Carleton’s administration-run sexual assault support centre, set to open in September 2012, ignores years of student proposals for a support-based model, the university’s academic staff association said in a Jan. 6 press release.
Jennifer Evans, chair of the Carleton University Academic Staff Association (CUASA) equity committee, said the announcement is a result of the Coalition for a Carleton Sexual Assault Centre’s successful efforts to get the message out. But the university still needs to encompass the student aspect, she said.
“Unless there is more room in the university’s proposal for student voice and control, it is hard to see how their vision will affect meaningful change for survivors of violence,” Evans said.
Julie Lalonde, one of the Coalition’s co-ordinators, said she was also disappointed in the university’s Jan. 4 announcement. After five years of negotiations, she said she doesn’t think student opinion wasn’t taken seriously.
“It was never a negotiation process,” she said. “We were naive to think that our conversations with Equity were in good faith. What we told them was never taken into consideration.”
Lalonde said the Coalition still intends to bring their proposals for a student-run centre to the Board of Governors and it will include letters of support from CUASA.
“CUASA support does mean a great deal to us,” Lalonde said.
Moving forward, both the Coalition and CUASA will focus on adding peer-to-peer counselling to the administration-run centre.
“We’re not saying take away health and counseling services,” Lalonde said. “We’re suggesting a complement.”
The bottom line is the idea of peer support, which according to CUASA is not a part of the current centre.
“It is not about who runs the center in terms of who get’s paid, or who’s the boss,” Lalonde said. “But in terms of who does the support, we are adamant that it is peers.”
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