Decades of data about sexual violence on university campuses has shown very little change in the amount of incidents reported, says Carrie Chassels, vice-provost of student affairs at the University of Guelph.
But Chassels said a new study by the Ontario government does show some improvement in how students feel the U of G has dealt with the problem.
“One of the things we take away from the survey results is how entrenched the sad and violent social phenomenon of sexual violence and harassment is. These incident rates seem to be really intractable,” said Chassels.
She said sexual violence incident rates in the study are not far off what has been reported as far back as 1993 in similar Statistics Canada surveys.
“I just recently went to take a look at the Stats Canada data around this so I could get a sense of how these results pan out,” said Chassels. “In each report from Stats Canada, as it continues to gather data, the summary report often starts with ‘these findings are unchanged from the last time we went out to gather this data.”
A survey of 5,833 University of Guelph students that was part of the province's Student Voices on Sexual Violence survey showed that in the 2018 school year 67.6 per cent of students have experienced sexual harassment and 28.7 per cent said they experienced one or more incidents of some form of non-consensual sexual experience.
“One sexual assault is one too many. As such, the survey results are a concern and demonstrate that as a society, we need to do more," said Chassels.
Non-consensual sexual experience could include unwanted fondling, kissing, oral sex, penetration or attempts to penetrate.
University of Western Ontario had the highest response in the survey from students who experienced sexual harassment at 71.6 per cent. Western students also reported the highest pecentage of incidents of non-consensual sexual experience at 32.4 per cent.
A further 23.4 per cent of U of G respondents in the survey reported having experienced being stalked.
The U of G ranked second highest on the survey in ‘satisfaction to institutional response to sexual violence’ with a 67 per cent of students saying they were very satisfied or satisfied.
Chassels said early efforts by the university to combat sexual violence on campus have begun to pay off. The U of G has a dedicated director of sexual violence support.
“It seems to me that we are doing a good job of creating environments where people who experience sexual violence are feeling more comfortable and more safe to come forward and seek the support they need,” said Chassels. “Although we realize we always need to do better, we do see that as something that is encouraging for us, that we are on the right path.”
Chassels noted that Statistics Canada says the 15 to 24 age group has the highest incident rates of sexual violence.
“That is our undergraduate student population here at the university,” said Chassels.
Only Trent University ranked higher in the ‘satisfaction to institutional responses to sexual violence’ question, with a 70.9 per cent response of students who were very satisfied or satisfied.
Chassels said the university is looking to undertake a new initiative in which every first year student living in student housing, student leadership, athletics and student affairs would receive sexual violence consent and disclosure training.
She estimates the training would be presented to about 7,000 students in its first year and 5,000 students every year after that.
“In four years we estimate that approximately 90 per cent of our students on campus have had that level of training to better understand what is sexual violence, what is consent, what does it sound like, look like, feel like and how do I support somebody in my life who have shared that they have experienced it,” said Chassels.
"We really hope that kind of bold initiative will really send a message that we take this seriously and want to be able to provide the support that our students need and also take action when they have experience sexual violence.”
