This week, a summary of the Ontario government’s Student Voices on Sexual Violence survey was released.
Between February 16 and April 2, 2018, 160,000 college and university students filled out the survey.
The survey covered five broad topics, including perceptions of consent, the behaviour of bystanders, sexual violence experiences, knowledge of supports and reporting procedures and satisfaction with institutional responses.
Munro Watters is the Queen’s University Alma Mater Society vice-president, and also sits on the University’s Sexual Violence Prevention Group.
“I think that having this kind of survey, so we don’t base it solely on reporting data, is really valuable,” Watters said.
Of the just over 7,000 Queen’s students that participated in the survey, 71.4 per cent of them reported experiencing sexual harassment. Just under 7,000 students, meanwhile, reported situations where there was sexual violence or the potential for sexual violence.
Of those incidents, reportedly, there was a witness at 85.8 per cent of them. And when a witness was present, they intervened 71.7 per cent of the time.
Watters says information like that is concerning, but in the area of intervention, it looks more positive.
“Hopefully this means that educational efforts that have been taken by the AMS, as well as the university when it comes to bystander intervention, are seemingly having a positive effect,” Watters said.
Queen’s University president Daniel Woolf issued a statement the same day the survey information was released, highlighting some of the existing and ongoing work on the issue taking place at the university.
“Queen’s is also currently reviewing and revising its Policy on Sexual Violence Involving Queen’s University Students,” Woolf said.
That policy was first put in place at Queen’s in 2016 and the revised policy is expected to be in place by 2019.
With the government currently in consultation with the privacy commissioner before a full set of survey results is released, Watters says she’s looking forward to more information.
An example where currently more clarity is needed, she says, in the category of sexual harassment.
“One of the questions was, ‘Have you ever been talked down to or spoken inappropriately to by virtue of your gender?’, but another question in that category was, ‘Have you ever been touched inappropriately?” Watters said.
The summary report lumps all that data together. Further breaking down that information, however, will allow for better responses, Watters says.
“They’re very different in terms of not only the impact, but also the approach that needs to be taken in order to address that stuff.”
Watters hopes the process with the privacy commissioner is thorough as but quick as possible, because the survey results become less relevant as time passes.
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