By Alisa Howlett [1]
BELLEVILLE – Loyalist College [3] president Maureen Piercy met with the presidents of other Ontario colleges last week to draft a provincial sexual assault policy.
This meeting comes after the Toronto Star launched an investigation [4] into the lack of sexual assault policies at Canada’s post-secondary schools.
The draft policy is expected to be finalized by the end of February but, the policy is still subject to change, said Dianne Spencer, executive director of college advancement and external relations at Loyalist.
“Over the next few weeks the draft material will be provided for input from the college community, including students, student government and so on, because it’s in an important consultation stage,” she said. “But it’s certainly moved forward in a very important way.”
A proposal to have a provincial sexual assault helpline for students was discussed at the meeting, Spencer said. The helpline would give students emergency access to appropriately trained staff on a 24-hour basis, she added.
The official policy will be available to the public by the end of March.