[Wamvan] Fwd: SFU Men's Centre?! - Male allies needed for SFU outreach video

[Sandra Cuffe]

Just got back on the list, so apologies if this already circulated.
~ Sandra

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Subject: Fwd: Male allies needed for SFU outreach video

Hey all, so this is happening at SFU. Flippin' Mens' Centre. Anyway, if
anyone wants to send to peeps who might be good allies to help with it, or
do a story...


Hi all,
As some of you may have heard, the current SFSS board recently announced
that they plan to alot $30,000 for the construction of a 'Men's Centre' on
campus.  The three people on the board who put forth the proposal claim
that such a service is urgently needed, given that men are less likely than
women to report assault and men have higher rates of suicide than women.

While increasing awareness and services for male survivors of assault on
campus could certainly be an important project, the proposal is extremely
problematic in several respects.  Besides the fact that the planning
process has happened with no consultation from students, more signifcant is
the fact that the proposal has been put forth with no consultation from
Rotunda groups--SFPIRG, Out of Campus, and the Women's Centre--groups
already working to provide safe spaces and combat systemic factors which
justify assault.  Even more troublesome is the fact that the project
intends to open up a space in the Rotunda and take away space from these
other groups.

A colleague of mine from the SFU Sexual Assault Centre Working Group (a
group which has been conducting research over the past year to develop
plans for a sexual assault centre on campus--yet another group not
consulted by the Men's Centre organizers!) is working on a video to address
some of the problems of the proposal and is seeking male allies, ideally
from the SFU community (students, staff, alumni, faculty), to give short
statements speaking out against the proposal.

I personally feel in many ways that this proposal is a kind of continuation
of the events with the lockout last year--another attack on the few radical
spaces on campus--and needs to be addressed in a serious way.  (The
students behind the Men's Centre project are in fact some of the very same
people who instigated the lockout.)

Please respond if you or someone you know might have 15 minutes to spare at
some point in the next week to be able to participate.

Thanks.
In solidarity,
Sasha