Bullying a Concern for University Students and Employees

Mar 24, 2014 | News

Cyberbullies have grown up. Research from Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, BC, suggests that the online abuse that has been so prevalent among teenagers is carrying through to Canadian universities.

Research papers presented at a recent symposium in Vancouver say that undergraduate students are harassing their peers on social media, instructors are on the receiving end of student-led online smear campaigns, and faculty members are belittling their colleagues in emails.

“When you look at cyberbullying among younger kids, or kids in middle and high school, usually by age 15, it dies off,” said education Prof. Wanda Cassidy, who worked on the study with two others. “What was surprising was the fact that it is happening in universities to the extent that it is.”

While many studies have been done on cyber abuse involving adolescents, research on the behaviour among adults is limited. Cassidy and her colleagues looked at whether teens who bully others online still do it after entering university. The research team also wondered whether faculty staff are being targeted in cyberspace. They surveyed over 2,000 people and interviewed 30 participants from four Canadian universities — two in British Columbia, one on the Prairies and one in Atlantic Canada.

Though some of the data from two universities is still trickling in, the available information so far indicates roughly one in five undergraduate students has been cyberbullied, mostly through Facebook, text messages and email, Cassidy said.

Faculty members — mostly women — also said they’ve been harassed online by students or colleagues. In one interview, a professor said she was bombarded with emails and text messages from a student who called her lousy, incompetent and useless.

“I am reporting you and they will take away your licence, you are so stupid,” the professor recalled from one message.

In another school, an instructor found herself fighting a losing battle against a colleague who was convinced she was gossiping about her. “She texted me 73 times in one day, and over a week it was about 180 messages. When I didn’t respond, it was worse,” the instructor said.

Cassidy said the emergence of cyberbullying in an older population comes with grown-up consequences, such as ruined professional relationships or reputations, anxiety, sleep deprivation and thoughts of suicide.

“There was a fair proportion of people — both faculty and students — who said it made them feel suicidal … which is quite frightening, particularly when you think of faculty members. There should be some element of security that they don’t have to worry about colleagues bullying them, but obviously they do feel like maybe there’s no way out, there’s no way getting around it.”

The sense of helplessness is not uncommon, Cassidy said. The anonymity granted to cyberbullies makes it difficult to go after perpetrators. Just over half of the surveyed students and faculty said they tried to stop cyberbullying. But less than half of them reported success. Cassidy said that’s partly because few university policies specifically address online bullying.

The research team examined 465 policies from 75 universities between November 2011 and January 2012. The study found most universities did have policies around student conduct, discrimination and harassment, but not all were specific to online venues.

Jackson said devising clear-cut policies is a good start, but universities should also put resources into counselling and prevention to reduce cyberbullying.

“I think there needs to be an appreciation on the part of faculty and students that there is an impact to their behaviour and they should be acting respectfully,” Jackson said.

Excerpted from the Canadian Press

At ILScorp we encourage you to take a stand against bullying at home, school and in the workplace. We have developed a Bullying awareness course, for both employers and employees, to help you understand the meaning and consequences of bullying. With up to 40 percent of Canadian workers reporting feeling bullied at work, the issue goes beyond the school schools.