Borrowing the format of the hugely successful Everyday Sexism Project, Cambridge Speaks Its Mind is a “new information sharing project,” that publishes the testimonies of students about their experiences of the University welfare system.

The project was born out of various discussions with students and alumni. The founder of the group tells me: “What we were struck by was that we all came from different colleges and very different courses, but there was quite a lot of common experience – mostly seeming to be around ignorance or in some cases what you can only really call malice on the part of welfare providers in colleges.”

The purpose of setting up the website was to find out how widespread the problems with welfare provision in Cambridge were and also to give people a place to discuss their experiences in an anonymous and safe way without fear of criticism from their colleges.

He tells me: “The feedback we’ve gotten from students has been phenomenal. It’s been quite harrowing reading some of their testimonies. But a lot of people have said that they feel it’s great that they have that space to talk about some of the issues.”

Through the project he has come to see the actions of some of those involved in substandard welfare provision in colleges as “a strange intersection between ignorance and malice.” He tells me: “Mostly the problem seems to be ignorance. But in some cases you find yourself reading the testimonies and tearing your hair out, thinking how do these people exist?”

Cambridge Speaks Its Mind has now been sent just under one hundred testimonies.

The founder says that several noticeable patterns have emerged: “If I were to identify a repeat issue it would be a lack of understanding of mental health, and just very different approaches to intermission/degrading.”

In cases of intermission “it doesn’t seem like there’s any kind of consistency. We’ve had people who have had support and have actually been alright; others have effectively been booted out of their college and received some quite horrendous treatment.”

He says that the number of testimonies relating to rape or sexual assault has surprised him: “I’m aware that there’s a higher rate of sexual assault amongst student populations than amongst other sections of the population. But it seems that it’s a much bigger problem than Cambridge is willing to admit to.”

The most troubling of the testimonies he has read so far was from a victim of sexual assault: “The student had gone to seek support from their tutor and they’d been told that ‘boys will be boys’.”

He tells me: “We have noticed that there are certain colleges where there seem to be quite systemic problems.” Editors of the page are able to see students’ colleges when testimonies are sent in, but these are not published for reasons of confidentiality. The group is currently deciding what to do with this information.”

The long-term hope for the project is that it will raise awareness about the deficiencies in welfare provision, pushing JCRs and MCRs to call for real lasting change.

He argues that the collegiate system has often proved an obstacle: “It’s thirty-one little battles that need to go on rather than one big one.” And any change implemented at the University-wide level needs to trickle down to the colleges before students feel its benefits.

He also believes that limited resources have stunted CUSU’s extensive efforts: “CUSU is chronically underfunded and it can only do so much with the little resources it has. It’s the most poorly funded students’ union in the Russell Group.”

For the founder of Cambridge Speaks Its Mind, the biggest driver of change will be expanded awareness. “People just aren’t aware of the problems” he says.
“If people aren’t aware of the problems, they won’t do anything about them. Look what’s happened recently with the college investments: before, most people were vaguely aware that Cambridge colleges invested in some dodgy stuff.

“Now there’s been all of this recent work and excellent journalism exposing that people are quite pissed off about it. They’re pushing their colleges for change. If that was happening with welfare that would be great.”