The University of Windsor hopes to have a draft of its new sexual assault policy finished by the spring.
Work on the policy, part of a larger program aimed at prevention, education, enforcement and care for the individuals involved, started mid-fall of 2014 and will cover students, staff and faculty at the university.
Sexual assault or rape culture has become a hot topic on campuses across North America, but Dean of Students Clayton Smith says it's an issue the university has been trying to tackle for years. "About four years ago, we developed something called the Bystander Initiative here. It's a program that took a look at developing a little more research in the area so that we would know what was happening on our campus."
While Lakehead University may be alone in Ontario in having a policy right now, Smith expects a lot of other schools to come out with policies soon. "The Council of Ontario Universities, in fact, has encouraged each of the universities to develop a sexual assault policy."
As for why university campuses are only constructing policies now, Smith admits there was a sense it just wasn't a big problem. "When you look at the data, we'll show four to five complaints will come forward in a given year. So, the sense was well, how big a problem really is this?" he says. "But as we dug into it we began to realize it's really much more widespread than that."
