Rape Culture Controversy

Another incident also occurred at Carleton University that has people questioning whether Carleton’s campus also has a rape culture or not. Unfortunately, Carleton does, in fact, have a rape culture on campus even with efforts to stop it. On campus in 2014 an incident occurred where students were wearing t-shirts that read, “Fuck Safe Space” even after all that happened with the University of Ottawa’s hockey team, schools alike are still not getting the message that rape culture is not something that should be celebrated, it should be unacceptable and needs to stop. There was much controversy over the t-shirts, but men and women were walking around campus and downtown Ottawa wearing these t-shirts and it was not until someone took a photo of
On campus, Carleton has what is known as Foot Patrol, a service that you call to have a man and a woman come to whatever building you are in and walk you home so that you do not have to walk alone. The service is used as a way to stop attacks on those walking alone at night by using the group system. An individual that works as a coordinator for Foot Patrol says that, the service is to avoid easy target, single individuals, walking about campus late at night because an attacker is less likely to try and take on a group then they are to take on a single individual (Anonymous, personal communication, March 28, 2017). The idea behind Foot Patrol is good, but there are flaws that need to be addressed to truly make it a flawless prevention tactic. The issue is that the advertising for the service is not very good, although there are some posters and paintings here and there, they are not enough if one does not go in the tunnels or does not see the posters that are here and there then they are unaware of the service. With the lack of advertisement, there is a lack of people using the service putting more people at risk. Another problem that the service has is that in order to get someone to walk you home you must call Foot Patrol and request for someone to come and walk you home or find a team that is on patrol. If the service had people setup in the popular buildings where students are usually in at night, like the library, then students would feel more inclined to use the service by simply walking up and asking if someone would kindly walk them home. Although there are Foot Patrol volunteers that walk about campus they may not be seen by those that need them. Also, some students may feel that it is a quick walk so they do not want to bother people by having them walk over to the building they are in just to walk them home, so they end up walking alone putting themselves at risk