08 May UPEI Student Union Releases Publication on Campus Sexual Violence along with Student Organizations Across Canada
The UPEI Student Union has partnered with Student Organizations from all across Canada to release a joint publication on campus sexual violence, entitled Shared Perspectives: A Joint Publication on Campus Sexual Violence Prevention and Response.
The 2017-2018 UPEISU Vice President Academic and External Taya Nabuurs contributed to this publication, in which she underlined the absence of a campus sexual violence legislation in Prince Edward Island. In May 2017, the UPEI Sexual Violence Task Force was established. Staff, faculty members, and students in this task force investigated campus sexual violence along with community leaders, and reviewed UPEI’s stand alone Sexual Violence Policy draft.
Along with the UPEISU, this publication includes submissions from the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA), Alliance of BC Students (ABCS), the College Student Alliance (CSA), the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA), Union étudiante du Québec (UEQ), New Brunswick Student Alliance (NBSA), and Students Nova Scotia (StudentsNS).
The publication identifies the challenges and opportunities that exist in individual provinces, but also looks past provincial borders in order to highlight sexual violence as a national problem that all jurisdictions must work to solve. Shared Perspectives provides an understanding of the issues students experience on campuses across our country, and emphasizes how we must work together at all levels to end sexual violence on post-secondary campuses across Canada.
Sexual violence is a systemic problem that affects us all, but students know that sexual violence is a gendered crime, in which women are far more likely to be victimized. Women with disabilities, Indigenous women, LGBTQ+ students, and women of marginalized groups, are at especially high risk of experiencing such crimes. The partners in this publication believe no one should ever be faced with sexual violence, especially when pursuing an education, yet at this time 1 in 5 female students will experience sexual violence during their post-secondary studies. Additionally, we know that of all the sexual assaults that take place on post-secondary campuses during the academic year, roughly two-thirds occur within the first 8 weeks of school. Students are a vulnerable group, and this publication illustrates how essential partnership is.
Shared Perspectives: A Joint Publication on Campus Sexual Violence Prevention and Response is the first joint report from all 8 partners, representing over 570,000 students.