[Wamvan] UBC Sauder rape chant

[Joanna Chiu]

Hi all,

Thanks Angela, and thanks Anisa for advising on what non-UBC affiliates members of the community can do to support. 

A WAM!Van member has written this summary of what happened and has given us permission to post it to social media/email networks. Feel free to use it/reword it and there's no need to credit the WAM member. 

--

Rape chants are now coast-to-coast as well as year-to-year: first-year students at the UBC Sauder School of Business participated in a "rape chant" during Frosh week, encouraging the rape of underage girls less than a week after controversy burst upon Saint Mary's University in Nova Scotia, where students were caught on video chanting an almost identical cheer. The Ubyssey broke the story after seeing a student's tweet, and a second story emerged: student leaders and organizers of the event, run by the UBC Commerce Undergraduate Society (CUS), have not only been aware of the rape chant as a "tradition" that has been passed down for years, but rather than address the existence of the chant itself, simply told Frosh leaders to restrict public demonstration of it, citing an inability to control what other student leaders do. The CUS, Sauder School, and UBC have released separate statements on the issue, none of which mentioned the word rape, instead using the problematic and dangerously euphemistic phrase "non-consensual sex". If you would like to tell UBC, Sauder, or the CUS how you feel about this, follow the links below:

Change.org Petition to discipline the student leaders involved:
https://www.change.org/en-CA/petitions/discipline-the-cus-leaders-under-the-student-code-of-conduct-for-the-offensive-frosh-chant-2

Sauder Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/sauderschool?ref=ts&fref=ts
Twitter: @UBCSauderSchool

CUS Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/cusonline?fref=ts
Twitter: @CUSonline

Sauder Global Alumni Network:
http://www.sauderalumni.ca/

Sent from my iPhone

On Sep 9, 2013, at 10:14 AM, Cynthia Khoo <cyn.khoo at gmail.com> wrote:

> I'm still keen on emailing alumni to encourage them to tell the school how they feel /put pressure on the school to take the problem seriously, for what it's worth...having said that, many of them may have seen it in the news by now anyway. 
> 
> I think the key is to do what we can to make sure this doesn't become another thing where there's a major circus but then nothing really happens and a lot of buzzwords and weasel words are thrown around then everyone goes on as they were after things die down. I'm just not sure how to do that...
> 
> 
> On Mon, Sep 9, 2013 at 5:55 AM, Angela Marie MacDougall <director at bwss.org> wrote:
> Dear Anisa,
> 
> Thank you for connecting on this and thanks to you and the team at Sexual Assault Support Centre for all your work on this. I have been following this closely through Ubyssey and media reports and it looks like SASC is very much involved in the steps going ahead on campus. This is great for all kinds of reasons!
> 
> At BWSS, we're quite concerned and motivated to take any opportunity to effect change.  What role might you see for women and women's groups off campus and/or what action can we take that supports your work and our shared goals?
> 
> Please advise either here on the list and/or by phone at 604-808-0507.
> 
> Warmly,
> Angela
> 
> 
> On 2013-09-07, at 4:14 PM, "Anisa" <mottahed at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Hey all,
>> 
>> I'm the Manager at the UBC Sexual Assault Support Centre. Quite a few things are being done on campus to address this, which I'm happy to clarify.
>> 
>> Feel welcome to connect if you like.
>> 
>> Regards,
>> 
>> Anisa
>> 
>> On Sep 7, 2013, at 2:46 PM, Alexandra Tse <alex_tse at sfu.ca> wrote:
>> 
>>> Hey WAM, let's show these fuckers who they're up against. http://ubyssey.ca/news/sauder-chant-325/
>>> 
>>> Let's put on the facebook and twitter pressure NOW. 
>>> 
>>> Copy and paste this tweet or write your own: 
>>> 
>>> Hey @UBCSauderSchool, do something about this: http://ht.ly/oF3re You're supposed to educate people, right? #cultureofrespect #rapejokes 
>>> 
>>> Join me and Cynthia and Tami on UBC Sauder's facebook page here:
>>> 
>>> https://www.facebook.com/sauderschool/posts/671814579514611
>>> 
>>> Write a message on your own wall and tag "Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia" (Unfortunately I think you have to Like their facebook page before you can tag them).
>>> 
>>> Let's do this! Fuck Sauder admin for saying that rape jokes are okay as long as the students do it privately.
>>> 
>>> Alex
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Wamvan mailing list
>>> Wamvan at lists.resist.ca
>>> https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/wamvan
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> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Cynthia Khoo
> JD Candidate (2014)
> University of Victoria
> 250.891.7286
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