Dalhousie student union seeking more money to fund sexual violence phone line

By The Canadian Press

HALIFAX – The student union at Dalhousie University says it will try to maintain a scaled-back sexual assault phone line after the school decided not to fund it following its pilot year.

Rhiannon Makohoniuk of the Dalhousie Student Union says it asked the school for $60,000 to run the phone line for 12 months, but was offered less than half of that.

He says the union will take it upon itself to fund a reduced phone line service from Sept. 3 to Nov. 3, between 12 p.m. and midnight seven days a week.

Makohoniuk says the service, which ran from last September to April, provides support for students who have experienced sexual violence and referrals to on- and off-campus services.

Arig al Shaibah, vice-provost for Dalhousie student affairs, says the school is providing a suite of services for students dealing with sexual assault, and was willing to invest half of the needed funding for the line.

She says that would amount to about $22,500 for an operating budget of $45,000, which the union says isn’t adequate.

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