Carleton has released an update on its draft sexual violence policy, taking into consideration feedback from various stakeholders, including individual students, clubs and societies, and unions on campus.
This comes as the Jan. 1 deadline nears, by which all Ontario post-secondary institutions must have a standalone sexual violence policy.
“We released a draft of the policy on Oct. 6, and throughout the entire month of October people had the opportunity to give us feedback on that draft,” Jen Sugar, Carleton’s director of student affairs, said. “We received a little over 140 individual submissions, and we also received a series of group submissions from a variety of university stakeholders.”
“People really took time. They were very thoughtful and they were very robust in their feedback and they were very engaged,” she said.
Based on the feedback, the school updated the draft policy to include five key elements.
This included modifying the definition of ‘university community’ to eliminate the possibility that alleged assaulters could get out of the complaint by ending their relationship with the university, and rewording the policy to include a survivor-centric approach to support services.
The update also removed the clause that enabled the president of the university to make exceptions to the policy. Additionally, it defined what is meant by ‘public statements’ in the policy, and made it clear that survivors could seek counselling and support services, and speak to their friends and family.
Lastly, the policy also added language to address concerns about academic freedom, by further outlining protections for faculty who teach sexually explicit material.
According to Sugar, the next step is to now send the policy to the Board of Governors (BoG) for approval.
Part of the feedback came from an open letter on the policy authored by Caitlin Salvino, a fourth-year human rights and law student, and two other undergraduate students. The letter was also signed by a variety of student groups such as the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) and the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA).
Salvino said she is happy with the community update, as it addresses three of the five concerns outlined in the open letter. In particular, she said she is happy the clause allowing Carleton’s president to make exceptions to the policy was removed.
Sugar said that this clause was supposed to allow the president to get faster responses in sensitive cases, but Salvino said students were concerned about not all cases being on equal footing.
However, Salvino said she and other groups on campus, such as the Carleton University Academic Staff Association and the GSA, are releasing a response to the policy update.
Fahd Alhattab, CUSA president, said the student union was happy to see that some of the recommendations from the open letter were taken into consideration by the university.
However, he said there are still some issues CUSA would like to see addressed.
“A lot of students seem to have an issue with the procedure of how this is going, it’s less a consultation and more of a ‘we send a recommendation, and [the university] gives us a response,’ and less of a conversation back and forth,” Alhattab said.
According to Alhattab, they are looking for more dialogue from the university on the policy.
“[Dialogue] is tough, I know it’s tough from a university standpoint, but these kinds of policies require tough conversations,” he said.
Salvino said they have more concerns, but that the key ones will be in the response.
“The one that is most important to us is to have a sexual violence prevention and education committee that has the ability to continue to make recommendations,” Salvino said. “For us, we know the deadline of Jan. 1 is very difficult for the administration to do, so we want to have this role in the committee to continue to work with the administration . . . and the [BoG] to make changes.”
“Once it is passed, in the policy it says that they won’t review it until three years down the road and for us that’s not acceptable,” Salvino added.
Greg Owens, one of the undergraduate representatives on the BoG, said he thinks the update to the draft is a step in the right direction.
“I think a lot of groups on campus are concerned about the composition of the review committee, so I know that’s still a point of contention,” he said. “But I do appreciate that Jen [Sugar] and that office have taken the time to comb through all of that feedback they received and respond to it,” Owens said.
“It’s a very positive step towards Carleton proving they are willing to consult students in various spaces on campus,” he said.
According to Alhatttab, the fact that the university chose not to expand the definition of rape culture currently found in the policy is another big issue.
“I’ve heard it very loud and clear, I’ve heard it from council, I’ve heard it from the Human Rights Society, even our executive, we’re still uncomfortable with the fact the university is not including the use of the term ‘rape culture,’ ” Alhattab said.
According to Alhattab, CUSA will likely submit more feedback on the draft policy, possibly as part of another collective set of recommendations.
The Board of Governor’s next meeting is Dec. 1, when approval of the policy will be voted on. Student groups that have been active in the policy drafting are holding a rally on Nov. 29 at noon in the University Centre Atrium to celebrate progress and advocate for further changes.
