"How can I be safe?": Examining students’ experiences and advocating safe spaces in the university

• Main Authors: Asiatico, Ma. Dinah Espartero, Layag, Diana Genevive H., Panganiban, Janice D., Alerta, Joelyn R.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2021
• Subjects: Safe spaces; Space—Social aspects; Other Education
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty_research/13106
• Institution: De La Salle University

The Student Discipline Formation Office (SDFO) Safe Spaces Project was recently created under the SDFO Discipline Education, Advocacy, and Programs Section (DEAPS) as a response to the University’s call for a safe school context. One of its deliberate reasons is to Serve the DLSU community through a Free space to speak, to be heard, and to step up through the 3 E’s (equanimity, engagement, and enactment.) Psychological safety model is used to study the groundwork of understanding the safety and security needs of students in relation to their sense of safety in a school environment. A collaboration meeting within the Project team was done to start with this initiative. The project was divided into two phases: Phase I focused on the education part through the online pub’s information dissemination on the relevant laws about safety and security in the school while Phase II will emphasize the advocacies which may lean towards possible collaborations and/or partnership with other stakeholders to further promote learning sessions, webinar, and online campaigns. An online survey was conducted through inviting student leaders of various DLSU organizations. 261 student participants answered the survey about the students’ experiences and advocacies in promoting safe spaces in the University in relation to their familiarity level about the Philippine relevant laws on feeling safe and secure. This study depicted their awareness level in relation to these relevant laws, their direct and/or indirect experiences of feeling and needs to be safe, handling it, and the perceived roles of both the SDFO and University in helping the students in their concerns when it comes to feeling safe and secure in the school community.