The woman, a student at Lady Margaret Hall, said she was raped when a man entered her room while she was sleeping. Police investigated but were not charged. The college settled the case this week after the woman accused him of negligence and discrimination for the way she was treated after the show. The college agreed to pay compensation as well as the woman’s court costs. He did not acknowledge responsibility. McAllister-Olivarius’s Georgina Calvert-Lee, who played for the woman, said: “Universities have known for years that their grievance procedures are flawed and lawsuits continue to come. “But while there are definitely some improvements, change is very slow.” Calvert-Lee accused the higher education regulator, the Office for Students, of issuing guidelines on sexual misconduct without imposing mandatory requirements. “The Oxford college system can be further confusing as students head from college to university and try again to learn how to file a formal complaint,” Calvert-Lee said. Lady Margaret Hall (LMH) said she could not comment on individual student cases – following complaints from the Times – but a spokeswoman said she “acknowledged that there was room for improvement in our non-academic disciplinary procedures, including deals with allegations of sexual assault. “ The alleged attack took place while Alan Rasbridger, the former Guardian editor, owned the LMH between 2015 and 2021. Rasbridger said: “Many colleagues and teachers have worked hard to support and protect a schoolgirl who claimed to have been attacked by her partner. “Both the police and the college conducted thorough investigations into the alleged attack, but were unable to determine what had happened with the required evidence.” The woman said the college told her not to talk about the attack or college policies on social media. It included a clause in a “non-contact” agreement that required the two students to refrain from public comment and threatened to expel them if they “published material” in the media. Calvert-Lee said students and junior academics “up and down the country” had complained about similar treatment, including the threat of disciplinary action if they shared their experiences with others. Rasbridger said there was no “total silence order” or non-disclosure agreement imposed by the college. He said that while the police investigation was still active, the woman had posted, under her name and on a group of 2,500 people on Facebook, the allegation that she had been raped by a man who was identifiable. “The student was informed of the obvious dangers of this post: she apologized and offered to delete all of her social media accounts,” Rasbridger said. “After that, LMH asked both parties to refrain from public comment while the case was active as part of a contactless agreement. “Both sides signed without comment or protest.” An LMH spokesman said the college had partnered with the Oxford Student Union’s It Happens Here’s campaign against sexual violence and agreed to ban the use of non-disclosure agreements in cases of sexual misconduct. Oxford University said it did not use non-disclosure agreements to prevent students from reporting sexual harassment or other illegal or inappropriate behavior, other than arrangements in exceptional circumstances. A spokesman said the launch of the university’s sexual harassment and violence support service had led to “an increasing number of students and we would encourage anyone affected by this very serious issue to seek support”.
