The director of residence life at Concordia University has asked a petition for consent workshops during orientation week be taken down.
The Centre for Gender Advocacy (CGA) has an online petition to hold mandatory sexual consent workshops in student residences, and has been hoping to hold a similar two-hour workshop during frosh.
This group has been facing opposition from the Arts and Science Federation of Associations (ASFA) and the director of residence life at Concordia.
The workshops aim to cover the myths and facts about sexual assault and create a healthy dialogue about consent and the resources available for students.
Sean Nolan, ASFA’s vice-president (social), was quoted in the Montreal Gazette saying there was not enough time for a workshop of that scale, and freshmen wouldn’t have the attention span to sit through a two-hour workshop.
Concordia frosh leaders receive sensitivity training that deals with sexual assault, but the freshmen themselves do not, according to the Montreal Gazette.
Nolan said in the Montreal Gazette that sexual assault isn’t something that happens at Concordia’s frosh and that to his knowledge, there has never been a reported case.
After public outcry, Paul Jerajian, president of the ASFA, issued a public apology in the Montreal Gazette and stated ASFA’s commitment to promoting consent during frosh, as well as the steps they were taking to build workshops for next year.
Jerajian said via email that frosh leaders had received a training kit to help facilitate their own workshops and in his opinion “the workshops from the leaders was what seemed to be the most important.”
“At the end of our orientation barbecue, all leaders and froshies got into their respective groups and sat down for half an hour and went through what consent means and various levels of comfort and intimacy. It was amazing to see the dedication the leaders had and the importance of consent at FROSH,” he said via email.
D’Arcy Ryan, director of residence life at Concordia, has asked the CGA to remove the petition for sexual consent workshops in residence, though he backed off after the CGA refused to do so, according to the Link, Concordia University’s student newspaper.
There are public workshops available for the students through the Concordia Sexual Assault Resource Association, according to their website.
