Although many pressing social issues were at the forefront of students’ minds last semester, attendance was low at the Equity Town Hall hosted by the AMS Social Issues Commission on Jan. 17.
Vice-Principal (Culture, Equity, and Inclusion) Stephanie Simpson, and Principal Patrick Deane answered questions submitted by students in a sparsely attended room in Goodes Hall. Topics ranged from housing to ing international students. Both Simpson and Deane identified the ongoing violence in the Middle East as the most important social issue affecting students on campus.
“Many of our university community have connections to the Middle East and are experiencing it in very troubling ways. I think, that, for me, it is the biggest issue right now,” Deane said in an interview with The Journal following the town hall.
In attendance were the AMS executive, Rector Owen Crawford-Lem, and Student Senate Caucus Vice-Chair Leo Yang.
Housing Concerns
Simpson said students’ struggle to find housing weighs heavily on the minds of Queen’s senior leadership. Deane and Simpson agreed housing is a national problem affecting students across Canada. s from Queen’s and the City of Kingston have regular meetings to tackle housing, Deane said. Discussions are addressing bylaws which limit development in the University District.
“It’s very much on the minds and hearts of people within the sector in of creating affordable and decent housing for students at our own university and in our own community,” Simpson said.
Deane acknowledged the challenge the recent closure of Bader College posed, with 100 new first year students being absorbed into the community unexpectedly. Bader students received help from the Off Campus Living Advisor to secure rooms in Kingston for the winter term.
On the topic of the recent closure, Deane spoke of his hope to make the Bader College experience more accessible to all first years. Bader offered smaller first year courses, often centered around experiential learning, but carried a price tag upwards of $40,000 per student.
Classroom Safety
In response to the hate-motivated stabbing at University of Waterloo in June, Queen’s has increased safety measures to protect students and faculty, acknowledging the work isn’t yet done.
“Queer, trans, and non-binary students on this campus don’t feel safe and our understandings around that have been developing long before the Waterloo incident took place,” Simpson said.
In the fall, the University reviewed classroom safety, ensuring there were working telephones in all classrooms and signs directing people to resources in the event of an emergency.
Simpson’s office will helm an anti-hate advisory group, which will include queer Queen’s community . Simpson knows physical safety is vital, but for LGBTQSIA+ community , safety is more complex at Queen’s.
“It’s not just about how safe people feel from an overtly violent attack, but about how safe people feel being their authentic selves on this campus and whether they are able to express their identity,” Simpson said.
International Students
With the ongoing budget crisis at Queen’s, international student recruitment is a hot topic, and the town hall was no exception.
“In this province, government funding has made it important for institutions, colleges, as well as universities to subsidize their operations by drawing large numbers of international students,” Deane said.
Deane maintained international students are valued of Queen’s academic community. Queen’s will continue to lobby the federal government for efficient visa processing for international students and investigate funding within the budget to international students from lower economic brackets in pursuing a Queen’s education.
Sexual Violence Policy Updates
Deane and Simpson responded to a question about the new changes to the Policy on Sexual Misconduct and Sexual Violence, which went into effect on Jan. 2. The policy changes, which attempt to make it easier for students to file complaints, incorporate recommendations from experts.
For Simpson, the most important revision includes eliminating the possibility a survivor would have to tell their story twice, which could’ve occurred under the previous policy.
“We wanted to make sure to the best of our ability that people deciding to come forward with their reality, their truth, would only need to go through that investigative process once,” Simpson said.
Though the policy is promising, Deane highlighted policies can only do so much, and students’ awareness is pivotal for implementing change.
“We have good policies on some key issues, harassment, discrimination and so on, but their effectiveness within our community or as an agent for cultural transformation, depends entirely on them being known,” Deane said.
According to Simpson, the communications department will be conducting a full rollout to the new policy to students.
Accessibility was a consistent theme throughout the Town Hall. Simpson and Deane fielded questions about improving closed captioning for online lectures and ensuring paths on campus are cleared during winter for community using wheelchairs.
To address both issues, Simpson encouraged students to Andrew Ashby, manager of accessibility services, to pitch ways to improve accessibility on campus.
The AMS Social Issues Commission ended the meeting by promising another town hall meeting in March.
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