Behaviour in the event of harassment and assault on campus

Dear University Members, Dear colleagues, dear lecturers, dear students,

our campus is, and is intended to be, a public, freely accessible place. However, harassment and assault may occur on university property directed at university members, primarily women and female-read individuals.

Only recently there was such an incident. On this occasion, we would like to address you today with the following appeal: We ask you all to be mindful to protect yourselves and others. If you observe people being harassed or attacked, show moral courage and come to the person's aid. If you might put yourself in too much danger, please organise help for the person immediately instead. Speak specifically to other people in the vicinity and ask them to intervene and help the person concerned. Your vigilance and quick action can be crucial in minimising potential risks.

As a person affected or observing, we also ask you to be sure to call the police at 110 in threatening situations. In addition, you can also contact the house service and, after 3 p.m., the university's security service at (04131) 677-1050. Even if such a threatening situation seems to go smoothly, we would like to ask you not to dismiss such incidents and crimes, but to report them to the police in any case as a witness or person affected. Please always inform the Office for Equal Opportunities about such incidents afterwards, so that it can be checked whether changes need to be made to the university's security concept. You can reach them at (04131) 677-1061 or by email at gleichstellung@leuphana.de.

Furthermore, we would like to assure you that we as an institution are committed to providing you – whether as a person affected or as a witness – with professional support and counselling services; you can find an overview here: www.leuphana.de/en/institutions/office-for-equal-opportunities/offers-and-information/contact-points-and-counselling.

We thank you in advance for your attentiveness and active participation in the safety of our university community. Building on a lived culture of "looking and sharing", it is Leuphana´s fundamental endeavour to enable its university members to enjoy the greatest possible security, to actively pursue conflict prevention and to ensure the quickest and best possible clarification in acute threat situations. The safety of our campus community is always our top priority.

With kind regards,

Christian Brei
Executive Vice President

Kathrin van Riesen
Officer for Equal Opportunities