Kendra Murphy woke up in a pool of vomit, with a large hickey on her neck, sore wrists and a stranger's clothes next to her bed.

It was 2014. The first year uni student had spent the night before at the Victory Dinner - one of the many social events hosted by her prestigious Sydney University college, St Andrew's.

She'd eaten dinner, then gone back to her room for a couple of drinks with friends. She remembers vodka shots, and then nothing.

"I don't remember anything from that night," she tells Hack.

The next morning, she tried to piece together what had happened.

"Everything was kind of sore and people were messaging me saying I had f***ed Peter*."

"I got on my laptop and messaged my friends being like 'what the hell happened last night?'

"Piece by piece", a frightening picture emerged.

"Someone told me 'oh yeah, they're my clothes on your floor because I found you running naked in the hall near Peter's room and I took you into my room and put clothes on you'.

"And someone was like 'oh yeah, I saw you running outside naked'.

"And someone was like, yeah we found you on the steps outside the hall and we brought you to bed and tucked you in.

"I slowly started to piece together what happened but it's the very important details that I can't remember because there was no one else there.

That afternoon, Kendra says a third year student sent her a message.

"I got a message in the afternoon from a third year student saying 'hey babe, I was really worried about you last night. I saw what Peter did to your neck and God knows what else, it's pretty disgusting. You were saying some pretty shocking things'.

"And she said 'you just kept repeating to me that you didn't want it and you just wanted your pillow. And I saw him later in the night and I asked him what happened and he kind of just shrugged and went back to dancing. And he just didn't look anywhere near as drunk as you looked. I've never seen anyone as drunk as you'.

And after I got that message I was like 'wow, OK, something sinister has happened here'."

*Not his real name.

Announced 'as if it was a funny thing'

Kendra says she stayed in her room all day, "trying to avoid people".

That night, she heard her name on the PA system that was echoing through the halls.

"There's a tradition called 'buffet'," Kendra tells Hack.

"Every night, especially around exam time, there's elected buffet crew who open up the Highlander Bar at 9 o'clock every night and sell lollies and red bull and milkshakes, as little study snacks. And it's really great.

"But to tell the college that buffet's open so everyone can come down they do a thing called 'buffet chat' where they tell the exploits of what happened at the most recent party night.

"It was announced over the PA system along with a whole bunch of other things. It was kind of wedged in there as if it was a funny thing when really it was not."

"The next day is when the real kind of taunting started. It's never aggressive taunting, it's never slut shaming... In college, your sexual experiences are everyone's sexual experiences."

Student named in 'slut-shaming' journal speaks out How would you feel if a journal distributed to your classmates listed all the students you'd hooked-up with?

The hallway taunting was far removed from what Kendra had imagined when, just a few months earlier, she had left her coastal hometown of Nowra to study in Sydney.

She'd decided to move into a college - an on-campus university residence often attended by country kids and students from some of Sydney's most prestigious high schools.

"Both my older brothers went to colleges... they had a ball.

"The kind of dormy familial feel of it was something I was super interested in.

I also didn't know anyone going to my university from my town so it seemed like a pretty good way to meet a bunch of people straight off the bat... it felt safe."

'They never said we believe you'

Kendra took her story to college authorities. They agreed her story was serious and should be investigated.

She typed out her statement, and asked two of her friends, who she says had also been aggressively pursued by Peter, to do the same.

Following an internal investigation, Kendra says the college found that they "didn't have enough evidence to prosecute him with what [she] claimed had happened".

Instead, they suspended him from the college for five weeks "for going around and telling everyone that we had sex, which he did".

Kendra says at the time she was happy with how her complaint had been dealt with.

"I was wanting to very much put it behind me."

Looking back now, Kendra feels far from happy with the college's response. She feels they should have encouraged her to take her story further, to police.

"If they weren't going to prosecute him then they should have at least supported and encouraged me... or given me the option... to take it further. And not just have given him a tokenistic punishment which almost distracted me.

"They never [said] 'we believe you'.

But St Andrew's College Principal Wayne Erickson says it is Kendra's responsibility to report the assault to police.

It's her responsibility and her right as the complainant to report the matter to police.

"All through the process of the investigation... [we] talked to her about her options, including reporting to police, recommending that she go to the sexual assault unit at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and we offered to take her there for that purpose," he says.

"No student should ever have to go through an experience of harassment or abuse as she did.

"I understand completely that she wanted to put it behind her at the time, I also understand if - as it appears - she wants to change her view.

"I've said very clearly if she wishes to proceed in a different direction from 2014, then we'll support her."

A widespread problem

But Kendra says when Peter returned to college after his five week suspension, she immediately felt uncomfortable there and avoided the common areas.

"He came back five weeks later. He told the cohort he was taking care of a sick relative and that's why he was absent."

Kendra believes university colleges should be shut down altogether.

They should be disbanded. I honestly believe that. I honestly believe that no amount of good relationship exercises and you know, reform, will be able to fix what is there."

Sexual harassment and assault is a problem at universities across Australia, as the National Union of Students found when they looked into this last year.

Its survey of 1,500 students across 34 unis found almost three quarters had experienced some form of sexual harassment or unwelcome sexual behavior; with just under half happening on campus. The figure was less under a University of Sydney survey conducted last year - it found 25 per cent of students surveyed said they'd experienced some form of unacceptable behaviour, sexual harassment or assault over the time they were enrolled; with six per cent happening on campus, including at colleges.

Is there a misogynist culture on our campuses? Are the scandals rocking university colleges just 'harmless fun', or part of something more sinister?

The Australian Human Rights Commission is now trying to get to the bottom of it, the Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins tells Hack.

"The research that we are going to do is going to identify prevalence."

She says she's working with universities across Australia to conduct a survey, which will inform the universities' responses to sexual assault.

"It's also going to identify student knowledge of services and supports - so Kendra may or may not have understood what the university could offer.

She says the survey will help universities improve how students can report assault, making the process "more tailored".

This comes after Sydney University commissioned Ms Jenkins' predecessor, Elizabeth Broderick, to investigate the culture at their residential colleges.

Anna Hush, the women's officer for Sydney University's SRC, welcomes changes to the reporting process.

"I think there are just so many problems with the way we report to the university," she says.

"They've currently got a complaints portal - it's not only for incidence of sexual harassment, assault, bullying, discrimination - that kind of cluster of issues. It's for any type of formal complaint you might want to make against the university so things like if you feel like you've been graded unfairly.

"The first thing that it tells you when you go on the complaints portal to make a complaint - it asks you if you've tried to resolve the issue informally with the other person involved, which is just incredibly inappropriate in the case of sexual assault.

"You're not going to have a coffee with your rapist and just ask them not to do that again."

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If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault or domestic or family violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732. You can also call Lifeline on 13 11 14.