As the Australian National University unveiled a new campus vision - and a new chancellor - on Thursday, a crowd of students gathered on the lawn outside University House. They held black flags and hand-made signs. Some held each other's hands.
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August 1 has long marked the ANU's founding in 1946 but, since a landmark report into sexual violence at Australian universities was released in 2017, it has also become a day of horror and heartache for many students who say bureaucracy is still strangling real change.
At the ANU, where a large cohort live on campus, the rate of sexual assault reported to the Human Rights Commission was double the national average. The university reacted quickly, setting up a committee to design and implement reforms.
But while some progress has been made - including the formation of a dedicated support unit - the ANU's two student associations say action appears to have stalled and communication has broken down.
The university's working group has only met once this year, a fact the unit manager Sue Webeck admits "isn't good enough".
"We can do better and we will," she said. "We're in a different phase now in that we're now implementing what we spent the past 12 months scoping out."
While students questioned why a project to create an online disclosure portal had "ran out of steam", Ms Webeck confirmed the portal would be tested this semester by internal staff at the university to ensure privacy was adequately protected.
From there, it would launch to the community, feeding reports directly to support staff for follow-up as well as, for the first time, into a central data collection.
The University of Canberra has also begun collecting data on incidents from its own new online disclosure portal but it has not yet finalised a sexual violence policy for the campus.
While external reviews of both ACT universities called for more resources, neither answered questions on how much money had been spent or allocated so far to reforms. Like many universities across Australia, both have significantly ramped up staff and student training on consent, harassment and disclosure.
Victims' advocate Sharna Bremner of End Rape on Campus Australia said delays were not unique to the ANU, which was still outperforming many other universities across the country.
"But now the spotlight is off, we're more than two years on, there's a real concern this is going to be swept back under the rug," she said.
While universities have committed to another national survey by next year, advocates and the National Union of Students say they have been cut out of the process.
Universities Australia, which funded the Human Rights Commission to conduct the first survey, has now gone out to tender for the next.
But Ms Bremner questioned whether it was appropriate for the peak university group to run the survey at all, given its close connection to the sector.
"It's a bit like having students grade their own papers," she said. "It's all been very secret this time around."
Sarah Tynan at the National Union of Students said another concern was around the wording of questions, given some students did not clearly understand the definition of sexual harassment and assault.
Ms Webeck said the ANU was looking to take part in the survey again, possibly as one of two "pilot sites" later in the year but details rested with Universities Australia. Both the lobby group and the human rights commission could not comment during the tender process.
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But while Universities Australia says hundreds of initiatives have since taken shape across campuses, Ms Bremner said students should not be running up against the same barriers to reporting and justice two years on.
"We're struggling to hold the universities [to account] because we have so many people needing support," Ms Bremner said.
"Personally I'm supporting nine students. Complaints are taking far too long to be resolved, some are just getting lost in the system."
One survivor at ANU who asked not to be named said she was sick of hearing platitudes from universities when her complaint was still sitting in limbo.
"It's heartbreaking," she said.
Sherryn Groch
Sherryn is a journalist at The Canberra Times, with a special interest in education and social affairs.
Sherryn is a journalist at The Canberra Times, with a special interest in education and social affairs.
