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What comes to mind when you think of university life? Exposure to challenging new ideas? Subsistence on ramen noodles? Making lasting friendships? Wild parties? All-night cramming sessions?
There’s something about bouncing between stress and elation, deprivation and excess that makes university life such a memorable experience.
But there’s one very disturbing aspect of university life that’s got to go: the staggering rate of sexual assaults experienced by students. 1 in 4 students will experience sexual assault over the course of their post-secondary career and over 80% of survivors are women.
Indeed, the circumstances of university life seem to breed a culture that is not conducive to consensual sex. Too many new students have had little or no education on sex and consent, many are away from their home support networks for the first time, and to top it off, popular media constantly exhorts young people to prove themselves sexually.
At the Centre for Gender Advocacy, we think another reality is possible, and that’s why we’re working with Concordia University to plan a sexual assault centre that could help bring this alternative vision of a consensual campus to life.
A sexual assault centre could provide a structure within which student volunteers could organize anti-sexual assault initiatives such as consent workshops and poster campaigns. These types of popular education initiatives could help prevent assaults from happening in the first place, by helping everyone understand what consent is and is not.
And when assaults do happen, staff and/or volunteers staffing the centre would be there to offer support to survivors. They could also help survivors navigate Concordia’s policies as they relate to sexual assault, and advocate for improvements to those policies.
Indeed, the creation of a sexual assault centre is a key component in ensuring equal access to post-secondary education. We can’t learn and develop to our full potential in an unsafe environment.
Want to volunteer? Whether you want to learn how to give consent workshops, design popular education materials, or work with the university to make a safer campus, we’d love to have you join the campaign. Call or email us today to find out how you can get involved!
Centre for Gender Advocacy
514-937-2110
campaigns@centre2110.org
1500 de Maisonneuve O., Suite 404
