New team to tackle campus sex claims

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This article was published 19/03/2015 (4175 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Every day, 24 hours a day, a specially trained senior University of Winnipeg official is now standing by to help any student or staff member who’s the victim of sexual misconduct.

The number is 204-230-6660.

“We’re trying to be on the cutting edge of student services,” Jan Byrd, executive director of student life, said Wednesday. “Somebody will be on 24/7 — that starts today.”

The U of W unveiled a comprehensive sexual-misconduct protocol Wednesday, which features a five-person Sexual Misconduct Response Team (SMRT), one of whom will always be just a phone call away.

No particular incident triggered the new protocol, which has been developed over the past seven months.

“We needed one set of responses we could all understand,” Byrd said. SMRT members will be “experienced dealing with students in distress,” Byrd said.

They’ll know what to say and what not to say.

“We’ll listen, we’ll walk people through. We’re talking about immediate need — physical need, your safety, are you safe now?” said Byrd.

“In the past, it’s whatever works,” said Allison Reimer, who worked closely on the protocol as vice-president of student services with the U of W Students’ Association. A student in distress could call the police or Klinic, but there was no immediate place to turn on campus.

Now, “There will be standards set,” said Reimer, who is majoring in gender studies.

Byrd said the support will vary depending on circumstances. Someone could be victimized on campus, or elsewhere; the alleged perpetrator might also be from campus, or there could even be a friend of the victim who missed the signs something was wrong and now needs to talk to someone qualified.

“There may be changes we need to make in campus living,” said Byrd, such as removing an alleged perpetrator who’s in the same residence or class as the victim, while continuing to accommodate both people’s education needs while awaiting the justice system to do its work.

Reimer said the SMRT is catching on and will be a standard across Canada — it’s already used on at least seven university campuses, she said.

The U of W said in a news release it worked with students, staff and Klinic to develop the protocol.

“The protocol focuses on creating a safe climate, including a plan for extensive education and awareness-raising, and provides a broad range of supports for people involved. The protocol also states that the university will publicly report aggregate information of sexual misconduct, without any identifying information.

“The protocol clearly defines sexual misconduct which encompasses a range of behaviours, including (1) sexual harassment, 2) stalking, and (3) the threat of sexual assault and sexual assault. It applies to all students, faculty and staff.

“In conjunction with the release of the protocol, the U of W is launching an awareness campaign across campus through 2015 based on Yes Means Yes, shifting the responsibility to affirmative consent.

“The university will be delivering comprehensive training to staff and faculty to ensure that affected individuals receive needed supports,” said officials.

The SMRT includes senior staff from a variety of departments, including security, counselling, wellness and student life, campus living and student support services.

“We are committed to ensuring there is a culture of respect and safety on campus that applies to everyone,” said university president Annette Trimbee. “By establishing clear procedures for disclosing and accessing support, and through a comprehensive awareness program that will begin right with first-year students during orientation, our ultimate goal is education and the prevention of sexual misconduct on campus.”

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca