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OPINION
York U or York euphemism? University oversanitizes tragedy at its own peril
DOUGLAS JUDSON
Contributor
“I go to Osgoode, not York.” This reflexive
clarification is a matter of pride for my classmates
at York University’s storied law school. The urge
to distance our degrees from the university brand
is visceral. Last week, it was once again easy to
see why.
Late Thursday evening, a young woman was
shot in the Student Centre. A bystander was
injured by shrapnel. Canada’s third largest university went into lockdown. And an armed suspect remains at large.
Contrast these facts with the carefully wordsmithed statement of the university president, and
you wouldn’t be alone in wondering if they were
describing the same scenario. President Mamdouh Shoukri writes, “I would like to express my
thoughts and concerns for our two students who
were injured when a firearm was discharged on
the evening of March 6th on our Keele campus.”
The full text of the statement is accessible
through a bland hyperlink on the university’s
website entitled “Presidential statement about the
incident on campus”. It was issued by email to
the York community Friday morning, after many
students, faculty, and staff, had already arrived at
school, unaware of the horror that had transpired
the night before.
An incident? A firearm was discharged? The
level of downplay is galling. An individual brandished a lethal weapon in our school and shot
a bullet into someone’s body. The lives of our
friends, colleagues, and mentors were put at risk
in a manner reminiscent of far too many chilling
events in recent history. The situation calls for
more than mere ‘thoughts and concerns’. It calls
for proactive condemnation and action.
York’s sanitized statement pales in comparison to the Twitter photos of emergency vehicles,
the stretchers being loaded into ambulances, or
the YouTube video that offered a bird’s eye view
of paramedics attending to a screaming victim
on the floor of a chaotic food court. The same
place where my classmates and I hastily grabbed
dinner only a few hours earlier, and where I often
THUMBS UP to. . .
the sweet success of the
Candyland Informal.
The Obiter Dicta
see my own young students working with their
friends, is now a crime scene.
Unfortunately, such passive, guarded, and
impersonal messaging seems to be part and
parcel of the greater scheme of York’s reputation
defense mode. Time and time again, we have seen
the university take this approach, much like it did
by hand delivering letters to dormitory residents
in the wake of other tragedies, for example. Some
suggest that this is to avoid the bad news echo
effect of email and the internet.
Likewise, on Thursday, no emergency email
or text message broadcast was issued, despite
the impossibility of administration knowing that
the ‘discharge’ would be an isolated occurrence.
Emergency messages were emblazoned across
campus video screens advising to «stay in place
and shelter inside». But ironically, you would
need to be in a public area to see this warning.
If York’s media selection and message content
are crafted to constrain reputation damage, it isn’t
working. As many scandal-plagued organizations
or public figures know, taking ownership for negative issues is a first step in showing leadership
to eradicating them, making change, and rallying a community. Sweeping them under the rug
with anodyne language doesn’t solve the problem.
Worse, it invites public scorn, raises eyebrows,
and is deeply distressing to those affected. Thursday’s impact on our collective sense of personal
security is poignant and warrants a more timely,
honest, and active response.
Coincidentally, President Shoukri’s counterparts have taken proactive positions on their
own campus challenges the same week as York’s
dismissive tone on the food court gunman. The
University of Windsor is currently facing a questionable student referendum and anti-Semitic
vandalism surrounding the controversial ‘Boycott
Divest Sanction’ (BDS) movement. When asked
about racism on campus, President Alan Wildeman said, “We’re an 18,000-person microcosm
of the world, with people from 80 countries. I’m
not going to say what happens anywhere in the
world does not happen on a university campus.”
No sugar-coating or blind eyes here: Windsor has
launched a full investigation into this issue.
To the east, responding decisively to two separate and serious allegations of sexual harassment
and assault at the University of Ottawa, President
Allan Rock stated, “These are very troubling
times for [our] community. ... As you all know,
Student Federation President Anne-Marie Roy
was the subject of a sexually graphic conversation on Facebook between five student government officials. And on Monday, the University
announced that the men’s varsity hockey program
had been suspended because of allegations of serious misconduct. ... Both incidents raise troubling
questions about attitudes and behaviour.» President Rock called a press conference with Chancellor Michaëlle Jean to announce a task force. He
condemned the incidents as ‘repugnant’.
These unanticipated scandals were given
direct and candid responses, whereas York has
deferred to boilerplate statements, despite its
history of safety concerns. March 6 marks the
second time since my 2011 enrollment at York
that a ‘firearm discharge’ has hit a little close to
home - too close and too frequent for euphemisms
and platitudes on campus safety. Yet, March 7
was business as usual as far as anyone could tell.
Moreover, York’s approach discredits its community’s ability to have a mature conversation
about these important issues and popularizes the
mythology that York is a categorically unsafe
place. The sterile response reads as the output
of some siloed consultant tasked with reducing campus hysteria. In contrast, SlutWalk and
the Wendy Babcock Drag Show are two homegrown York initiatives where students responded
with solutions when campus injustices were aired
openly. These initiatives have served to unify us
around a set of values and goals. In each, a sense
of pride has grown out of ameliorating uncomfortable circumstances. On the subject of campus
safety, we need a shift in focus from milquetoast
public relations towards a real, substantive, and
participatory approach.
For the York University brand to become a
beloved commodity, these issues require an open,
forthright, and honest dialogue from its leaders.
But, until we see this, I suppose I just go to
Osgoode.
Douglas Judson is a JD/MBA student at
Osgoode Hall Law School and the Schulich School
of Business. He is a former political aide and federal public servant. Find him at @dwjudson.
Editor’s Note: To access President Shoukri’s statement, see YFile. More information on the recent
events at the University of Windsor and the University of Ottawa can be found on their respective
websites, as well as at www.cbc.com.