The organization, Women Against Violence Against Women (WAVAW), says they approached the University of British Columbia to set up a program to help foster a safe environment for women on campus. But they say UBC turned them down.
Speaking on Unfiltered with Jill Krop, Ariana Barer from WAVAW says they would make a great partnership because of their extensive experience working with women and victims of violence and assault.
“Women Against Violence Against Women, WAVAW, earlier this year brought a plan to the university,” says Barer. “We received a great chunk of funding from Status Women Canada to partner with a post-secondary institution to work with all levels of administration, faculty, students and staff to create a coordinated community response and approach, to work with all of the stakeholders to change policy, and services, and programs to make sure that everyone’s needs are being met and unfortunately they told us that wasn’t something they needed.”
“It would have been for a two-year program and WAVAW would have brought our 30 years of experience and expertise working alongside women, and all of the stories that we get from women every day,” she adds. “We receive more than 3,000 calls on our crisis line every year and we’re just working alongside women and this is what we’re hearing and we receive a lot of calls from campus.”
She says, in her opinion, the university felt like they didn’t need to do any more than they were already doing.
We have reached out to UBC for a statement on this matter.
RCMP say there have been six attacks on women at UBC’s campus since this past April, with the latest incident occurring on Sunday.
On Wednesday president Stephen Toope said they have put in place ‘unprecedented police and security measures’ to make sure students feel safe.
“This is one of the safest campuses in North America,” he told the media. “There is not normally a climate of fear or insecurity on the campus.”
Barer disagrees, saying they have spoken to many women on campus and that is not what they are hearing.
“The feeling here is that this is pressing, this is imminent, this is life and death, this is our safety, this is our ability to learn, study, and lead our lives and do things as simple as walking alone. We should be able to do that,” she says.
“We heard earlier Stephen Toope feels alarmed and certainly he should be, this is happening on his watch, on his campus, and in fact it’s happening beyond these six assaults, we know that it happens in residences and in other places on campus at an alarming rate, certainly throughout the year.”
Barer says WAVAW approached the school again this fall after the attacks started happening, but still, they were rejected.
“We actually came back again this fall, in light of what’s happened, and said we would love again to partner with you,” she says. “There’s footage of our executive director, Irene Tsepnopoulos-Elhaimer, asking the president at his town hall what resources he was going to pledge specifically to make this a priority, to protect women on campus, to shift the whole culture of campus to one that simply does not tolerate this kind of violence and at the time he actually said that ‘yes this is a systemic issue’, and they were going to address it, and we simply haven’t seen that happen.”
The suspect in the assaults is described as a male, Caucasian with olive skin or tanned, mid-to-late 20s, or early 30s, thin build, about 5’8″ – 6’2″ tall.
Anyone with information is asked to call the UBC sex assaults tipline at 778-290-5291 or 1-877-543-4822.
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