awAKado – Working Group Awareness

• Highlighting and raising awareness of discrimination, violence in any form and lack of inclusion.
• On-site support at events to prevent or intervene in problematic behavior.
• Actively offering help to those affected. You can contact us, but we also make sure to intervene as soon as we see something.

The HTU Graz sees the main task of awareness work as pointing out, sensitizing and actively intervening in any form of discrimination, violence and lack of inclusion. In concrete terms, this means that we are active both on site at events and in everyday university and HTU life.

At events:

At public HTU events, there are awareness teams (recognizable by pink high-vis vests) who actively take care of the happenings on-site. This means actively intervening in behavior that violates our basic values, as well as providing support for people who need protection, help and/or a place to retreat. Employees at HTU events are trained to involve the awareness team if necessary or at the request of affected persons.

In everyday university and HTU life:

The HTU Graz awareness working group sees itself as a point of contact and as an active entity responsible for all interfaces between students and TU Graz. We support students in specific cases and problems, be it at the HTU or at the TU Graz. We also see the need to take action in the event of widespread and existing problems.

Discrimination and violence of any kind is still a major problem in Austria. To quote a study by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights:

„In 2012, almost half of all respondents to the EU survey on the perceptions and experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) persons said that they had felt personally discriminated against or harassed on the grounds of sexual orientation in the year preceding the survey. Furthermore, a quarter of all EU LGBT survey respondents had been attacked or threatened with violence in the previous five years. This figure rises to 35 % for transgender respondents.“ [1]

Figures from December 2021 reveal that out of 3,245,166 women in Austria, between the ages of 15 and 74, 23% have experienced physical violence and 24% sexual violence from the age of 15. That is around 770,000 women. [2]

In addition, the number of date-rape drug incidents is increasing every year. Unfortunately, only around 60-80 suspected cases are reported each year, often too late. These drugs, also known as knockout drops, are only detectable for 6-8 hours. [3] Even university parties are not spared, as a Spritzer stall at the University of Graz unfortunately experienced last year. [4]

We want to do our part to improve the overall situation and, above all, make our universities a safer and more inclusive space. People are often unaware of the far-reaching consequences that certain comments or jokes can have. Similarly, without additional knowledge/awareness, problematic and often dangerous behavior is often recognized far too late. We want to draw attention to the issue so that such incidents remain isolated cases!

[1] Agentur der Europäischen Union für Grundrechte (FRA), 2014, EU LGBT II Survey: A long way to go for LGBTI equality, URL: https://www.wien.gv.at/menschen/queer/pdf/eu-lgbt-survey.pdf 
[2] Zahlenspiegel Österreich, Dezember 2022, URL: https://www.statistik.at/fileadmin/shared/ZD/Zsp_12_22_Internet.pdf 
[3] ORF – Wien, 20.10.2024, Zahl der K.O.-Tropfen-Fälle steigt, URL: https://wien.orf.at/stories/3279302/ 
[4] Kleine Zeitung, 08.11.2024, K.o.–Tropfen an Spritzerständen der Hochschülerschaft?, URL: https://www.kleinezeitung.at/steiermark/19047436/kotropfen-an-spritzerstaenden-der-hochschuelerschaft