The UBC community is invited to comment on the proposed amendments to the Sexual Misconduct Policy (SC17) and its associated Procedures (together referred to as the “Policy”). The Policy has been in place since 2017 and last underwent a review and revision in 2020. A Policy Development Committee (the “Committee”) has been convened to develop proposed amendments and has prepared a draft proposal. The proposed amendments:
- clarify when UBC will have jurisdiction to investigate under the Policy;
- modify the process for making third party and anonymous reports in order increase transparency of the process and ensure that all individuals have access to necessary and appropriate supports;
- clarify the timelines for various steps within the investigation process;
- explicitly provide investigators and the Investigations Office with powers and tools to help them conduct and conclude investigations in a timely and efficient manner;
- increase transparency around the possible disciplinary outcomes for students and employees;
- clarify what information a complainant is entitled to if a respondent is successful in an appeal; and
- improve readability.
More specifically, the proposed amendments to the Policy include:
- a new statement that UBC is committed to creating a non-judgmental and supportive environment for disclosing and reporting sexual misconduct as well as a statement recognizing that individuals may be hesitant to disclose or report sexual misconduct in various circumstances (Section 1.10 of the Policy);
- amendments to the provisions on jurisdiction to investigate under the Policy which clarify that: an investigation under the Policy is dependent on UBC having jurisdiction to investigate; UBC will not lose jurisdiction to investigate if the respondent stops being a member of the UBC Community; and UBC’s jurisdiction to investigate extends to allegations of prohibited relationships (and is not limited to allegations of “sexual misconduct”) (Sections 3.1 to 3.3 of the Policy);
- revisions to the provisions on third party and anonymous reporting which are designed to encourage third parties and those wishing to remain anonymous to consult with the Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Office before actually making an anonymous or third-party report to the Investigations Office (Sections 8 and 10 of the Policy);
- a new provision on timelines to set out the timelines for investigations in a single provision (instead of in multiple spread out provisions) and also to highlight that, for a variety of reasons, it may sometimes be necessary and appropriate for an investigator to adjust the timelines (Section 2 of the Procedures);
- an increase in the timeline for an investigator to complete their investigation from 60 days to 90 days to bring the timeline in step with other university investigations (which are 90 days long) and to make the timeline more realistic (given the complexity of investigations under this Policy) (Section 2.2.2 of the Procedures);
- an amendment to the provision on what information is provided to a respondent when a report of sexual misconduct is referred to an investigation so that the respondent receives a fulsome summary of the report rather than the report itself (Section 4.5.2 of the Procedures);
- a new provision to explicitly recognize an investigator’s power to set deadlines for completion of individual steps in the investigation so that investigators have the ability to keep their investigations moving along (Section 6.3.6 of the Procedures);
- a new provision to explicitly recognize that, if the complainant, the respondent, or both the complainant and the respondent decline to participate in an investigation, the investigator may nonetheless complete their investigation or the Director of Investigations may terminate the investigation if it is not practical for the investigation to continue (Section 6.5 of the Procedures);
- amendments to the provisions on possible disciplinary outcomes for students and employees to provide more information on what the possible range of disciplinary outcomes is (Sections 7.4 and 7.5 of the Procedures);
- a new provision to clarify what information a complainant is entitled to if a respondent is successful in an appeal (Section 9.2 of the Procedures).
For further information about the proposed amendments, please see the information package that was provided to the Board of Governors at: https://bog3.sites.olt.ubc.ca/files/2024/02/4_2024_03_Proposed-Policy-Amendment-Sexual-Misconduct-Policy-SC17.pdf
The proposed amendments are now being published and all members of UBC’s community are encouraged to provide their comments. Please submit feedback to the Office of the University Counsel at university.counsel@ubc.ca by April 30, 2024.
Feedback received by the Office of the University Counsel from the UBC community will be provided to the members of the Committee for review and consideration. The Committee does not provide individual responses to persons submitting feedback. However, the feedback received will be summarized, along with the Committee’s response, in a Community Consultation Summary that will be included in the submission materials that will be shared with the responsible Board committee and the Board.