The University of Victoria will hire a coordinator to handle education and prevention programs focused on sexual violence.
This comes after an interim report into sexual violence on campus was released Wednesday making recommendations and included the coordinator position.
The Director of Student Affairs at U-Vic, Emma Kinakin, told the C-FAX morning show she thinks the intern report is "a first good step." But she says there's much more to be ironed out as U-Vic creates a sexual violence policy.
For instance, Kinakin says "it's really good to see one of the first things coming out of [the report] is that the policy needs to be 'survivor focused.'" But she says 'survivor focus' could mean a number of different things. Kinakin says they want a policy that's in line with a student lead campaign called Let's Get Consensual. “It's just a statement of 'we believe you' to survivors… when you come forward and you say that this has happened to you. It's really a huge shift from what has been happening where the University has been allowed to sweep incidents of sexual violence under the rug."
Several reported sexual assault cases on campus this year have brought the issue to the forefront.