A month after Concordia University released a report investigating allegations of sexual harassment and mistreatment in one of its departments students protested outside the school on Friday to call on officials to do more to combat sexual violence.

“They’re really not taking this seriously and treating this with the gravity that it deserves because this is people’s lives,” said Concordia Student Union General Coordinator candidate Margot Berner.

In January, 2018 several former Concordia students came forward with allegations of sexual misconduct by professors within the school’s creative writing program. Two professors were suspended but were later cleared of any wrongdoing, leading several of the accusers to complain about a lack of transparency in the investigation’s progress.

The report, which was compiled by a former Justice of the Quebec Court of Appeal and two psychologists, said students and faculty complained of an “unhealthy” environment within the English department, with some faculty members committing real or perceived acts of sexual violence, favouritism and conflicts of interest. It also found students held mistrust towards the school’s handling of complaints.

The protesting students called on Concordia to update its sexual violence policy to be more concise and to simplify its complaint process.

“The current policy is not stand alone, because it tells you to go to other policies to find out what the next steps are,” said Berner. “So it connects them together and these other policies are hundreds of pages of collective agreements.”

Lisa Ostiguy, the special advisor to the provost on Campus Life, said the school plans to make their sexual violence policy stand alone.

Student Hannah Jamet-Lange said coming forward with allegations can be difficult enough without dealing with a lot of red tape.

“If you’re a student who has gone through trauma, you probably are not in a headspace where you have the energy to look through all these documents, to read a very bureaucratic language,” she said.

The students also said they want to see Concordia lobby the provincial government to change privacy laws to ensure more transparent investigations into allegations.

Ostiguy must abide by the law when conducting reviews.

“We can tell people when an investigation is finished and a process is finished but we’re not allowed to tell anyone if there’s any sanctions or disciplinary actions,” she said. “I’ll be looking at starting to meet with outgoing and incoming student leaders to talk about how we might reset the conversation and make sure students feel heard.”