You can’t write the rules and enforce them
Participant 1: [Laughs] The sexual violence response team creates the policy, and the sexual violence response team also happens to be the people that enforce the policy. Um, so, it’s bad- you can’t write the rules and then enforce them. And it also, like, there’s no student perspective on the sexual violence response team, it’s all administration, staff and employees of the university and someone from health services as well. So it’s really, like, admin heavy and there’s no student voice in it.[...]
Participant 2: Well, I mean, I would think if you’re trying to develop something for students, surely you would have some student representation [laughs]. I mean, there are the mechanisms, there’s a student division on senate, there’s a student cou [participant most likely meant council], like, there’s no lack of people to draw on.
Recommendations
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Promote SANE nurses as supporters for victims/survivors. Ideally, this would happen in the context of a formal partnership with SANE nurses, which includes 24/7 availability of SANE nurse services on campus.
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Offer fictionalized but representative examples of how disclosures and reports to the university have been handled.
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Outline the policy review process and timeline within the policy and educational materials.
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Engage with student leaders from diverse cultural backgrounds and genders when revising policy content and associated services. Ensure the concerns raised by these students are foregrounded in policy development and application.