Ongoing Since 2025, Reasons Why Victims of FH UI Student Harassment Hesitate to Report

Depok, VIVA – The case of alleged sexual harassment involving students from the University of Indonesia’s Faculty of Law (FH UI) continues to attract widespread public attention.

This issue not only shakes the academic environment but also raises serious concerns regarding safety and protection mechanisms for the academic community in higher education institutions.

The victims’ legal representative, Timotius Rajagukguk, revealed that the harassment practices are suspected to have been ongoing since 2025. According to him, the victims had long been aware of the inappropriate behaviour. However, various considerations led them to choose not to report the incidents immediately.

Hesitation in reporting has become one of the main factors causing this case to only surface publicly after a lengthy process.

Fear, psychological pressure, and concerns about social impacts within the campus environment are believed to be the reasons behind this stance.

This situation illustrates the complexity of victims’ positions in facing sensitive situations like sexual harassment, especially when it occurs in academic spaces.

Efforts to uncover this case did not happen quickly. Timotius emphasised that the struggle undertaken by the victims’ side took more than a year before finally gaining public attention.

“For more than 1.5 years fighting this case. So don’t think of it as just leaking out unclearly. It didn’t just leak like that. This is a struggle of more than one year in total, and looking at this case like this, looking at the campus’s handling as well, I place a lot of hope,” said Timotius, at the University of Indonesia’s Student Activity Centre, Depok, West Java, on Tuesday, 14 April 2026.

Based on the revealed information, the alleged harassment was carried out by 16 students through a conversation group. In several circulated screenshots, the conversations are suspected to contain sexually tinged comments that are degrading, targeting not only female students but also female lecturers.

The number of identified victims currently stands at 27 people. Of that number, 20 are FH UI students, while the other 7 are lecturers. This data shows that the impact of the case is not limited to one group but extends to teaching staff.