Safety on Campus
Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment (SASH)
Respect and safety on campus for staff and students is imperative. There is no place for sexual harassment or assault, or any form of discrimination.
CHC, as part of a nation-wide effort, is actively engaged in preventing incidents; increasing reporting rates; and supporting those who make a disclosure or complaint. Our strategy is being implemented through a range of training, education, awareness campaigns and improvements to policies and procedures.
Staff and Student Training and Education
- SASH Prevention and First Responder Training
A 30-minute online module, which addresses staff and student rights and responsibilities; problem behaviours including sexual harassment; healthy relationships; alcohol; and safe bystander intervention.
- First Responder and Bystander Training
A two-hour face to face training session which focuses on case studies examples and requires participants to have a go at responding to different types of situations that they may come across relating to SASH.
For further information please go to the SASH page on the website.
Support and Assistance
We aim to provide support and assistance to any member of our community. Our staff will initially establish the immediate safety of the individual and then ensure they are supported with a range of support options depending on the individual need including:
- Study Support
- Counselling
- Pastoral Care
- Disability Support
- Advocacy
Keeping safe @CHC Campus
CHC is concerned about your personal safety and you should be too! Most students consider Australia a safe place. However, when you are in a new environment, it can be hard to judge where and when it is safe.
CHC campus is like any community and as with any community, there are risks. Therefore, you should use common sense to ensure your safety both at CHC and in Brisbane generally. This means that you should:
- Keep yourself and others safe and follow directions
- Report all incidents and suspicious behaviour to the Safe Zone Staff, no matter how minor.
- Exercise care, especially at night.
- Avoid dark and lonely places both in Brisbane and at CHC.
- Travel with friends, leave together and don’t hang around at night after classes have finished.
- Ask for assistance.
Make sure you know where the “Safe Zone” is on campus. The Safe Zone is the Library. The CHC emergency contact number is 0428 078 935 during campus hours. The number to call police, fire and ambulance in the case of an emergency is 000.
Safety habits on campus
Taking charge of your own safety involves building habits into your routine while on campus. Get to know your campus as soon as you can, and work out the best way for yourself to travel to and from the campus, your transport and buildings.
Walking around campus:
- be alert and walk purposefully
- avoid walking alone at night by travelling with a friend
- use the preferred paths map to find well-lit walkways to use at night
Taking public transport:
know your timetables to avoid long waits at the stops by yourself
stay in open, populated areas in full view of bus.
Parking on campus:
- make sure your vehicle is locked
- park in well-lit areas as close to your destination as possible
- move your car closer when you plan on being on campus after dark.
- never leave valuables where someone can see them
- never put personal identification on your keyring.
Keeping safe Online
It is important to consider online safety together with on campus safety. CHC uses up to date software and hardware to assist with protecting the CHC community and policy and processes to address issues that may arise from unacceptable behaviours. Online harassment, bullying and sexual misconduct is not tolerated at CHC.
Wherever possible it is important to protect yourself whilst online. Here are some tips to assist with keeping our staff, students and community safe:
- Use long unique passwords and protect it with a password manager such as LastPass
- Install anti-virus on any personal devices
- Keep your devices and software up to date
- Use Multi Factor/Two-factor Authentication wherever possible
- Keep up to date with cyber security news
- Be careful what you click on
- Download software from trusted legitimate sources
- Create secure back-ups of important data
At home:
Secure your home Wi-Fi:
- Change the default SSID
- Turn off SSID broadcasting
- Use WPA2 compliant passwords
- Change routers default configuration password
We encourage the CHC community to take a light, bright and polite stance in relation to online behaviours and report issues as soon as they arise. To report inappropriate behaviour online, a phishing incident, password compromise, ransomware or other suspicious activity, please email itsupport@chc.edu.au.
Safety escort
If you are concerned for your safety, please go to the Safe Zone and ask for an escort to public transport or your car at night.
Emergencies
Emergencies include:
- fire
- evacuations
- medical emergencies, first aid and medical transport
- environmental, spills and explosions
- bombs, arson and life threats
- criminal activity
- armed offenders
- hold up and duress alarms
- vehicle accidents
- assault
- violent behaviour
- people trapped in lifts
- emergency callout points
- power failures.
Emergency evacuation plans and diagrams show the:
- emergency evacuation procedures for each building on campus at CHC.
- location of fire equipment and exit routes to be used in case of emergency.
Emergency Evacuation Diagrams are displayed on building notice boards, generally in the entrance.
Lost Property
If you have lost something and it isn’t where you left it, someone may have handed it in to Lost Property. Please contact Student Services if you have lost something via email studentservices@chc.edu.au or pop into the student services office in the Learning Hub/Library.
Reporting a Safety Concern
Safety on campus is a standing item on the WHS Committee agenda. This means that items related to safety are reviewed at every meeting. If you would like to report a concern, please email whs@chc.edu.au.