Students challenge York policy
Students gathered in Vari Hall on Monday in clear defiance of York University president Lorna Marsden, to protest and commemorate the anniversary of the controversial events on Jan. 20, 2005.
Nearly a year ago, students protesting Israeli policies in the Middle East were assaulted when campus security and Toronto police broke up a demonstration in Vari Hall.
The event resulted in a sustained outrage from students, organizations and even some faculty arguing that York suppresses free speech. Conflict erupted in other quarters, with senators denouncing the violence on campus and Marsden fighting off criticism in a three-hour-long senate meeting.
York claims that the demonstration had been disrupting class in nearby lecture halls with some protestors using megaphones to speak to the crowd.
"Her administration's security personnel were joined by police in violently assaulting a student demonstration in the Vari Hall rotunda," said a press release from the Grass Roots Anti-Imperialist Network (GRAIN), also one of the main organizers of the protest last year on Jan. 20.
York security has also come under scrutiny. Critics allege they were responsible for calling the police to intrude on campus.
Since then, commissions and various committees have developed and reviewed policies for the use of campus space for activities and events.
On Jan. 13, the administration published "Message from president Marsden". The press release was designed to report on progress from the committees looking into student space issues.
In response to the protest, the President commissioned the Working Group on the Temporary Use of University Space. It defined three goals for establishing a policy: The student space must be provided based on any effects to academics and the purpose of the university as a place for learning, the right to free speech and the safety of the York community.
"GRAIN rejects Marsden's spin on fact," said the press release from GRAIN, responding to the president's message.
"Despite continued efforts by the administration to erect bureaucratic barriers to anti-imperialist and other dissident activities, students have organized many successful events, and more are in the works . . . her administration's authority on these is extremely weak."
Concurrently, an Office of Temporary Use of University Space has been created to examine applications for space by different organizations and assesses their viability.
"We've raised the standard. Things were quite chaotic before we had these regulations in place," says Richard Fischer, chief marketing and communications officer at York.
"Ninety-nine per cent of event bookings have been done without any problems," he says.
Many have criticized this process, however.
"This is disastrous . . . there has been a major push to erect bureaucratic barriers for progressive events," says Dan Freeman-Maloy, a member of GRAIN. "It's very clearly politically-driven and not based on anti-disruption."
Maloy states that many barriers hold smaller organizations from having protests and other events. Generally, groups have to submit their requests one month ahead of time and provide a list of speakers and volunteers that will be present at the event.
High security fees sometimes required by York are also a barrier to running events.
"It's becoming increasingly difficult to book spaces. Most spaces are booked and overwhelmed because there are so many student clubs," says Omari Mason, president of the York Federation of Students (YFS).
"I think most organizations have to book space that is ‘unbookable' so to speak," he adds.
The YFS is doing just that this week. Most of the events in Vari Hall are not permitted by the Temporary Use of University Space policy because the area is designated as a learning space, yet they have set up tables and commemoration events everyday from Monday until today.
The York administration has submitted a draft of the report on use of space.
"We're getting mixed signals from the administration . . . the draft report really did not reflect our priorities," says Mason.
The final version of the report was to be presented at the senate meeting tomorrow, but the meeting is now cancelled and the committee will likely be reporting in February.
Meanwhile, York has engaged in talks with police services chief Bill Blair to discuss the events of Jan. 20, 2005
"The recent message takes pride in a conversation she had with the police chief, as if the administration was somehow protecting us from police violence," said the GRAIN press release.
-GRAIN plans to launch another protest today to commemorate the events last year
