Feb. 8-11 was Carleton Sexual Assault Awareness Week (SAAW), which featured events such as information fairs, lectures, poetry performances and film screenings that revolved around the idea of ending sexual violence against women.
Organized by Carleton equity services and members of the Coalition for a Carleton Sexual Assault Centre, the Carleton University Students Association and the Graduate Student’s Association, SAAW was intended to educate students about sexual assault and create an atmosphere where people could talk openly about the issue.
“We need to get to a place where people are willing and able to talk about it openly to take away some of the stigma,” said Carrolyn Johnston, equity advisor and co-ordinator of Sexual Assault Services in equity services.
“Healthy sexuality is about good communication,” she said.
Johnston said there are still a lot of myths in society about sexual assault that need to be dispelled, and that it’s important to involve men in preventing sexual assault, as do Men for Equality and Non-Violence (MEN) members Chris Dalton and Danny Schwartz. MEN is an on-campus group that promotes a man’s role in achieving gender equality and ending violence against women, something Schwartz said a large number of men are for, but society isn’t.
Another organization on campus that deals with preventing sexual assault is Foot Patrol, a safety service where volunteers escort students on and close to campus at students’ request. Donnie Northrup, the administrative co-ordinator for Foot Patrol said that while Carleton focuses well on “physical aspects of safety,” but not on preventative measures.
“I don’t think that [Carleton’s] been outreaching or breaking stigmas as much as we could have,” he said. “I think those are some of the essential reasons why we do need a sexual assault centre dedicated to those initiatives.”
Northrup said that most students have thrown their support behind the idea of a sexual assault centre on campus, and that there has been positive feedback from institutions such as the University of Alberta and York University. It would also concentrate services already on campus and would reduce stress on other facilities, such as the Womyn’s Centre and Public Counselling.
Kandace Price, programming co-ordinator for the Womyn’s Centre at Carleton and a collective member of the Coalition for a Carleton Sexual Assault Centre, said the student-run centre would add confidentiality in eliminating ties to the Carleton administration, and would provide peer support, as well as a venue for people to talk about the issue.
“It would send a strong message to other universities to get with the times . . . in fighting gender based violence,” she said.
Carleton’s Sexual Assault Awareness Week ends Feb. 11 with a panel discussion on healthy relationships at 7 p.m. in 435 St. Patrick’s Building.