List of demands of administration to be compiled and presented at Thursday’s open forum
Following a series of on-campus crimes last week, students took to Facebook to organize a rally aimed at improving security at York.
Over 1,250 students have confirmed they will be attending Wednesday’s ‘Protest for more safety at York’ event in Vari Hall from 12:45 p.m. to 2 p.m., hosted by the administrators of the YorkU Memes Facebook page and Students for York.
According to Students for York vice-chair Kasra Amidi-Rad, one of the event’s organizers, the rally will focus on gathering student suggestions for improving security on campus in light of the concern that recent sexual assaults and robberies have instilled in many students.
These suggestions will be presented to York administration at Thursday’s open forum, where senior administration and Toronto Police services will be present, and where the floor will be open for student input.
The organizers of the protest are finalizing their list of demands of the administration after the protest, and many students are listing suggestions on the Facebook page, according to Amidi-Rad.
The ideas include increasing the number of security guards on campus, a permanent police presence, key card access to every building after a certain time similar to buildings at Ryerson, and increasing personnel to man camera surveillance viewing stations 24 hours a day.
Navid Khan, an administrator for YorkU Memes and creator of the event page, says what inspired him to take action was a number of students on the page suggesting a student gathering.
The purpose of the rally is to bring up questions and concerns of the student body as a whole with regards to safety.
“We want everyone’s input on this, not just a select few presidents of this club and that club. We want everyone to have their say,” he says.
Khan says he was moved to organize the rally after hearing that a friend of a friend was assaulted with a metal pipe last Friday.
“Having someone you know get hit personally is different. That’s when you have to take a stand because you think, ‘This could be me next,’” he says.
Despite an overall enthusiasm for pushing for improvements to security on campus, not all students are in agreement on what the final demands presented to York administration should be.
Adham Halabi, a third-year business and finance student, says he will be attending the rally but only as an observer. On the Facebook event page, Halabi says the location of the Keele campus, and its openness to the public at large, is the bigger problem.
“Unless they build a fortress around it and maybe a moat with some alligators swimming in it, it won’t stop outsiders from getting in,” he writes.
Halabi goes on to write, “Crime happens in less than a minute, so extra security guards won’t do much because they can’t respond that fast. Maybe some surveillance could be installed so security could respond to threats and violence, but by then the damage would already have been done.”
Traian Olinescu, a fourth-year criminology student, says while open dialogue is crucial to finding solutions, he’s afraid the rally will result in a mass panic with no realistic solutions being proposed. He also disagrees with some of the ideas suggested by other students on the event page.
“There have been a couple of incidents on campus, and now you want access cards for buildings? I am sorry, but I like my university the way it is!” he writes.
York administration is aware that this rally is occurring and they have allowed the protest to take place so long as it is peaceful and does not disturb classes in the area.
“Freedom of expression is one of York University’s guiding principles,” says Joanne Rider of York media. “Members of the York community have the right to express their views, provided they do so within the law and in a peaceful and non-threatening manner.”
Tamara Khandaker, Copy Editor
