Wednesday, December 14, 2022
6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Via ZOOM
Guest Coaches:
Roderic Southwell, HBBA, BA, Cert in ADR, Student Conduct Officer
Rachel Morris-Ohm, MSW, RSW, Director, Personal Support and Intervention
CONTENT WARNING: This presentation and role play will have descriptions of sexual violence. This topic may be difficult for some, and we encourage you to care for yourself and well-being before registering or attending.
For many of us who have gone on to post-secondary education, we often look back on our years at university or college as being memorable for the positives. Social connections are built that often last the rest of our lives. Professional skills are learned. And we broaden our horizons. But not all experiences for all people are positive, and these institutions are not immune from conflict. Universities and colleges reflect the outside world, and that includes, unfortunately, incidents of sexual violence.
Most such institutions have formal policies and procedures for handling complaints of sexual violence. These often include dispute resolution processes. Our guest coaches, Roderic Southwell and Rachel Morris-Ohm, both of whom work at Seneca College, will share their knowledge and expertise in that area with us, providing a brief overview of the dispute resolution process at college relating to the Student Code of Conduct and Sexual Violence Policy. They will also coach a role-play that will offer practice opportunities on how to facilitate students through an informal resolution regarding an incident of sexual violence. They will also share best practices for holding trauma-informed meetings.
This session will be dealing with subject-matter which may be triggering for some, so we encourage appropriate self-care and self-reflection before registering or attending. The information that we will be learning, however, will no doubt be helpful for all dispute resolution practitioners, and will involve important transferable skills that apply even beyond the college setting.
The role-play will involve the roles of (a) a Survivor of the incident – i.e., the complainant, (b) the Respondent to the complaint, (c) an Interviewer who will interview both the complainant and respondent, and (d) a Note Taker, who will quietly take notes and be available if the interviewer asks for missing information or needs assistance.
Roderic Southwell, HBBA, BA. Cert in ADR, Student Conduct Officer
Roderic is a Student Conduct Officer at Seneca College. He first studied at Trent University where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, and an Honours Bachelor of Business Administration, and then continued for an Alternative Dispute Resolution certificate at York University. At the start of his ADR journey, he volunteered at the Family Mediation Resource Centre and has appeared as a guest on the Mediation Station radio show. Outside of work, he plays softball, soccer, and tennis. Despite being an avid sports enthusiast, he does not watch professional sports.
Rachel Morris-Ohm, MSW, RSW, Director, Personal Support and Intervention
Ms. Morris-Ohm holds an M.S.W, is certified in Alternative Conflict Resolution and most recently became a registered psychotherapist. With over 20 years’ experience in the non-profit and post-secondary sectors, she has focused largely in restorative justice programming, and community and mental health services. For the past 12 years, Ms. Morris-Ohm has been working at Seneca and currently oversees Personal Counselling Services, the Student Conduct Office and chairs the Sexual Violence Task Force. Although truthfully, she may be best known at the college for being able to eat her weight in desserts.