How best to combat sexual harassment on campus was the focus of a forum hosted by student support services on Sep 20.
“The college takes it very seriously, providing all students a healthy campus environment,” said Jeffrey Agate, associate director of the Student Support Services, as he was explaining the need of including Julie S. Lalonde and Kevin Vowles in a conversation about consent at the college.
Lalonde, a social activist and developer of draw-the-line.ca and Vowles, a community engagement manager for the White Ribbon, were at the college engaging students and staff on the topic.
Amanda Marquis, one of the community advisors with the college’s residence life, said that it is paramount to have consent awareness week at the college because students need to know the steps that they need to take in order to be safe.
“It is important to have these conversations,” said Marquis. “Because a lot of students haven’t had high quality sex-education. And even if they do, they do not know how to take care of their friends.”
It is known that sexual violence at colleges is happening and that it is essential to have consent events at the schools in order to raise awareness, Lalonde said.
Only five men attended the event and Lalonde has a couple of suggestions on how to increase male attendance in the future: making it mandatory and having consent in the curriculum. She also suggests bringing friends along.
Lalonde finds it demoralizing when someone in a higher positions suggests that sexual violence is “biological.”
She is referring to her experience when she was educating military personnel on sexual violence and a comment that the Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Tom Lawson made during an interview with Peter Mansbridge.
“You have a person at the highest chain of command, saying that sexual violence is ‘biologically wired’,” said Lalonde.
“You cannot be surprised that the lowest people on the hierarchy believe this kind of stuff.”
Vowles, who gets young men to be involved in combatting sexual violence, says that toxic masculinity — a perverse sense of what it is to be a man — and porn are among the prevailing reasons of sexual violence against women.
Amanda Marquis is one of the community advisors with residence life. She stresses the necessity for a consent awareness week at the college.