As part of its latest sexual assault policy requirements, UBC Okanagan will create two offices to provide students and staff with resources.
Last April, the B.C. government required all universities, colleges and institutions to create policies to address sexual assault.
UBCO student union president Blake Edwards sits on the sexual assault policy steering committee and says UBC and UBCO started developing a policy before the government鈥檚 mandate.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been a growing concern across the country and across North America and there has been a large push from students,鈥� said Edwards, adding the aim with the sexual assault policy is to fill in the gaps where current policies are lacking.
鈥淎 majority of the time the law is against the survivor,鈥� he said.
The sexual assault policy is expected to be approved by the board of governors on April 14.
鈥淏ecause sexual assault and sexual misconduct happens quite frequently, we do have a lot of things that we鈥檙e already doing, but we don鈥檛 have a centralized system,鈥� said Edwards. 鈥淥n our campus, a lot of it is through our security office and the person who is really spearheading it right now is not necessarily an expert in sexual assault.鈥�
Associate vice-president, student Ian Cull, said there will be two offices to serve students, faculty, and staff who have experienced sexual misconduct.
鈥淭he first office will be a support services centre and it will provide support for people who have experienced sexual assault and that will encompass a variety of services (such as acting) as a liaison for other campus services like counselling, security, and housing. The second office is an investigation office responsible for investigating.鈥�
Currently, sexual assaults fall under the non-academic misconduct policy, which has received criticism for being not survivor and trauma informed.
鈥淚t was written for things like theft and vandalism,鈥� said Cull.
The university aims to have the offices up and running in September.
From 2014 to 2016 the number of reports of sexual assaults on the UBCO campus were relatively few to both the university and the RCMP. Last year the university received three complaints while RCMP received one.
However Cull said it鈥檚 hard to know the number of sexual assaults that actually take place as people may report them in different places or not report them at all.
April is sexual assault awareness month.
