The AMS Sexual Assault Support Centre (SASC) stands in solidarity with Jane Doe and with the many survivors of sexual violence at universities, in our communities, and around the world.
Over the past several days, the SASC has heard from many members of our community who have been directly impacted by the media coverage and public discussion surrounding what is happening at Cornell. For many survivors, this story may reflect aspects of their own experiences or bring forward painful and difficult memories of sexual violence experienced by themselves or someone they love. These responses are not incidental. The recent attention surrounding Cornell has brought renewed focus to the prevalence and devastating impact of sexual violence on university and college campuses. But this cannot be treated as an isolated incident or as a problem belonging to another institution.
This moment demands that we confront the rape culture that continues to be sustained, perpetrated, and protected within specific campus groups and spaces—and the institutional failures that allow it to persist. Sexual violence is enabled when harmful behaviour is normalized, when survivors are disbelieved or silenced, when perpetrators are protected, and when institutions fail to take meaningful responsibility for prevention, response, and accountability.
We must be clear: Stories like that of Cornell’s Jane Doe happen here at UBC. We work with Jane Doe every day. Survivors within our own community continue to experience sexual violence, harassment, and the devastating consequences of institutional inaction. The question cannot simply be whether these incidents are being addressed after they occur. We must ask why institutions continue to allow known risks to student safety to persist, and why survivors are so often left to bear the burden of addressing them.
The SASC believes that the current response at UBC to sexual violence is not sufficient. Prevention requires more than statements of support on Instagram. Accountability requires more than responding once harm has occurred. Meaningful change requires institutions, campus groups, and individuals to confront the cultures and structures that enable sexual violence and to take responsibility for creating safer communities.
Survivors deserve meaningful accountability—not silence, deference of responsibility, or institutional protection of those who cause harm. We must do more than acknowledge sexual violence when it becomes a headline. We must confront it wherever our culture enables it to consistently occur, including here at UBC.
The SASC is always there for you and any survivor of sexualized violence. SASC services are fully confidential and student-centered, and hours of operations run 7 days a week between 9am and 8pm on weekdays and 11am and 7pm on weekends and holidays.
Students and community can connect with our team in a variety of ways, including dropping by our office in the Nest:
