Chairman of the Board, Bob Forder (left) and President Ann Marie Vaughn (right) call the Board of Governors meeting to order. Photo by Sarah Cooke, QNet News
By Sarah Cooke [1]
BELLEVILLE – Loyalist College’s Board of Governors has approved revisions to the college’s sexual assault and sexualized violence policy [2].
It did so at its meeting on Wednesday afternoon.
The new policy focuses on proactive and preventative measures and awareness on sexual assault and sexualized violence, according to college president Ann Marie Vaughn.
“It allows the college to ensure that the procedures are relevant and supportive and that we’re proactive in trying to prevent sexual violence in our community.”
In Jan. 2017, all Ontario colleges were asked to develop a policy on on sexual assault and sexualized violence.
In May 2019, the colleges were asked to review and reconfirm these policies by Sept. 30, 2019.
When asked what the biggest changes to the existing policy was, Vaughn replied that it was going to be on procedure.
Fred Pollitt, director of Student Life, was involved with the creation of the new policy.
QNet asked him what the procedures would be for a student who needed to come forward about an instance of sexual violence.
“There are a number of ways,” he said, “but most formal way to come forward is to fill out a VPR – Violence Prevention Report form – once the form is completed that triggers the investigation.”
He noted that it’s very important to the college that there are no reprisals against individuals reporting sexual violence.
Pollitt echoed President Vaughn’s statement that the college would be focusing heavily on preventative measures such as modules on topics like consent.
“We’ll be funnelling through the health and wellness office focusing the fall semester on what is consent and what is not consent – it’s a big part of the new policy,” he said.
Pollitt added that unique training programs for the RAs, pub staff, security and pub security staff and varsity athletes would be rolled out.
“We’re just discussing what module we’ll use and how it’s going to be delivered,” he told QNet News. “We want to be proactive and we want to prevent these things.”
The college also announced that they have launched an online mental health app called keep.meSAFE [3] which provides 24/7 online support and is offered in 60 different languages.