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Quest University drafts sexual misconduct policy

Province mandates policies be complete by May 19

Quest University’s first official sexual misconduct policy is currently being developed.

The provincial government passed legislation last year mandating that all post secondary institutions, including Quest, have a sexual misconduct policy in place by May 19.  

Previously, post secondary institutions in B.C. were not required to have policies to address sexual violence or misconduct.

A draft policy for Quest, has been created that students can contribute to in the coming weeks before it is finalized. 

 “The government required that the university have a sexual misconduct policy that deals with both prevention and response,” said Vancouver lawyer Kim Hart, who helped develop the draft policy for the school.

Hart worked with a policy advisory working group at Quest made up of students, faculty and staff to develop the draft, she said.

The draft policy outlines ways to make a report of sexual misconduct, and a commitment from the university to provide education for students about “healthy consensual sexual practices and relationships.” 

The university will also collect data of incidents of misconduct at the school. 

The outcomes of the policy will be reported to the student body annually. 

Some of the policy overlaps with Quest’s Human Rights Policy, according to Hart. 

Third-year student Devon Alexandra Francis said she likes how clearly the draft sexual misconduct policy is written, but wonders how it fits with the school’s human rights policy.

“There’s a lot of parts that say ‘refer to the human rights policy’ or ‘students have the right to file a report under this policy or the human rights policy’ so how do you decide that and what does it mean?” 

Hart said many institutions have been struggling with the overlap of issues such as sexual harassment and whether covering it in both human rights and the sexual misconduct policies is confusing or effective. 

“What we have been looking at are the different ways to approach that and that is what we would really like to hear from [students] and others about,” Hart said at a meeting of Quest students last week.  

Overall, Francis said she supports the mandate for schools to put a sexual misconduct policy in place. 

 “It is good to see Quest trying to improve their protocol,” she said, adding in her work at Quest’s gender and sexuality resource centre, The Lumen Room, she has heard complaints that the university’s administration has not been as proactive around sexual misconduct issues as they could have been. 

“Quest likes to think of itself as small and different, but we definitely need protocols and set resources for students to know what their options are, how they can be supported and what is going to happen if they do these things,” she said. 

She said she hopes that the larger Quest population gets engaged in creating the policy through the ongoing consultations. 

Consultation with students is currently underway with meetings scheduled this week and next. 

In March, Quest’s policy advisory group will review feedback and make recommendations about the policy. 

It is expected the final draft of the policy will be submitted to Quest’s Board of Governors for approval at the beginning of April. For more information on the policy go to questu.ca/sexual-misconduct-policy

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