In 2019, an independent review was conducted of StFX’s sexual violence policy and was re-examined in 2023. The Watershed Report, as it is commonly known, gave 32 recommendations that StFX should consider implementing to support survivors and reduce the culture that perpetuates sexual violence. The Report was broken down into three areas that have the largest impacts on the culture of sexual violence on this campus: Athletics, Residence, and the Sexual Violence Policy itself.
In writing this article, I interviewed several football players and current and former Community Advisors. They all wished to remain anonymous. All of the names used are fake.
Community Advisors have been hired by the university to be the frontline support for first-year students. They are upper year students who live in residence and act as mentors, therapists, and emergency responders. Think back on your own first year – I’m willing to bet that you had at least one major event happen that has continued to impact your time at StFX. It happens to everyone, but most first years are particularly vulnerable compared to the rest of the student body. This is their first time living away from home, their first time having complete freedom. It doesn’t always lead to the best decisions, but it’s an important milestone and experience, which is why CAs are so important. CAs are the people who are there for students, who help you through your first year. You may not have known your CAs very well or you may have made a lasting relationship with them, but either way, they were there to offer help and support.
Multiple recommendations in the Watershed Report focused on how more resources should be put in place to support CAs – including increasing staff and mental health supports. While these are positive and necessary changes, the Watershed Report is working under the assumption that every CA takes the position and performs it to the best of their ability and with the best intentions. This doesn’t always hold true.
There may be people remembering stories of CAs who were not the positive influences they should have been. This article does not aim to circulate more gossip or target anyone in particular – but rather, I wish to highlight the fact that CA’s and their influence can be overlooked when discussing who on campus perpetrates sexual violence.
Athletes don’t have the best reputation on this campus when it comes to sexual violence. There are plenty of stories – true or rumoured – that feature the sports teams. Even the Watershed Report pointed out that athletes are often “put on a pedestal” and have significant “social capital” which translates to a level of authority over other students. Athletes are prominent figures at StFX, meaning that if they do something wrong, everyone will know about it by the end of the week. While CA’s are not quite as prominent as the athletes, they are the largest group of student leaders on campus. Where StFX athletes have social power and influence, CA’s have legitimate authority over students.
While the athletes and the athletics department at StFX are far from perfect, sexual violence is taken very seriously. There is a zero-tolerance policy for athletes, which extends beyond sexual violence, but it is a hard line. “In training camp, we have meetings with the athletic directors and coaches, and they go through all the policies. They tell us about the drug policy, about hazing, and most importantly, they harp on sexualized violence towards women and anyone on campus. They tell us how there’s a zero-tolerance policy and if there’s any reports of any athlete doing anything bad to anyone on campus, they will be off the team and there will be severe repercussions that will be dealt to them,” explained Jordan, a current member of the football team.
“There’s a specific kind of focus on [sexualized violence] when they talk about the severity. They definitely want to get that point across, because we have [those meetings] and then we do further training, like Waves of Change, twice a year. You definitely can tell that they care,” added Shayne, who is also a current football player.
This zero-tolerance policy extends beyond sexual violence. “Anything that can be seen as hurting someone else, off the field. Anything that can be seen as having a negative impact on someone else will be met with discipline,” Jordan said. While it isn’t a perfect solution, the players are held accountable and the standards for their behaviour are clearly laid out. They’re aware that their actions reflect not only on them, but their entire team, the athletics department, and the university.
I’m not praising the athletics department or saying that athletes can’t cause harm. They can, they do, and they have. However, the assumption that a player is protected because they are an athlete isn’t always true. I’m also not saying that this has always been the case. What I am saying is that StFX Athletics has standards they hold their players to and a policy in place to ensure that there are consequences when those expectations are not met.
StFX’s Department of Residence Life has no such policy on student employees. The Watershed Report recommended that StFX move away from having a zero-tolerance policy as, “the problem with expressing this valid commitment through a ‘zero tolerance’ statement is that the aspirational statement is impossible for the University to fulfill” as stated on page 50 of the Watershed Report. This means that currently, there is no additional policy on sexual violence for Residence Life staff. An interesting fact, when Residence Life deals with sexual violence internally, specifically in cases of allegations against employees.
“I feel that Residence Life operates in a similar way that Athletics does, where there is a very strong image that they want to portray. And very similar to Athletics when allegations come out, they understand that one allegation will represent an entire team. Or an entire group of players. I feel like it's very similar in Residence Life. Very internal and within the department, very, like, they'll let you know that these are your resources if you do want to go outside to the department, but in the same way, very much discourage you from actually seeking those resources if you do need them,” Megan told me, when I asked about what happens when there is an investigation that involves a CA.
