Students rights and safety were the hot topics at an open forum organized by the Community Safety Council on February 11, at the Life Sciences building at York’s Keele campus.
Faculty, students, security, and Toronto Police attended to speak about pressing issues regarding student life. In attendance were several different organizations York organizations, including the faculty of liberal arts and professional studies, the Centre for Human Rights, and Counseling and Disability Services.
The event included a question and discussion period among those in attendance. It didn’t take long for the conversation to heat up with students raising their concerns on a variety of issues that are impacting student life.
One key issue discussed was the response time for security on campus.
Emilijano Mance, vp operations of Founders College Student Council, raised concerns of marijuana smoking around the grounds of Founders College.
“Founders is a like family, where everyone knows everyone. To see these people you don’t know smoke, and then have suddenly the halls smells like marijuana, it looks bad on everyone that is part of Founders.”
Mance expressed he’s concerned with student safety, but also suggests pot smoking creates an unwelcoming environment for students.
Other concerns voiced at the event were student rights violation, particularly Students Against Israeli Apartheid being stripped of their club status.
Dan O’Hara, political science graduate and member of SAIA, felt student rights at York were being violated, after SAIA had their club status revoked in March 2013.
“Students are unaware of their rights I think its something that is worth bringing up,” says O’Hara.
Other students also raised concerns over the communication between students, and the administration.
Robert Castle, senior executive officer for the office of the vice-president of finance and administration, says the goal for this event was for students to hear about services and resources available. Also he hoped to have a productive conversation about student rights and responsibilities.
“We had a really good conversation, and there were people here who had issues, and I think they had a chance to air out those issues,” says Castle. “It was good to be able to hear what they had to say and for them to hear what we had to say.”
Mance also adds attending the CSC open forum was productive. “I feel like we were heard today. The CSC heard what I had to say, and now something has to be done.”
Olivia Chandler
Contributor
