KSA to Write New Policy on Sexual Assault, Open On-Campus Women’s Centre

Women’s Rep and VP Student Life Natasha Lopes is creating safe spaces at KPU, one step at a time

As a survivor of sexual assault, Natasha Lopes recognizes the importance of having policy to address and prevent it, while also being able to help other survivors.

As Vice President Student Life and Women’s Representative for the Kwantlen Student Association, she will soon be putting one into action.

Despite the recent uproar in response to sexual violence on post-secondary campuses—and even two cases of harassment at KPU this year—the university does not have a sexual assault, abuse, and/or harassment policy currently in effect. While KPU administration is currently working on a document of its own, Lopes is drafting a unique model exclusively for the KSA. She has been working on it since May—so far only completing the research portion of the process—and will be moving onto the consultation phase shortly.

At the end of September, she will be attending a conference at UBC that “will go more in-depth about consent campaigns, sexualized violence, what you should expect, and what you need to see in a policy that will really help students,” as described by Lopes. Her hope for attending the conference is to become as well-versed on policy-making specific to sexual assault as possible, along with learning more about the AMS Sexual Assault Support Centre, a notoriously successful model.

Also this month, she will be collecting feedback on the policy from Women Organizing Opportunities for Women, the school’s feminist club and women’s collective.

“I’m working on a couple parts that I want the policy to touch on for the next women’s representative, the next VP student life, some things that they should consider during their term,” says Lopes, who believes that perfecting the policy will take more time than her contract allows.

“I don’t want to miss anything. I really want to make sure that it’s inclusive to everybody. This policy isn’t just for women. It’s for LGBTQ folks, it’s for men, it’s for everybody, because sexual harassment and sexual assault happens to everybody,” she says.

Lopes is intent on making sure that the policy is representative of as many demographics as possible. In order to do that, she will not only be consulting WOOW but also Pride and a variety of KPU students.

This policy is only one of Lopes’ ongoing efforts as Women’s Representative and Vice President Student Life. Between the two positions, she is also proud to say that there will soon be a women’s centre in KPU Surrey’s renovated Birch building. Inside the centre, visitors will first and foremost find a safe space, but resources and programming will also become available in time.

In regards to resources, Lopes predicts that there will be a library full of material relevant to women, whether it be feminist studies and novels or other educational reads. While right now the exact plan for programming is more uncertain, she hopes to organize roundtable discussions in the new women’s centre, along with offering support for those going through personal trauma. Potentially, that support could be custom-tailored to sexual assault survivors.

A consent campaign is in the works for the future as well—another project that Lopes is spearheading.

“I want to do right by students as much as I possibly can, and I want to make sure that they have pride and they know that the KSA is there for them at all times, through the good, the bad, and the ugly,” she says.