A Melbourne University residential college has published a first-hand account of sexual assault which occurred on campus, for which it is believed to be the first time the university has ever done so.

Ellie, the 20-year-old resident of the college and female equity office, wrote the essay for the Ormond Papers, detailing the account of her rape and the prevalence of the offence on campus.

She looked back over the past three years and wrote about how 14 of her peers had told her they had also been victims of assault.

Ormond College is on board with publishing the piece and has been in support of Ellie telling her story.

“It is only through frank and fearless conversations around issues that are sometimes difficult to talk about, that we can create change,” Ormond College’s new master Lara McKay told The Age.

Throughout the piece she wrote about how she tried to avoid him throughout the halls of the college and the fact that she sat in the same room as him during talks about consent during their orientation week.

“We lived in different buildings, so I didn’t have to see him every day, and I quickly learnt when to avoid the dining hall in order to also avoid him,” Ellie wrote in her essay.

She didn’t report her rape to the police or college out of fear of what her peers, with whom she lived with, would say. She also didn’t believe it would result in any action being taken as there were no witnesses and the alleged rape happened over two years ago.

Ellie told The Age she was speaking out because she felt there was a need to have a conversation as the same issues involving rape on campus keep reoccurring and she was surprised and pleased by the college master’s response to her essay.

Ms McKay says the school’s goal is to have zero incidents and that the college is reviewing its policy for reporting sexual misconduct, their o-week consent training and trailing an anonymous reporting system so that cases like this never happen again.

[Photo]: ‘Old world charm Melbourne University’ by Geoff Penaluna found here and used under a creative commons attribution.