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Saint Mary’s University addresses sexual culture on campus, but issue looms on a larger scale

Saint Mary’s University addresses sexual culture on campus, but issue looms on a larger scale

A Nova Scotia university shamed into addressing complaints of sexism after students were caught performing a chant that promoted rape has released an expansive list of recommended changes that it claims will put it at the forefront of a movement away from sexualized culture.

Saint Mary's University vowed to bring about sweeping changes on campus in September after controversial a video of students chanting during an orientation week event appeared online.

The poem, which spelled out the school's name, included the line:

Y is for your sister […] U is for underage, N is for no consent […] Saint Mary’s boys we like them young.

[ Related: Saint Mary's pro-rape chant sparks 20 new recommendations ]

The chant is said to have been a longstanding tradition, but perhaps caught wider attention this year due to the case of Rehtaeh Parsons, a Nova Scotia teen who committed suicide after having what she said was drunk, non-consensual sex with more than one boy.

Wayne MacKay, the former chair of Nova Scotia's Task Force on Bullying and Cyberbullying, was asked to lead a Saint Mary’s sexual violence taskforce. On Wednesday, that committee announced its findings.

MacKay said in the report's preface that sexualized culture was not unique to Saint Mary's or university campuses in general. In fact, a societal change would be necessary to truly address the issue.

"This is not to excuse inappropriate behaviour on university campuses. Indeed a university should be a model of a more caring and respectful society. The high prevalence of sexualized violence on university campuses and schools is not because these are aberrations from the larger society but rather because they are part of it," MacKay wrote.

With their dedication to making changes to campus culture, he said, Saint Mary's was taking a lead role in that evolution.

"To the extent that the rape chant was a kind of crisis for Saint Mary’s University and cast a shadow over the institution, it has also created an opportunity for Saint Mary’s University to become a leader in responding to this problem and set an example of how to address the significant problem of sexualized violence on campus," MacKay said.

The report itself sweeps over 110 pages and makes 20 recommendations on how the campus should adapt and change.

Key recommendations include:

  • Developing a university code of conduct that outlines "behavioural norms" for everyone on campus.

  • Reclaiming orientation week in order to set the right tone for new and returning students.

  • Establish a "sexual violence response team" to act as first responders.

  • Strengthen the school’s disciplinary and complaint investigation process to hold perpetrators more accountable.

  • Formalize the university's relationship with student associations.

[ More Brew: Will recommendations made in the Ashley Smith homicide inquiry be followed? ]

Previously, two student politicians resigned from their positions after the video was made public. The school also sent 80 student leaders to sensitivity training. The report, however, does not assign blame for the specific incident or the wider issue of sexual violence on campus.

One wonders exactly how much change will come from the recommendations, all of which Saint Mary's leadership has already promised to execute. The committee chair himself confessed that only so much could be improved through local action. Instead, he blamed society's increasing reliance on technology and social media of leading to a "deterioration of the sense of community." He blamed the media's sexualization of women and a general deterioration in social ethos.

Will Saint Mary's stronger relationship with student unions, stricter rules and expectations, and strengthened dedication to communication really help turn a corner? Certainly not on society as a whole, not directly, and only optimistically on the campus itself.

But if society is in as bad a state as this report suggests, then it will take countless small acts of optimism to change its course. And there's better place to start than a university campus.

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