Editorial: Smu Fiasco a Failure of Leadership

Chronicle-Herald
September 6, 2013

http://thechronicleherald.ca/editorials/1152604-editorial-smu-fiasco-a-failure-of-leadership

Jared Perry, president of the Saint Mary’s University Students’ Association, speaks to a news conference in Halifax after an online video showed SMU students chanting slogans condoning rape and sex with underage girls.

Saint Mary’s University, its administration and student leaders have been harshly criticized after an online video showed a group of students performing an offensive, sexist chant earlier this week at an event attended by some 350 freshmen.

The incident is a prime example of a failure of leadership.

None of the student leaders involved had the wits to veto the chant, a ditty that condones rape and underage sex under the scarcely credible pretext of boosting school spirit.

SMU student Alexandria Bennett, a 2012 frosh week leader, says she complained to a students’ association staffer last year about the chant — and nothing was done.

Although the university had coached this year’s frosh week organizers on appropriate behaviour, including a police talk on sexual assault, it apparently didn’t take.

The university has been slammed for a lack of disciplinary action against student leaders, notably students’ association president Jared Perry. Mr. Perry has called the event “the biggest mistake I’ve made throughout my university career,” attributing the incident to “the heat of the moment.”

However, the chant — or a variation of it — has apparently been used at orientation week events, organized by the students’ association, since 2009.

Terming the incident an opportunity for learning, the university is requiring student leaders to take sensitivity training and attend at St. F.X. conference on sexual consent. At a university, where values of education, individual responsibility, independent thought, upright character and problem-solving are stressed, that response is preferable to more punitive measures.

The university has acknowledged that it failed to adequately oversee the week’s activities.

University president Colin Dodds, who first left response to the situation to his PR staff, has appointed Dalhousie law professor Wayne MacKay to head up a council to prevent sexual assault and promote respectful behaviour. MacKay led the recent provincial task force on cyberbullying.

However, that may not be enough.

Lewis Rendell, a student and board member of the university’s women’s centre that supports victims of assault and does educational programming, told CBC Radio’s The Current that the centre is “met with adversity” from both the students’ association and the university itself.

The situation is a public relations nightmare for SMU, which has overnight become the poster school for sexism and misogyny.

Although the university has work to do on women’s issues, the ignorance, sexism and insensitivity underlying the chant at SMU unfortunately exist on almost every college campus on the continent.

Leaders can’t eliminate sexism in the broader society, but they have a responsibility to try to make sure that everyone in the group they lead is treated with equality and respect.

There is at least one indication that women’s issues aren’t at the top of the SMU student union agenda.

The Canadian Federation of Students, noting that orientation week is critical in educating students about such issues, said Saint Mary’s has not participated in the group’s No Means No campaign for 10 years.

Given this incident, that decision should be reconsidered.

Mr. Perry, the guy at the top who knew about the chant but performed it nonetheless, failed to promote and model respectful behaviour.

During orientation week, “we ... don’t necessarily look at the message,” he said.

But words have enormous power, something any senior student and leader at a Canadian university must surely understand.

Mr. Perry has resigned as chairman of StudentsNS, an association of provincial student unions.

But that seemed a half-measure. His real failure was to the women at his own university, who deserve leaders who respect them and promote their interests.

Given that, we welcome Mr. Perry's decision Friday to also resign as president of the Saint Mary's University Students' Association.

Saint Mary’s students’ association needs a student leader who can demonstrate good judgment and the respect for all students that the position demands.