Consent courses, training about campus sexual violence exist, but students and experts say more is needed

It's quieter this week on the Western University campus in the aftermath of four formal sexual assault complaints during the school's September orientation week, a dizzying storm of allegations shared on social media followed by a massive walkout during which thousands of students decried sexual violence, misogyny and rape culture on campus.

"It's definitely been a tough couple of weeks," said student leader Eunice Oladejo.

Still, the recent political science graduate, who is also vice-president of external affairs of Western's University Students' Council, is pushing to keep the difficult conversation going at her London, Ont., school and beyond.

"This isn't just something that is happening on Western's campus, it's something that's happening on a lot of different campuses."

Western has launched a task force on sexual violence and new measures such as a mandatory training course for students and hiring more security guards. What happened has also revived talk elsewhere about the ongoing problem of sexual violence on post-secondary campuses and what institutions are doing to educate students, faculty and staff about the issue.

Post-secondary policies about campus sexual violence vary across provinces and individual schools. While some institutions have mandatory courses about consent for staff and students, others host voluntary workshops and events. From campus to campus, resources devoted to sexual violence can range from multi-person teams amplified by student volunteers to single-person operations. 

According to a 2020 Statistics Canada report, 71 per cent of students witnessed or experienced unwanted sexualized behaviours in the previous year. That number includes on-campus and off-campus situations that involved students or others associated with the school.