Carleton president Benoit-Antoine Bacon said the university is looking into updating its sexual violence policy (SVP) at a Board of Governors (BoG) meeting held in September.
“We make public our intention to review the sexual violence policy,” he said. “The process will matter as much as the outcome, and this is why we started by making our process known, and by inviting comments on the process itself—it’s been well received, and our plan is to bring the policy to the Board in the spring.”
Bacon said the first step was to agree on the process of consultation, which has been completed.
“We took in the comments on the process of consultation, so we’ll make some adjustments, and then we’ll be able to move to the next phase,” he said.
Carleton vice-president (students and enrolment) Suzanne Blanchard said the university has a website for the consultation process.
“All the comments we received on the consultation process will be posted, and the responses of how we’re addressing those comments and feedback,” she said.
Blanchard said information on the second phase will also be provided on the website.
“We will be posting for the second phase all the dates of either meetings or focus groups, or the design workshops we’re talking about,” she said. “Members of the full community can participate in these focus groups.”
“We’re having a lot of different areas to be able to give feedback on the content of the policy itself,” she added.
Blanchard also said the university is involving OurTurn Carleton in the consultation process.
“They will be part of one of the stakeholder groups,” she said. “We’ll ensure that whoever wants to participate will meet with the individuals that are collecting all the feedback. They will be part of the collection.”
The SVP review is seeking consultation on specific areas of the current policy. These areas include a current clause requiring complainants and respondents to face each other in a formal hearing and the possible addition of a clause that would protect complainants from punishment for minor violations relating to alcohol or drug use.
The review is also asking for consultation on handling privacy issues with sharing information about disciplinary action taken against respondents and clarification on confidentiality.
The listening phase for the SVP review has begun as of October, but the drafting phase will begin in January 2019.
The revised campus policy on sexual violence is scheduled to be released in April 2019.
Graphic by Paloma Callo
