Solutions for sexual assault on university campuses
There is no possible way of completely ending sexual assault since it is and has been an on going problem for a number of years. However, there are a few solutions as to how society can prevent such harm to victims of sexual assault.
One major aspect that needs to be made clear to society is that sexual assault is never the victims fault. A person does not demand to be sexually assaulted nor do they want to be. By getting this message across to the public, it would allow more knowledge and understanding to this social problem and will allow victims to grieve in peace and not have the harassment of people with not enough knowledge.
One major aspect that needs to be made clear to society is that sexual assault is never the victims fault. A person does not demand to be sexually assaulted nor do they want to be. By getting this message across to the public, it would allow more knowledge and understanding to this social problem and will allow victims to grieve in peace and not have the harassment of people with not enough knowledge.
Our Solutions:
Solutions:
Interviewing multiple experts from colleges and universities in the lower mainland, as well as hours of research, has brought to light an enormous amount of information about sexual assault. There have been a number of surprising facts and cases that have been brought to our attention. For instance many post-secondary institutes in British Columbia do not have sexual assault policies, and an even smaller amount within that number have a stand alone policy. Thanks to the Sexual Violence and Misconduct Policy Act recently introduced by Christy Clarke, BC institutions now are required to have a stand alone policy that regards to sexual assault on University and College campuses. This will hopefully bring the issue to the forefront of B.C. issues. The bill will ensure every post secondary has strict and clear rules, and is prepared for the inevitable event of a sexual assault on campus. In our opinion, the policies need to contain very detailed, extensive terms and thorough definitions of consent and what sexual assault is. For example: if the alleged perpetrator is a student who assaults a non student, and the event does not happen on campus, does the school have any responsibility? Included policies must be able to appertain to potential case such as this one.
The bill is a step in the right direction to creating a better system, however it is not enough. An example of what could be implemented in B.C. is the Clery Act. The Clery Act is a bill passed in the United States in 1990 after a nineteen year old named Jeanne Clery was raped and murdered on residence at Lehigh University in 1986. Her parents were outraged and stated that if they had been made aware of the epidemic of violent crime at the Lehigh, they would not have chosen the University for their daughter (Clery was one of thirty-eight violent crimes in only three years). The family sued the school and was awarded two million dollars, which they used to found a non-profit organization to help victims of sexual assault, as well as fund a campus security. Every year, on October 1st, institutions are required to publish an Annual Campus Security Report and make it available to the public. The public must be provided with the crime statistics for three years prior, a policy statement with safety and security actions, the campuses preventative programs, procedures and prosecution. Adopting a policy such as this would be beneficial in the awareness of sexual assault.
Many complaints recently have been towards UBC and how their students do not know how to properly report an assault, and after an assault were not treated with the respect they deserved. Disclosing to a trusted person even if they have authority of a sexual assault is different than filing a report within the campus, or to the police. Reporting an assault should be easy and include many varieties. For example, the University of the Fraser Valley has reporting available by phone, website, smartphone app, as well as through many members of the staff.
This leads to the idea of increasing education on the topic of sexual assault to help students. Education is the most important thing to prevent sexual assault. Programs need to be in place to educate as many people as possible on campus to understand and prevent sexual assault. Schools have a responsibility to reach the largest amount of people as they can and be available to the vast majority if not all students. Faculty should have at least minimal sensitivity training and know where to guide students if they disclose a sexual assault. Resident staff at UFV has undergone training in bystander intervention and more broad training will be ongoing, starting this summer. Other universities and colleges should adopt this method of training and have minimal training for people involved with the campus staff or otherwise.
From our research we have concluded that education is the number one thing to prevent sexual assault and should be implemented by universities nation wide. In Canada, there has not been a nationwide survey (that we could find) on sexual assault on post-secondary campuses since 2011. The information is sparse and outdated. We believe a national inquiry would shed light on the current situation and create awareness throughout the country. An updated survey would help inform of what needs to be taught to the population. Education is the most successful thing in preventing sexual assault.
Interviewing multiple experts from colleges and universities in the lower mainland, as well as hours of research, has brought to light an enormous amount of information about sexual assault. There have been a number of surprising facts and cases that have been brought to our attention. For instance many post-secondary institutes in British Columbia do not have sexual assault policies, and an even smaller amount within that number have a stand alone policy. Thanks to the Sexual Violence and Misconduct Policy Act recently introduced by Christy Clarke, BC institutions now are required to have a stand alone policy that regards to sexual assault on University and College campuses. This will hopefully bring the issue to the forefront of B.C. issues. The bill will ensure every post secondary has strict and clear rules, and is prepared for the inevitable event of a sexual assault on campus. In our opinion, the policies need to contain very detailed, extensive terms and thorough definitions of consent and what sexual assault is. For example: if the alleged perpetrator is a student who assaults a non student, and the event does not happen on campus, does the school have any responsibility? Included policies must be able to appertain to potential case such as this one.
The bill is a step in the right direction to creating a better system, however it is not enough. An example of what could be implemented in B.C. is the Clery Act. The Clery Act is a bill passed in the United States in 1990 after a nineteen year old named Jeanne Clery was raped and murdered on residence at Lehigh University in 1986. Her parents were outraged and stated that if they had been made aware of the epidemic of violent crime at the Lehigh, they would not have chosen the University for their daughter (Clery was one of thirty-eight violent crimes in only three years). The family sued the school and was awarded two million dollars, which they used to found a non-profit organization to help victims of sexual assault, as well as fund a campus security. Every year, on October 1st, institutions are required to publish an Annual Campus Security Report and make it available to the public. The public must be provided with the crime statistics for three years prior, a policy statement with safety and security actions, the campuses preventative programs, procedures and prosecution. Adopting a policy such as this would be beneficial in the awareness of sexual assault.
Many complaints recently have been towards UBC and how their students do not know how to properly report an assault, and after an assault were not treated with the respect they deserved. Disclosing to a trusted person even if they have authority of a sexual assault is different than filing a report within the campus, or to the police. Reporting an assault should be easy and include many varieties. For example, the University of the Fraser Valley has reporting available by phone, website, smartphone app, as well as through many members of the staff.
This leads to the idea of increasing education on the topic of sexual assault to help students. Education is the most important thing to prevent sexual assault. Programs need to be in place to educate as many people as possible on campus to understand and prevent sexual assault. Schools have a responsibility to reach the largest amount of people as they can and be available to the vast majority if not all students. Faculty should have at least minimal sensitivity training and know where to guide students if they disclose a sexual assault. Resident staff at UFV has undergone training in bystander intervention and more broad training will be ongoing, starting this summer. Other universities and colleges should adopt this method of training and have minimal training for people involved with the campus staff or otherwise.
From our research we have concluded that education is the number one thing to prevent sexual assault and should be implemented by universities nation wide. In Canada, there has not been a nationwide survey (that we could find) on sexual assault on post-secondary campuses since 2011. The information is sparse and outdated. We believe a national inquiry would shed light on the current situation and create awareness throughout the country. An updated survey would help inform of what needs to be taught to the population. Education is the most successful thing in preventing sexual assault.