Discussion: The mishandling of sexual violence and assault reports on campus has become a norm throughout BC post-secondary institutions. The cycle of sexual violence is being facilitated by universities due to the lack of accountability and transparency. Many universities lack standalone sexual violence polices and instead slot them into a general student code of conduct (Marshall, 2016). Universities have more extensive policies to address academic dishonesty then sexual violence occurring on campus. By not having direct and concise policies the process of addressing sexual assault cases gets diluted. Sexual assault allegations need to be handled in a consistent manner through a centralized system. Ultimately, a standalone policy will
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A key issue of Bill 23 is that it only requires that post-secondary institutions establish policies that address sexual violence that occurs between students. It says nothing about visitors, or staff or faculty members. These people are just vulnerable to sexual violence as students are. It is also important to realize that visitors, staff and faculty members can be perpetrators of sexual violence, as exemplified by the UBC creative writing professor who was accused of sexually harassing and bullying several of his students (Kane,2016). Effective policies need to include the full range of people who make up the campus community. Furthermore, there is nothing stipulated in the bill that addresses the need for accurate reporting of sexual assaults on campus. Inconsistencies in how post-secondary institutions collect and report sexual assault data is a serious issue. CBC News conducted a report on sexual assaults on campus and collected data from eighty-seven universities and major colleges across Canada. They obtained data on the number of reported sexual assaults that occurred on campus between 2009 and 2013 (Sawa & Ward,2015). In the data that UBC presented, it revealed that the total reports of sexual assault between 2009-2013 were 16 (CBC News, 2014). However, CBC was able to uncover that more than seventy sexual assault reports to the RCMP where the assaults occurred on the UBC campus (CBC News, 2014). The variation in the number of reports that UBC and the RCMP received exemplifies that schools need to do a better job of encouraging students to come forward to report sexual assaults and the need for institutional transparency (Sawa & Ward,2015). Better data collection would result in an increase understanding of the pervasive occurrence of sexualized violence happening on campus.
A key issue of Bill 23 is that it only requires that post-secondary institutions establish policies that address sexual violence that occurs between students. It says nothing about visitors, or staff or faculty members. These people are just vulnerable to sexual violence as students are. It is also important to realize that visitors, staff and faculty members can be perpetrators of sexual violence, as exemplified by the UBC creative writing professor who was accused of sexually harassing and bullying several of his students (Kane,2016). Effective policies need to include the full range of people who make up the campus community. Furthermore, there is nothing stipulated in the bill that addresses the need for accurate reporting of sexual assaults on campus. Inconsistencies in how post-secondary institutions collect and report sexual assault data is a serious issue. CBC News conducted a report on sexual assaults on campus and collected data from eighty-seven universities and major colleges across Canada. They obtained data on the number of reported sexual assaults that occurred on campus between 2009 and 2013 (Sawa & Ward,2015). In the data that UBC presented, it revealed that the total reports of sexual assault between 2009-2013 were 16 (CBC News, 2014). However, CBC was able to uncover that more than seventy sexual assault reports to the RCMP where the assaults occurred on the UBC campus (CBC News, 2014). The variation in the number of reports that UBC and the RCMP received exemplifies that schools need to do a better job of encouraging students to come forward to report sexual assaults and the need for institutional transparency (Sawa & Ward,2015). Better data collection would result in an increase understanding of the pervasive occurrence of sexualized violence happening on campus.