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Power in numbers - Diversity at BU |
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Later this spring, student Erin McGregor will graduate from Bishop’s University with a degree in social studies. While talking to her, though, it is clear the Ottawa native has earned more than an official piece of paper during her time at Bishop’s.
McGregor might strike you as having become a community activist and advocate for equality during her student career in Lennoxville.
In a university community only too recently weighted down by a staff strike and lockout, followed soon after by the abrupt changeover of the school’s principal, another trend seems to be emerging from the student body on campus.
Equity groups on campus are joining forces, social justice speakers are filling halls and charitable work on campus is more and more student-driven. Perhaps not comparable to what happens on university campuses in Montreal and Toronto every day, but nonetheless impressive for an 1,800-strong student community in the Eastern Townships.
“Student activism and advocacy is going through a huge transformation at Bishop’s,” McGregor said. “It was just
time students started realizing that there is power is numbers.”
That as the university is in the midst of celebrating its first Diversity Week, featuring a slew of events highlighting the school’s diversity, from the 45 different countries represented on campus, to religious groups, students with special needs and an emerging gay and lesbian community.
“This week isn’t just about tolerance, it’s about celebration,” McGregor said, “and creating an environment that fosters all identities.”
McGregor is the president of the Pride Alliance, a group supportive of (but whose membership is not exclusive to) students who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered. She also heads up the Gender Equity Centre (formerly the Women’s Centre), that serves primarily as a referral service for students on sex- and sexuality-related issues.
The Pride Alliance, McGregor said, has seen a lot of change in the last four years. The group now counts an active membership of roughly 20 students, although McGregor said that number doesn’t reflect the entire gay and lesbian population on campus.
McGregor thinks the Bishop’s community is taking homophobia more seriously these days, particularly after posters put up by the Pride Alliance were defaced last fall.
“Coming out is a big deal at Bishop’s,” McGregor said. “I try to keep both groups as open and inviting as possible to foster our presence on campus.”
Creating a safe space
As part of Diversity Week, a coalition of students groups will present a proposal on Fostering Diversity and Equity today to the corporation, Bishop’s governing body. Among their ideas is a request for the creation of a Diversity & Equity Centre on campus, to act as a shared safe space, meeting area and drop-in centre for the university’s many advocacy groups.
The proposal also requests greater representation of Bishop’s though the university’s communications as well as recommending a harassment officer be hired by the institution.
The requests aren’t groundbreaking, admits Jocelyn Molyneux, president of the Bishop’s Student Representative Council (SRC). Sure enough, most student centres in Canadian universities offer a number of resources for the student body, from women’s centres to prayer rooms, harassment officers and food banks.
“These ideas have come out of visits to other campuses,” Molyneux said. “We’re trying to take the best of what we see and apply it to Bishop’s, taking into consideration its financial situation.”
Currently, nine per cent of the SRC’s annual budget (collected through student fees), or $18,000, goes towards the 30-odd clubs that fall under its mandate.
Molyneux said the need for a diversity centre is directly related to recruitment, an initiative the university is intent on improving, given its shrinking student population.
“We believe the school needs to be putting an emphasis on these activities if we want to attract from Canada’s cultural mosaic,” she said. “If we want to recruit these students, we need to have strategy in place to accommodate these communities.”
The largest request for a space like the Diversity & Equity Centre comes from students — those currently studying at Bishop’s and some who are considering making the move to Lennoxville, Molyneux said. The centre would provide office space for several of Bishop’s advocacy groups, while also giving them a venue to interact.
She recalls being asked recently by the parent of a possible student recruit what the percentage of visible minorities was at Bishop’s. “I had to be brutally honest and tell her that it’s not very high,” Molyneux admitted.
Although there is no way to quantify the diversity on campus, Bishop’s is commonly dubbed a “whitewash,” said Molyneux, as is the surrounding community it is home to.
“Because of where we are and the cultural make-up of the Eastern Townships, it’s even more important to foster a community that celebrates these issues,” she said. “This will go to serve the larger community as well.”
A positive exchange
Student Makeddah John, who is graduating this year, feels she is leaving Bishop’s “on a high note.”
Sensing what she called a lack of diversity on campus, the student who hails from the Caribbean nation of St. Lucia created the Caribbean African Students’ Association at Bishop’s in 2005.
What started with a handful of students three years ago has seen “a definite increase,” John said.
She feels the group will carry on well in her absence, and the addition of a Diversity & Equity centre would only bolster that.
“I can foresee a real exchange between different groups on campus,” she said, noting her association was never about segregating black students at Bishop’s, but rather sharing Caribbean and African culture through social events.
“When people identify themselves it shouldn’t be based on one thing,” she said. “Culture can be exchanged so easily and I think that’s what people should focus on, not race.”
Today, the ball is in the court of the university’s governing body.
David McBride, director of university advancement at Bishop’s, believes the proposal for a diversity centre will be well received, and if approved, should send some strong signals to potential students.
“One of our goals for student recruitment is to bring in more international students,” McBride said.
Currently, they make up 12 per cent of the university’s student population.
“There needs to be a community for these students, where different ideas are debated and discussed,” McBride said. “We still have a long way to go, but the fact that these campus organizations are working together is great.”
McBride, himself a student at Bishop’s in the early 1990s, sees the university as having come leaps and bounds in terms of its accommodation of ethnic and cultural diversity, partly reflected by the same growth in the Sherbrooke area.
Bishop’s can also stand apart, though, he adds. When debate was fierce in Montreal universities around closing Muslim students’ prayer rooms, that was never an issue at Bishop’s, he points out. Bishop’s Muslim Students’ Association continues to operate a space for worship in the basement of Divinity House.
While certain challenges are inherent to the area — the closest synagogue to Bishop’s is in Montreal, McBride points out — he credits the university’s student body for opening up the dialogue that has and can continue to encourage advocacy and diversity on campus.
“It’s partially a generational thing, but it’s also the type of students we attract,” McBride said. “They’re not followers.”
By Sarah Rogers
March 28, 2008 |
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Montreal Canadiens
