When you look at these numbers, we want you to look at the people around you. In your house, in your team, in your lecture hall, or the people around you in the SU smoking area.
Look at these people and then look back at these statistics. How many people in that room could be represented by these statistics? Is it the 3-4 next to you? Is it half the room? Could it be everyone there?
That is the reality of these statistics.
And these are those statistics alone. Look around again at the people in your life, what about your life? How many people do you know who have had an experience with sexual violence? Is it the 3-4 next to you? Is it half the room? Is it every single person you know?
We want you to remember that these statistics tell only half of the grim reality of Cardiff University students. Not everyone reports, for whatever reason. In fact, the majority do not. I know I did not. You do not have to report to be seen or believed. We believe you.
When we use these statistics, we are showing people physical evidence of an epidemic of sexual violence in Cardiff. But when we show these statistics, you need to know that the scale of this issue is not quantifiable. This cannot be fathomed by numbers alone.
These statistics, they are not just numbers. But stories of individuals.
Stories that were told.
The stories of those untold and unspoken. The stories you yourself may hold. The stories of the people you love. In the place that you love.
Cardiff University is a place we love, it is a place that has given us lifelong friends and a place that will always be dear to our hearts; however, we cannot ignore the culture around us any longer. We cannot ignore stories both unspoken and spoken.
The Time to Act campaign is one that was born for the necessity of students to have better. We saw students all throughout Cardiff being failed by the institutions around them as they weren’t protecting, preventing, or even trying to eradicate sexual misconduct from campus.
The ideas that have been proposed for future implementation all concern how the institution can do better for us, it sets out realistic goals and expectations of what we need to see the University do. It’s not enough these words alone, it is time we take a stand, it’s time to act.
Over 2,000 of you have engaged with the ‘Cardiff University, it’s time to act’ post, and quickly rising. That is over 2,000 people calling for action. That is over 2,000 people ready for change.
That is your housemates, your team, your lecture hall, the people next around in the SU smoking area. That is the people in your community. That is you.