Brandon University president admits behavioural contract was ‘a mistake’

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This article was published 05/04/2016 (3651 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brandon University president Gervan Fearon admitted that use of behavioural contract was "a mistake."

The statement comes after a first-year student was forced to sign the document — which has been described as nothing more than a gag order that winds up disciplining the complainant — after reporting she’d been sexually assaulted in a residence.

"We learn from errors and we go forward with improvements," said Fearon, who acknowledged repeatedly during a nearly hour-long press conference on Tuesday that it was "not appropriate" or "helpful to the survivors."

Fearon said that despite the university’s best intentions, the contract was originally meant to protect victims from harassment, but he has since condemned their use as a way to prevent survivors of sexual assault from speaking out.

"We’re listening to our students … and we are taking action," said  Fearon, to a packed room of students at Clark Hall. "Where mistakes are made, we address them."

The “behavioural contract” was revealed through a website called We Believe Survivors, created by a group of students. In addition to supplying a list of resources for assault victims, the site invites stories of sexual assaults on campus, one of which included a copy of the contract.

“We had heard that this contract may exist so we created … the online platform for students to reach out with their anonymity being upheld … and they came forward wanting to share that contract with us,” said Stefon Irvine, one of the site’s creators.

The Brandon Sun is not identifying the woman or publishing details about the incident that may identify her or the alleged offender.

The signee is required to “not discuss the event which happened … between you and the male student with anyone other than a counsellor.” It threatens expulsion or suspension from university if she breaches the agreement.

“According to this contract, survivors of violence on campus are being told what to do and who to speak to about their experiences,” said Corinne Mason, a BU gender and women’s studies professor.

“By this letter, one could not even call the sexual assault crisis line at Klinic (a community health centre that provides medical care, counselling and education) without risking suspension or expulsion.

“This letter was obviously written without much knowledge of sexual assault, and without survivors’ needs in mind.”

The day after the alleged assault, the woman complained to a BU student services employee. At first, she said, the only action the university took was to move her to a new room.

Brandon police Sgt. Bill Brown confirmed that police investigated a complaint of a sexual assault on campus in the fall of 2015. In that case, both parties were interviewed, a Crown attorney was spoken to and no charges were laid.

The Brandon Police Service does not discuss the identity of compainants of investigations.

On Monday, Tom Brophy, BU’s registrar and associate vice-president of student services and enrolment management, said that the university had only one report of sexual assault in the last six years on its campus.

The woman said she has had several mental breakdowns following the incident.

“I was drowning in paranoia. Every guy I saw that had features like (the alleged assaulter), the hair colour of that person … it was driving me nuts,” she said.

On Monday, BU administration posted a statement in the comments of a post on a Brandon University Students’ Union Facebook page, admitting that the use of behavioural contracts needs to be reviewed.

Brophy said the details in such a contract vary based on the situation for which it’s required.

Since he started at BU in September 2013, Brophy has used two behavioural contracts, one of which involved a sexual assault allegation. Both were signed.

Many Canadian universities use similar contracts, Brophy said.

Brock University, in St. Catharines, Ont., and the University of Victoria have come under criticism for attempts at silencing sexual assault victims.

“Originally these discussions were held informally between staff members and students and then students would go out and breach it again … so basically it’s a way of putting in writing a common understanding of what’s agreed to from a behavioural perspective,” Brophy said.

He also confirmed that for the six years before this fall, Brandon University had no reports of sexual assault on its campus.

But that doesn’t mean they don’t occur, said Carissa Taylor, who served as BUSU president during the 2012-13 school year.

During her term, Taylor said BU faculty came to BUSU to help spread the word among students about “specific, recurring instances of sexual assault.”

“These assaults had happened to Brandon University students, and the (faculty) members felt that we were their only form of recourse to protect students after being told by administration that they could not publicly act on disclosures,” she said in an interview Monday.

“The lack of reporting and people believing that we’re not as welcoming to reporting or creating a welcoming environment for students to report sexual assaults … that certainly would reduce the instances, which is why we take this very seriously,” Brophy said.

The original complainant said she’s considering not returning to BU next year, but that she’s happy by the efforts of her peers in creating the website.

Currently, the school’s response to sexual violence falls under the “Respectful Environment Policy,” a 23-page document last updated in August 2011.

BU’s Facebook statement said the school is in the process of forming a committee on sexual assault, violence and harassment that will review “all university policies and protocols relating to sexual assault, sexual violence, and sexual harassment.”

The committee’s recommendation will be presented to students next fall.

“The result will be a new, stand-alone formal BU policy addressing sexual assault, sexual violence and sexual harassment, including training and education that is aimed at prevention,” the statement reads.

Bill 3, which seeks to mandate similar policy across Manitoba universities, made it to first reading in the legislature last year, but wasn’t proceeded with.

“I’ve been a student for five years and every single year they’ve been working on drafting a sexual assault policy and have failed,” Irvine said.

“It’s great they are saying, ‘We want to sit down and we want lots of student representation, we want to create this,’ but that’s been the same narrative for the last five years, so what’s different now?”

Irvine and the We Believe Survivors group is organizing a visual display dubbed “Airing BU’s Dirty Laundry” on Wednesday on the BU campus.

They hope it will raise awareness about the problems that students face in reporting sexual assaults.

» tbateman@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @tbatemann