The Carleton University Academic Staff Association (CUASA) has passed a motion to support the Coalition for a Carleton Sexual Assault Centre, CUASA’s chair of equity Jennifer Evans confirmed Dec. 7.
Despite some “dissenting voices registered,” the motion was still passed, Evans said.
A communiqué went out at the beginning of the month as an initial statement in response to the fourth reported assault, Evans said.
There have been three reported sexual assaults and one reported physical assault since Oct. 30.
“It basically called for the faculty community to think about sexual assaults on campus as affecting us directly,” Evans said. “Both in terms of how students experience it, violence on campus, but also our role as teachers and as educators being on the front line too.”
Carleton administration shares the same goal of ensuring “that people who have experienced sexual assault get the best possible services and supports that they require,” according to a statement issued by Christopher Cline, Carleton’s media relations co-ordinator.
A proposal for space to provide additional services, peer counselling and support for those who have experienced sexual assault has been made by a space planning committee, Cline said.
But Carleton president Roseann Runte said finding a space for the centre is only one of the issues.
“There are requests . . . for three full-time staff and various other things,” Runte said. “It’s not just a room that is under consideration.”
Carleton is doing the best it can to support victims of sexual assault, as Carleton is one of the few schools with a sexual assault co-ordinator and educator, Runte said.
“The university has been quite active,” she said.
As for CUASA, all they can do at this point is to “lend its support to the coalition, acting and asking for more services for students,” Evans said.