Message from the president

I'm writing to give the Concordia community an update on the review of our policies and protocols regarding sexual assault. This review, which took place over the past several months, was led by Deputy Provost Lisa Ostiguy who set up a working group of students, faculty and staff.

The goal was to ensure that we’re doing everything we can to prevent and respond to sexual assault, and to foster a healthy, safe and respectful environment for everyone in the Concordia University community. The working group examined our policies and protocols, conducted consultations with various stakeholders, and researched best practices at other North American universities.

I’d like to thank Lisa and the members of her working group for their important contributions in preparing their report and recommendations, which I’ve reviewed and accepted in its entirety. You can read their report here.

Recommendations were made in five key areas: policy; procedures and processes; education and training; communications; and evaluation related to sexual violence.

I’m pleased to say we’ve already taken action on some of the recommendations. For example, we’ve revamped our website to make it easier to find information about our Sexual Assault Resource Centre and what to do in cases of sexual assault. 

We’ve also trained 20 facilitators through our Leaders in Prevention initiative, as part of our efforts to raise awareness among students on the role they can play in preventing sexual violence through leadership, role modelling, bystander intervention and consent awareness. Plus, we’ll soon be launching our consent campaign (Ask, Listen, Respect) more broadly across campus.

Other recommendations will take longer to implement, and we remain committed to seeing most of these adopted by the end of the 2015-16 academic year. We’ll keep you posted on our progress in the months ahead.

Alan Shepard
President