Volunteers offer support to sexual assault victims
A student sexual assault crisis centre at Carleton University celebrated its one year anniversary Tuesday evening, but the group still has yet to be officially recognized. According to a report in the Ottawa Citizen, the university does not permit the Coalition for a Carleton Sexual Assault Centre to advertise its services and that campus security removes their posters. The group is made up of 25 volunteers who take shifts fielding calls from 8am to midnight, using their own cellphones. While the students’ union supports the group, university spokesperson Beth Gorham says “Carleton already offers a range of counselling and medical support.” Calls for the creation of a crisis centre followed a sexual assault that took place on campus in 2007, and students supported the idea in a 2008 referendum.