This year’s Sexual Violence Awareness Month kickoff event saw low student attendance.
The first event of the month-long campaign run by Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA), which was only a week-long last year, was a workshop on consent and sexual violence prevention led by Equity and Inclusive Communities (EIC) Services coordinators on Sept. 10 in Tory building.
At its peak, the event hosted 16 students—approximately a third of which were CUSA executives and councillors. Six students stayed for the entire duration of the workshop.
The low turnout may have been a result of the time the event was held, said Amal Elmi, the EIC coordinator who led the workshop.
“The turnout was okay, it would have been nice to have more but I think the timing was a little bit challenging for students at 2:30 to 4:30” p.m., she said.
Amal Elmi broke down the causes of sexual violence throughout the workshop.
The logistics of the event may have deterred students, said CUSA vice-president (student issues) Sissi De Flaviis, adding the location “wasn’t super ideal because not many people know where Tory fifth floor is.”
But she said turnout was still “good,” given the room capacity was a maximum of 20 people.
Despite difficulties with the timing of the event, Elmi said hosting the kickoff at the beginning of the academic year was very important.
“Statistically, most sexual assaults happen the first six to eight weeks of back-to-school time because you know people are partying and there is frosh,” Elmi said. “So, having that consent messaging while students are partying and doing X, Y, and Z—I think it’s critical.”
Rawan Youssef, a second-year journalism student who attended the event, said she was surprised to see three male students at the workshop—only one of whom stayed for the event’s entire duration—because she typically sees women more involved with the issue.
“I almost feel like we should reach out to people—guys, athletes, groups like that—because it almost feels like they have an aversion to it,” Youssef said, “or they don’t take it seriously.”
“The more guys that come, I feel the more successful these kinds of events are.”
Outreach to male students is something Elmi is considering for future events. This could include working with campus partners to spread information to different campus groups and distributing more flyers, she said.
Regardless of the size of the event, Bailey Reid, coordinator of sexual assault services for EIC, said she’s happy as long as students are learning.
“I think it was a good workshop,” Reid said. “We joke that we’d go to the opening of an envelope if we’re able to talk about consent.”
“We want people to talk about it, so it’s okay if you don’t have all the answers,” she said. “It’s okay if you have lots of questions, it’s okay if we’re saying things you’re not sure about. As long as we’re having the conversation, we think that that’s what’s really important.”
Programming for Sexual Violence Awareness Month will run until Sept. 26. Events include sex toy bingo, a bystander training workshop, and closed discussion groups.
Feature image by Jillian Piper.
