[Wamvan] UBC Broadcast E-mail: UBC measures announced to address C.U.S. FROSH events

[Susan Hughson]

Thank you Nat,

The usual well burnished phrases, but an excellent start.
The removal of those involved from any form of leadership is imperative. I look forward to seeing what their 
community service entails.
I am curious to know, if any, how many, of the frosh leaders were female?

A task force can vary from dreary to the point of extinction to somewhat useful. Next spring is not timely.

Sue

On 2013-09-18, at 10:55 AM, Natalie Hill <nhill10 at gmail.com> wrote:

> FYI - Message from Stephen Toope today, re: UBC frosh.
> 
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: <message at ubc.ca>
> Date: Wed, Sep 18, 2013 at 9:43 AM
> Subject: UBC Broadcast E-mail: UBC measures announced to address C.U.S. FROSH events
> To: ubc-students at broadcast.ubc.ca
> 
> 
> To: All UBC students, faculty and staff
> 
> We are announcing today the measures we are taking, following our careful
> consideration of the report by the fact-finding panel charged with looking into
> the Commerce Undergraduate Society FROSH chant. Some facts have now been
> established and publicly acknowledged. UBC Sauder School of Business first-year
> students were led in a chant advocating rape and sexual violence by C.U.S.
> FROSH leaders during the week of September 3rd 2013.
> 
> The report, which we have made public, found no evidence of C.U.S. leaders'
> advance directives to use the chant during 2013 FROSH events. However, the
> report determined that this and other offensive chants were a C.U.S. oral
> tradition, that no C.U.S. leader intervened to stop anyone initiating the
> chant, and that the vast majority of first year students attending the C.U.S.
> FROSH events would have been exposed to the chant. The report
> (http://news.ubc.ca/2013/09/18/ubc-announces-measures/) also concludes that
> some C.U.S. FROSH activities were inappropriately sexualized.
> 
> After serious consideration, we believe it is essential that the C.U.S.
> leadership and all the FROSH leaders be held accountable for what took place,
> and that they make tangible amends.  At the same time, the whole UBC community
> needs to embark upon a deeper, transformative and lasting process of change
> that would make it near impossible for such blatant intimidation and abuse to
> take place.
> 
> The measures (http://news.ubc.ca/2013/09/18/ubc-announces-measures/) we are
> announcing today address three broad areas: holding accountable the student
> leaders who were involved in this year's CUS FROSH events; supporting robust
> education and change efforts at the Sauder School of Business and across the
> entire university; and restoring the community's trust.
> 
> To further address the more pernicious, systemic aspects of the casual
> acceptance of violence and sexualization that we believe manifests itself in
> incidents such as the C.U.S. FROSH rape chant, Vice-President Louise Cowin has
> been charged with leading a special task force to report back early next year.
> The Task Force will marshal UBC's best thinking and its resources to outline
> broader actions to support the kind of transformative, robust change we believe
> is necessary.
> 
> In closing, we are extremely sorry that our students were exposed to this
> appalling chant and to some inappropriate FROSH activities. Should other
> disturbing incidents come to light, we will address those as well.  We are
> determined that future welcome week activities – run by UBC or our student
> groups – will make all new students feel respected, safe and engaged.
> 
> We are seizing this opportunity to strike at the sexual violence and
> intolerance that we know still lurks beneath the surface in pockets of our
> society.  UBC is so much better than this. The opportunity that these
> disturbing events present will allow us to find out more about ourselves and
> grow so we can together accomplish that which is bigger, bolder and better: a
> truly respectful, safe and inclusive university culture that supports the best
> in all of us.
> 
> Stephen Toope, President
> Louise Cowin, Vice-President, Students
> Robert Helsley, Dean, Sauder School of Business
> 
> --------------------
> 
> For more information about the UBC broadcast e-mail service, please visit:
> www.broadcastemail.ubc.ca
> 
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