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gateway September 5th, 2012
Issue No. 1
Volume 103
THE
TH E O F F IC IA L STUDE NT NE WS PA P E R AT TH E UN I V ER S I T Y OF A LBERTA
disorientation 2012: Apocalypse
In the year that portends certain doom, The Gateway’s got your back with the tips & tricks to make your undergrad a blast! check out our orientation guide inside photo illustration: dan mckechnie
lister showdown
Documents support admin claims of Lister problems Despite public denial from Students’ Union, Lister incident reports reveal serious health and safety concerns with residence culture
stalemate Admin and the SU differ over Lister changes.
April Hudson
news editor @april_hudson
Katelyn Hoffart
Staff reporter @katelynhoffart Documents The Gateway obtained through a freedom of information act request have revealed serious health and safety concerns in Lister Residence at the University of Alberta. The university imposed a number of changes in Lister over the summer, changing three of the four halls to first-year residences for 2013, making changes to the staffing structure and changing their alcohol policy to eliminate drinking in public spaces.
file photos: Dan Mckechnie, matt hirji
The university gave the Students’ Union a list of documents pertaining to the health and safety concerns leading to these changes. One document contained a list of video descriptions ranging from “seemingly fun but harmless social activities” to “high-risk and dangerous acts.” Some of the acts laid out in the descriptions, ranging from the mid ‘00s to last year, include a Floor Coordinator and a student vomiting on each other, collecting it in a pitcher, and having a third student drink it. One act describes a student having his pelvic area lit on fire. Others include residents publicly urinating on each
other, a Floor Coordinator having his anal region waxed with duct tape; a student drinking a mixture of urine, beer and toilet water; drinking cups of urine; stripping and also a false arrest — which led to an eviction and 100 hours of community service. Reports often stemmed from tower competitions, which also include events where residents sit outside on an ice rink during winter nights. “(The university) really stretched what happened in a lot of the activities. So for one thing, (they’re saying) students will have to go sit outside on the ice and are forced to sit there overnight and freeze — but actually the hours are pretty reasonable that they do it, and no one’s forced to be out there,” Students’ Union President Colten Yamagishi said. “I’m sure if these things were things that people didn’t enjoy they wouldn’t do them.” Yamagishi added that in a residence as large as Lister, which houses 1,800 students, issues are going to arise. “We don’t necessarily deny that there’s things that could be improved in Lister, but definitely we haven’t seen anything that should give (the university) the right to break their own bylaws … There’s nothing happening now that hasn’t been
happening for the last 50 years,” he said. “I just don’t understand where this concern is coming from.” The Students’ Union received the package of documents from the university in July.
“We don’t necessarily deny that there’s things that could be improved in Lister, but definitely we haven’t seen anything that should give (the university) the right to break their own bylaws” colten yamagishi
president, students’ union
“It’s like a pile of documents … and it’s basically just a whole bunch of very empty information that talks about the current situation for Residence Services, the residence staff and the students, but there’s nothing in there that constitutes a state of emergency or urgency,” Yamagishi said. “I’m not going to say the whole package is bogus, because that’s not true — but a lot of it is outdated
information … and a lot of it is inaccurate.” Dean of Students Frank Robinson confirmed that administration had based its concerns on what happened in the past two years. He added that they had shared their information with the SU as early as July 23. “On July 23, (the SU) saw a list of troublesome events that we saw in Lister — not last year, but in the previous year,” he explained. “In the days later, they received a very, very detailed list of incident reports. And the incident reports were primarily this last year. Yamagishi responded to it on the 31st, so he must have got it before then. He said he didn’t see anything problematic in it.” Last year, there were more than 100 judicial incidents reported in Lister regarding things from vandalism and smoking to alcohol misuse and abuse to staff. Of these, 22 involved EMS, UAPS or EPS — compared to two such incidents requiring emergency help across other residences. The report also notes that student staff told supervisors that there were many incidents they did not report.
PLEASE SEE lister PAGE 7