Hello all,

I am an course representative (a student who represents the interest of the students in my faculty/degree course) and I just received this email from a 'Professor of Social Geography' (what the hell even is one of those?). The ludicrousness of the contents is as follows:

"Please report incidents of everyday sexism including incidents of all types and those that some may see as being less severe than others, e.g. 'banter' etc. Please note that by reporting everyday sexism you are informing research rather than submitting a complaint. All reports are confidential to the team and so there will be no repercussions should you decide to report; likewise, when we report our findings, we will do so in a way that will protect your confidentiality. Please note that this is an independent research projects and not specifically part of the University's formal equality and diversity work. We will be producing a short report upon completion of the research to share with everyone including those working on equality and diversity issues.

If you experience everyday sexism on campus, please report the incident in one of the following ways:

  1. Filling in this short form [link removed to preserve anonymity]

  2. By sending me a private message on twitter [Twitter username removed]

Please also feel free to use any of these mechanisms to report on incidents that have taken place in the last year or so. Please also feel free to report incidents that colleagues tell you about or that you witness happening to others and not only to yourself directly.

When reporting an incident, please feel free to provide details about the incident, the location of it and any details about the characteristics of the perpetrator. Please note that your personal details will remain confidential."

This could far too easily be used to identify students, on sole hearsay and accusations, who supposedly were sexist; this could turn into a witch hunt or lead to punishment of said students. I would not be surprised if my university's feminist society is a strong supporter of this. I strongly felt the need to share this with you all to discuss, as well as let off a little steam. I hope this is useful to you all. I would also appreciate advice on how to oppose this. Thank you.