Open Secrets, Power and Professors:
A study on Rape Culture and Accountability at Canadian Post-Secondary Institutions
Background on the project:
In the past two years, there has been a resounding cry led by students on Canadian campuses to improve post-secondary policies and practices around campus sexual violence. As campuses begin to acknowledge the existence of rape culture in their communities, post-secondary administrators have highlighted orientation week/frosh, fraternities and sororities, and excessive drinking as areas of concern. In both academic and non-academic settings, a large volume of research has focused on sexual violence that follows a student-on-student pattern. In contrast, little attention and few resources have been invested in exploring how other power structures within academia contribute to rape culture on campuses. In the context of the #MeToo movement, public conversations around sexual violence have shifted more attention to issues of power, hierarchy, and coercion, and in turn, to the problem of sexual violence and/or harassment perpetrated by professors on campuses - an issue that deserves more attention.
A Note on Anonymity and SFCC Core Values:
The research questions for this project adhere to SFCC’s guiding principles, most importantly that this work be survivor and student driven, feminist, anti-colonial, and intersectional. Survivor-centered work draws directly from survivors’ words and analyses. We are a group led by student survivors and consent is something we value and prioritize in all of our work. For that reason, we want to explicitly state that in this report we will not be publishing anyone’s names in order to maintain the same level of anonymity and protection for everyone who participates in this project.
If you have any questions about the project you can reach us at opensecretsreport@protonmail.com
***A note - all of SFCC’s projects are funded by community groups, student groups, and individuals from across the country! We aim to keep ourselves solely accountable to the communities we aim to work with, namely students and anti-sexual violence community groups. If you would like to make a donation so we can keep doing this work, you can do so here!***
Project update
During the Summer of 2020, the SFCC team heard from hundreds of students and faculty members about their experiences with gender-based and sexualized violence on campus. Since then we have been thoughtfully analyzing all the stories and perspectives shared with us, while also trying to care for our team doing this work during a global pandemic and ongoing injustice in our communities. The work of framing stories, creating rigorous and useful data for students to use in their advocacy, and relevant tools to bring this work to life will not and cannot be rushed.
Currently, the work of analyzing and writing continues with hopes to release the Open Secrets report in late 2021 or early 2022. During the consultation for the National Action Plan to End Gender-based Violence, we were able to bring together a preliminary summary of what was shared, early analysis, and recommendations. The Preliminary Summary below is a glimpse into the Open Secrets Project. We hope this document can be of use to your projects while our work is ongoing.
We have also created book chapters based on themes and methodologies of the Open Secrets report that will be featured in two forthcoming anthologies - Contemporary Vulnerabilities and Who Belongs? Institutional Betrayal in Higher Education - which are set to be released in 2022.
Link to the Preliminary Summary
When using the Preliminary Summary, please cite as follows:
Students for Consent Culture Canada. 2021. The Open Secrets Project: A study on rape culture and accountability at Canadian postsecondary institutions. Preliminary summary and recommendations