About 20 students and faculty members rallied at the Bronson Avenue entrance to Carleton for an on-campus sexual assault centre Nov. 14, holding placards and distributing pamphlets to cars passing by.
The Coalition for a Carleton Sexual Assault Centre, a group that has been advocating for a sexual assault support centre on campus since 2007, organized the rally, which comes after two sexual assaults on campus in as many weeks.
A female student was sexually assaulted in the common area between Stormont and Dundas Houses Oct. 30, while in a separate incident Nov. 4, another female student was sexually assaulted in the university tunnel near Southam Hall, according to campus safety.
Julie Lalonde, one of the coalition’s co-founders, said it’s “shameful” and “outrageous” that Carleton has been denying them a sexual assault centre for five years, especially in light of the recent assaults on campus.
“Our point of being here today is to raise awareness about our struggle,” said Lalonde, adding that the group will be meeting with university officials Nov. 15.
“Hopefully they will respond.”
Patrizia Gentile, a sexuality studies professor at Carleton, said there’s a lot of support among Carleton’s faculty for a sexual assault support centre.
“The faculty I know are the faculty who understand that sexual assault is happening all the time, not just at Carleton but all over Ottawa,” she said.
Gentile said she believes the reason Carleton seems reluctant to start a support centre is because they think it will hurt their reputation – a thought echoed by Lalonde.
“Carleton has given us every excuse from a lack of funding to a lack of space to a lack of need,” Lalonde said. “We think it just comes down to the fact that they think this is bad for the reputation of the school, that actually acknowledging violence happens on campus means that we are somehow promoting Carleton as a bad place to come to school.”
In addition to space limitations, the university wants to make sure that the students running the coalition are working with professional counsellors, according to Carleton president Roseann Runte.
In the last few years, Carleton has increased its security staff, hired a sexual assault co-ordinator and educator, put mirrors in the tunnels, installed more cameras, and so on, Runte said.
“All of the things that you can do, if you go to any university and say what are the safety measures, well we’ve done them all,” Runte said.
But Lalonde said these are just bandage and reactive solutions.
Apart from the telephone support line the coalition already runs, the proposed on-campus centre would have individual and group support and offer public education continuously throughout the year, Lalonde said.
With the centre, the coalition would be able to have a presence during events like frosh week, host conferences and raise awareness about the “reality of sexual violence,” she said.
Ninety-five per cent of people are assaulted by someone they know, she said.
“The way in which Carleton frames sexual assault right now, you would never believe that. You would think it’s going to be a stranger and it will happen in a public place.”
“People say that whatever we’re doing is great and it’s a subject that needs awareness brought to it,” said Amanda Carson about the reaction she’s been getting from fellow students.
Carson is a second-year psychology student and a support worker in training for the coalition-run sexual assault support line.
“They think we need a centre and we need to fight rape culture and the ideas people have in their minds surrounding sexual assault,” she said.
