An attempt to update an Ontario university’s sexual assault policy has led to a months-long debate between administrators, faculty and students over whether the new policy should acknowledge that a rape culture exists on campus.
If Carleton University, the institution at the center of the debate, were to include the reference to rape culture in its policy, it would be one of just a handful of institutions in Canada to do so. In the United States, such policies may be even rarer. While many colleges do define the term in their educational and prevention efforts, a review by Inside Higher Ed of sexual misconduct policies at more than 60 U.S. colleges and universities found no references to rape culture, and researchers and advocates interviewed for this article said they could not recall any colleges defining rape culture in their policies.
“The definition needs to be there,” Anna Voremberg, managing director of End Rape On Campus, said. “It helps to have parameters for the conversation you’re having on campus, so defining rape culture is important.”
The movement in recent years — in both the United States and Canada — to hold colleges more accountable for how they investigate and adjudicate allegations of sexual assault has led to many changes on campuses. Most of these changes have been on the policy front, with institutions adopting affirmative consent policies, changing the standard of proof they use in campus hearings and pledging to complete sexual assault investigations within a 60-day time frame.
But advocates have also asked for changes more symbolic in nature that, they say, would signal to victims of sexual assault that colleges are taking the matter seriously and acknowledging the broader social issues that surround sexual violence both on and off campus.
