Student union naming members to sexual violence task force
Concordia University’s administration announced Friday that it will relent on an earlier decision and allow the Concordia Student Union to select the two undergraduate students who will participate in its task force on sexual violence.
On Jan. 10, Concordia announced it would set up a Task Force on Sexual Misconduct and Sexual Violence in response to recent allegations of misconduct against professors in the university’s Creative Writing program. The 12-member task force has a mandate to consult students, faculty and staff on the university’s policies and procedures to prevent and respond to sexual violence and misconduct and issue a report this spring.
The Concordia Student Union (CSU) held a news conference Thursday to draw attention to its concerns that the task force might be ineffective if it’s overly controlled by the administration.
“We are very happy to see the university has handed this important task (of choosing student participants) off to the student union, as it should have been from the start,” said Leyla Sutherland, the CSU’s student life co-ordinator.
“The reason we asked for this is that it’s important that the administration not have control over every member of the task force.”
The CSU wants students to be selected by their peers because they are best for the job, not by an administration that might be tempted to choose students “who may be easier to work with or less political” than the CSU would choose, she said.
“We just want to make sure we’re doing everything we can to protect the integrity of the student voice on this important task force.”
She said the CSU is still hoping the university will accede to the student union’s two other requests; that students named to the task force not be required to be in good academic standing, and that two more undergraduate students be added so that all four undergraduate faculties are represented.
“We take issue with the ‘good academic standing ’ requirement because (it may result in the exclusion of ) many survivors of sexual violence whose grades are often affected by trauma,” Sutherland said.
Administration spokesperson Mary-Jo Barr said that requirement, which is common to all university committees and bodies, is there to ensure that students in precarious academic situations prioritize their studies.
She added that all students will have the opportunity to share their views with the task force.
The task force includes representatives of the faculty, administration, staff, graduate and undergraduate students and an outside expert.
Barr said a 12-member committee is “already a large one to organize, and it would be challenging for a larger group to fulfil the mandate in an efficient and timely fashion. For this reason the current size of the task force will be maintained.”