For the past two years, the Coalition for a Carleton Sexual Assault Support Centre has operated a crisis hotline for students at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. The coalition does not receive financial support from the university and the hotline was operated using the cellphones of its volunteers. The group has urged the university to fund and operate a center on campus since 2007 when a student was assaulted in a campus laboratory. There were three reported sexual assaults on campus during the recent fall semester.
Now officials at Carleton University have agreed to open a support center for victims of sexual assault. The new center will be run by the university’s administration. It will offer counseling to victims, training for student volunteers, and education programs to raise awareness of sexual assault.
Ad advisory committee will be set up shortly to make recommendations on how the new center will operate. The university hopes to open the center in September.