“I think more often you hear of [CAs] being placed on probation, on paper or on a ‘leave’, but they stay exactly where they are. Most situations they stay in their room, they stay in the building, and they're not working, but they're still there,” explained Diane, another former CA who worked in Residence Life for two years.
Which begs the question: why is there no policy for Residence Life staff, specifically CAs? If the expectations and standards are so clearly laid out by the athletics department, what is stopping Residence Life from doing the same?
CAs are also not given clear guidelines for what boundaries they should have with their residents, beyond that it is “discouraged” from having romantic or sexual relationships with them. “I was always told that [relationships between CA’s and residents] were ‘frowned upon’, but there was never anything put in place in terms of a solid rule,” said Megan, a former CA who worked in Residence Life for almost three years. “It’s mostly left up to the individual teams, and even then, they’re not followed. Someone on one of the teams last year tried to veto the true love clause, but a situation still happened. Because it's not actually binding or anything like that,” Christine, a current CA, explained. The true love clause Christine is referring to is a clause that is typically placed in unofficial team agreements that says you can date a resident if it’s “true love”.
“I think that a lot of times in training, they just talk about like a gray area, you know? Programming is easy to say, you have to run however many programs, you have to do this number of shifts, but for a gray area, it's very much just your prerogative. I don't want to say how much you care, but it’s how much you want to take on and how much you have the capacity to take on,” added Megan, talking about boundaries with residents in general.
All of the CAs that I spoke to agreed that there is a clear power dynamic, even if the resident isn’t always aware of it. Christine informed me that, “I think there's also a lot of residents who don't see that position of power. There's a lot of residents right now who will come and chat with me and tell me, ‘You're really chill, I don't feel like you have that position of power over me. I know that you're there if I ever need to talk to you, but I don't feel like there's a power imbalance’. And I'm glad [the residents] don't think that, but I do. And that is something, as a CA, to be aware of, that just because they don't see it, doesn't mean that it's not there.”
“As much as people hate to say it, especially in the first-year buildings, there is not a big difference between a high schooler and a first-year university student. It's a big transition period and students are already vulnerable. So, when we put people that are untrustworthy in a position of power and keep them there, when they have proven that they can't safely be in that position of power, or are there for the wrong reasons, it's extremely damaging. To an already vulnerable demographic,” commented Tracie, a former CA who worked in Residence Life for three years.
In contrast, athletes are afraid of failing to meet the expectations placed on them because they know there will be consequences if they do. There are clear policies for them, and if they break the rules, they face being suspended or kicked off their team. “From what I know, if an accusation reaches the coaches, there will immediate effects. Either there is a suspension while the investigation happens, or you’re just kicked off. And not even suspended, it's an indefinite suspension,” Jordan explained.
“What would happen is once the person gets suspended, they probably wouldn’t want to come back to the team where everyone knows that they probably did something horrible. Either way, you’re basically kicked off the team,” Shayne said about his experience on the football team so far.
This focal point on Athletics helps point out that although the sports teams are usually brought up and criticized when it comes to sexual violence on campus, there are other groups of students in positions of power who don’t have the same checks and balances that the sports teams do.
Ideally, there should be a zero-tolerance policy for sexual violence within Residence Life. But if that is unrealistic, there should be some sort of policy, standards, or stricter expectations placed on CAs. “I think that, especially, too, if it's outlined more clearly, then if there is a breach, then we can fall back on the conduct book and it's not a gray area anymore. It can be ‘you can do this’, ‘you cannot do this’. Instead of using words like ‘frowned upon’. There should be no gray area, there should be no ‘frowned upon’,” answered Megan when I asked for her thoughts on whether Residence Life should have some sort of policy in place.
“[Residence Life] only added the sections on ‘what to do if there’s a hurricane’, after the hurricane happened. So, what are they waiting for? Are they waiting for a massive situation to blow up so that they can go, ‘Oh, I guess we'll add a policy for sexual violence’? Is [Residence Life] waiting for something to make it out from under the rug that they've swept it under? If it’s in the handbook, then you can refer back to that handbook when something happens. Or put it in training, or both. [Residence Life] should set those standards of what you can and cannot do. And a lot of the time, not having those standards is used as an excuse when things go wrong,” says Tracie about a potential policy.
Although Community Advisors aren’t the public figures that athletes are, they are in a position of power where they can do a lot of harm or a lot of good. A sexual violence policy to hold CAs accountable could reduce the risk of some of that harm. Either way, Residence Life lacking clear guidelines or a sexual violence policy seems like a gap that the Watershed Report didn’t recognize.
