Like many of us, I was outraged when I read about the horrific rape case at Cornell. I was also able to find some hope in the fact that so many around me echoed the same feelings and were speaking out and turning their anger into productivity.

My social media feed was full of people posting messages of solidarity for Jane Doe and news of recent protests in the US and those being planned across UK cities.

However, I was still overwhelmed with anger at how normalised this has become and the fact that while I was devastated at the news from Cornell, I wasn’t shocked.

Every student knows multiple people who have experienced sexual violence but their stories rarely make global headlines.

The numbers are staggering.

An analysis by The Metro shows 27,000 women starting university this year could be a victim of rape or attempted rape before their graduation.

When it happens thousands of miles away it is much easier to ignore it as something tragic but not relevant to our lives. Especially when it is on the backdrop of such an American scene as a frat party it is easy to dismiss as yet another horror story to come out of the US.

But how different is a frat party from a sports society social?

To discuss the Cornell case in a productive way, we must look at Cardiff as well where rape culture is just as real and survivors are consistently let down by systems built to support them.

This is something every University must address but Cardiff University is in need of a significant amount of work.

In a recent Gair Rhydd investigation 56% of students reported having experienced it themselves, a number 3x higher than the national average.

It is all of our responsibilities to call out harmful behaviour, whether that be explicit sexual violence or the ‘jokes’ and discriminatory language that creates a culture where violence goes unchecked.

At Cornell there were a total of 57 on the group chat, fully aware of what was going on. Being a passive bystander is not enough, it failed Jane Doe and it fails people at Cardiff every year.

Rape is not an inevitable part of university life, it is a product of a culture we all must take a role in dismantling. Students in Cardiff are also faced with unclear support systems, long waiting times and often a lack of real consequences for sexual violence.

Many are furious with Cornell University for expecting only apology letters from three of the Cornell 7 and allowing two of them to remain on campus.

While sharing this anger, students in Cardiff are faced with the harsh reality that if apology letters are considered an acceptable punishment at Cornell they probably would be here too.

Gair Rhydd also investigated into the University’s Report and Support system, a service for anonymously reporting incidents and accessing support.

However, even without being a formal complaint service, there is very little trust in it with 85% of students saying they wouldn’t use Report and Support service.

The university addressed what happened at Cornell in a message to students last week, acknowledging the re-traumatising effect it can have on survivors and declaring that sexual violence is not tolerated at Cardiff.

While the sentiment is appreciated, we need more than words when students are being failed by the very systems built to support them. The existence of student-led campaigns such as Time To Act show that the necessary support is not there.

It should not be the responsibility of students to advocate for their own safety yet this is the position we find ourselves in at Cardiff.

While horrific, what happened at Cornell is nothing new.

Universities are facing an international crisis of sexual violence, consistently dismissed as an unfortunate but necessary part of student life.

This case has highlighted that the crisis can only be addressed if we hold each other and our institutions to account.