Friday 11 January 2019

McGill, UQAM miss province's deadline to update sexual violence policies

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/mcgill-uqam-have-not-adopted-sexual-violence-policies-by-jan-1-deadline-1.4974423
New law requires colleges and universities to have mandatory training for students, support for victims.
McGill University (pictured), UQAM and a majority of the province's colleges have not adopted a new sexual violence policy as required by provincial law. (Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press)
Two Montreal universities and a majority of the province's CEGEPs have not adopted a policy on sexual violence by the Jan. 1 deadline set by the provincial government. 
Quebec's Education Ministry posted a list of complying post-secondary institutions on its website Thursday. Missing were McGill University, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) and 26 of the province's 48 CEGEPS, including Dawson College and Marianopolis College in Montreal.
The law countering sexual violence on campus was passed in December 2017, after a series of sexual assaults were reported at the student residences at Université Laval in Quebec City.
Bill 151 was debated amid several high-profile cases of alleged misconduct by men in the entertainment industry such as Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein and Just For Laughs co-founder Gilbert Rozon.
Colleges, universities, law schools and police academies were required to adopt their policies by Jan. 1, and have them in effect by Sept. 1.
By mid-November last year, no post-secondary institution had submitted their policy to the government.
McGill spokesperson Vincent Allaire said the university is still in the process of updating the sexual violence policy it adopted 2016 to conform to the new law.
The university expects to have the updated policy approved by its board of governors next month.
Hundreds of students from McGill and Concordia universities organized a walk-out together in April 2018. They said their schools are not doing enough to address complaints about alleged abusive behaviour and sexual misconduct. (CBC)
UQAM spokesperson Jenny Desrochers told Radio-Canada that the university has extended its consultation period "so that more people participate," and that a policy would be in place in the coming weeks.
Marianopolis College spokesperson Kathryn Haralambous said the CEGEP informed the ministry in November that its board of governors would not meet before the Jan. 1 deadline.
The college, which includes a reference to sexual assault in its current psychological harassment policy, expects to have its new policy approved at the board's Jan. 29 meeting, she said.
Dawson College did not immediately return a request for comment from CBC News.

Mandatory training for students

The law requires that institutions have a policy in place that covers social activities including orientation week, have mandatory training in place for students, create a complaints process and explicitly include sexual violence in their code of conduct.
Sexual violence is defined by the law as sexual assault and any unwanted sexual gesture, speech, behaviour or attitude communicated in person or through technology.
Sanctions must also be in place for anyone in breach of the policy, depending on the gravity of the action and whether the person is a repeat offender.
If an institution does not put its own policy in place, the law states the Education Ministry can create a sexual violence policy for them on the institution's dime.
Former education minister Hélène David told Radio-Canada she was "disappointed" to hear that many post-secondary institutions have not yet submitted their new policies.
"It has been 13 months since the law was adopted and it was very clear," she said.

Monday 7 January 2019

Sexual Harassment in the Academy: A Crowdsource Survey - McGill's input

Dr. Karen Kelsky who runs the well-known site "The Professor is In" created an extensively crowd-sourced spreadsheet of sexual harassment in universities and colleges (there are even some high schools mentioned on the spreadsheet).

Trigger warning. You can read the spreadsheet in it's entirety here. It makes for brutal and very uncomfortable reading, enough to make your skin crawl and it will probably never come back. There are about six  McGill entries as well and it involves MA supervisors, department chairs, tenured professors and  administrators.

There are stories about profs wanting to "receive more hospitality" meeting students at bars, going out to films and then "expecting more", pressing breasts, handing out suggestive remarks like "How badly do you want it?" (Student Life and Learning) , 60-something profs hitting on 18 year old undergrads offering to take them on vacation and "show them a good time" and how he likes "curvaceous women"  (Food Chemistry), invitations to summer homes and off-topic emails that become increasingly suggestive , how he was a friend of Sting's (Daniel Levitin), undergrad groped and kissed by a professor in his office (Communications).

Go to the top of column "F" and you'll see an arrow on the right-hand side to sort the column alphabetically. Sort it alphabetically  A--->Z and then you can scroll down to see all the McGill entries in one place that have been named as "McGill".

Given that many names of institutions, discipline and departments on the 2400+ separate entries  spreadsheet have been deliberately withheld by the posters, no doubt there are probably even more McGill entries on the database which we'll never know about.