Red X iconGreen tick iconYellow tick icon

Ensuring your immediate safety

If your immediate safety is at risk – call 111 and ask for the police.

Then:

  • If you are in a residential college, tell a staff member or call the office
  • If you are in a flat, get a flatmate you trust to be with you, then decide what to do next

Contact Campus Watch

If you are on campus and you are feeling unsafe, call Campus Watch.

Contact Te Whare Pounamu (Women’s refuge) they can offer a place of safety

Feeling safe around campus in the short – medium term

Te Whare Tāwharau staff can meet with you to discuss how you can keep yourself safe while you consider what other steps you can take, or what other support you can access.

If you make a complaint to the police, and the respondent (the person alleged to have committed the sexual harm) is arrested, the police or the Court may impose bail conditions on the respondent preventing them from:

  • Contacting you by any means (including social media)
  • Being on campus (if they are not a University of Otago Student)
  • Going to your place of residence

If the respondent (the person alleged to have committed the sexual harm) is a University of Otago Student and you can identify them, the Proctor can impose no-fault protective measures on both of you so that neither of you can:

  • Contact the other party or ask any associates to contact the other party
  • Go to the other person’s place of residence

No-fault protective measures are available whether or not you make a complaint to the University (via the Proctor’s office).

A breach of no-fault protective measures is a breach of the Student Conduct Statute and can result in disciplinary action being taken.

No-fault protective measures expire at the end of each calendar year, they but can be renewed each year if required.

Get more information on no-fault protective measures

Feeling safe in your residential college

Your college warden is also able to impose no-fault protective measures within residential colleges.

Find out more about how your residential college warden can help you feel safe in your college

Back to top