having solved practically everything, there is still discontent among the students. I hope that the students’ rationality prevails, so we can together get to a solution for all this,” Sanhueza said.
He also highlighted, according to daily La Tercera, that the university authorities were going to meet with the student’s assembly on Friday to sign an agreement, but the students never showed up. The next day, they had a conversation, but as no agreement was reached, the university asked the students to stop the protest.
