WARNING: SEXUAL ASSAULT
This story contains details viewers may find disturbing. Those in need of support can call the Ottawa Distress Centre Crisis Line at 613-238-3311 or the Carleton Sexual Assault Support Centre at 613-520-5622.
Following reports of numerous sexual assaults during Western University’s Orientation Week (OWeek), students and professors say the university must address a rape culture that makes the campus unsafe.
On Sept. 12, The Western Gazette reported allegations and sexual assaults targeting women in Medway-Sydenham Hall, which sparked a massive student-led walkout on Sept. 24. Students called for a reexamination of campus culture, increased safety policies and administration accountability.
After the allegations, Western launched a new action plan to address sexual violence and student safety. The plan includes a task force investigating campus culture, mandatory consent and violence prevention training for students in residence and four new special constables.
Hannah Lewis, a second-year childhood and social institution student at King’s University College, an affiliate of Western, first heard about the sexual assault allegations from social media platforms TikTok and Twitter. While Lewis said she was shocked, she was not completely surprised.
“Western has always tried to do it big and their partying community is absolutely wild,” Lewis said. “I just think there might even be other incidents that nobody even knows about.”
Other students who criticized Western’s party culture were sophs, the upper-year student volunteers who lead OWeek. They mentor first-year students and connect them with campus resources. Sophs are also often the first responders to sexual assault or potential sexual assault cases during OWeek.
“The school knows they can get away with having sophs handling all this stuff, especially when medical professionals are stretched thin,” said Teigan Elliott, a soph during OWeek. “The responsibility falls on sophs to act.”
“Western has built up a reputation of party culture […] While partying isn’t an inherently bad thing, our party culture and our rape culture have become pretty intertwined,” Elliott said.
She added that “a lot of students come to school expecting they can get away with a lot of things.”
Elliott said she had to intervene during OWeek when she saw an inebriated woman being dragged by sober men. She added she was often so occupied with unconscious freshmen she wouldn’t be able to return home until three a.m.
According to Elliott, the job was mentally taxing.
“A lot of us wish there was someone we could talk to throughout the week to help us get through it,” she said.
Elliott cited toxic masculinity and a lack of consent education as key factors for the dangerous party culture. She said the social expectation that sex and partying go together contributes to sexual assault.
“There are often misogynistic signs displayed [at fake homecoming], and they’re seen as a fun type of thing,” she said.
As the co-founder and co-president of King’s College Red Zone, Elliott said she began researching sexual assault culture on campus after learning how prevalent sexual assaults are, especially during the first six to eight weeks of school.
The Council of Ontario Universities reported that in the 2017-2018 academic year, over 32.4 per cent of Western students experienced sexual assault at the start of the school year. In total, 71.6 per cent of Western students reported experiencing sexual harassment at least once.
While these numbers are higher than most other universities studied, the report warns against direct comparisons due to differences in demographics.
Elliott called for proper consent education, harsher consequences for perpetrators and better resources centred on the healing process to support survivors.
“The administration has a lot of power to do that, and they are not doing it,” she said.
Treena Orchard, an associate professor in the school of health studies, said professors are not fully aware of what happens at OWeek.
According to Orchard, students may not feel comfortable disclosing sexual assault to professors and authorities considering the newness of the academic year and lack of established relationships.
“They see a lot of it going [on] amongst themselves but aren’t always sure what to do,” she added.
In 2019, Orchard conducted a study with 31 participants. From the conversations with students and administration, she found a lack of a sustained cultural shift to separate rape culture from party culture. The study has yet to be peer-reviewed.
“There’s a pretty definite causal relationship between partying that gets out of hand and lack of consent and violence,” she said.
Orchard identified the larger issue as institutional power structures.
“We’ve had the data and policies in place that are inclusive and informed by trauma-informed ideas, but the fact that they haven’t been acted upon in a meaningful way is a reflection of Western itself,” Orchard said.
Orchard wrote a piece for The Conversation calling for universities to cancel frosh week to stop rape culture, among seven other ways to improve campus safety.
Lewis said she wants more accessible and extensive counselling for victims. She also felt the policies that were announced by Western were reactive instead of proactive.
“I hope that as time goes on, this isn’t forgotten,” she said.
Elliott felt wary about additional constables. “I think that’s a bad call considering how little they helped during OWeek, and they can put marginalized students at risk,” she said.
Instead, she believed the university should “tackle the root of the issue instead of covering it up when something happens.”
Featured image provided by the Western Gazette.
