Former UPEI teachers, current students react to report on sexual misconduct on campus

Former teachers and current students of UPEI are reacting to the recent third party report looking into acts of sexual misconduct, sexism and racism at the school.

Caitlin Wildman is a history major at UPEI, but that wasn't her first choice. She used to major in computer science.

"I experienced a lot of sexism while I was in computer science specifically. There was a lot of backhanded compliments about women being there. There were cases where I was told 'just drop out and get married',"Wildman said.

"There were other times where, especially, when there was talk of affirmative action where that would be used to belittle both women and other minorities here on campus."

Wildman wasn't surprised about the report, she said.

"I really, really hope the upper administration ... I think a lot of them need to be put on leave or fired and replaced. There needs to be a lot of accountability," Wildman said.

The UPEI Faculty Association has called for resignations of board members who who held their positions during a key period of 2013-2015.

The report comes after a firm was hired following the resignation of former UPEI president Abd-El-Aziz right around the time fresh allegations of misconduct were brought forward against him.

In its report, released in a redacted form Wednesday, the firm of Rubin Thomlinson described "dire" problems on campus that said UPEI "has failed to create a safe, respectful, and positive environment for working and learning for all members of its community."

Sobia Ali-Faisal, is the executive director of BIPOC USHR. She also taught at UPEI, but left in 2021.

"My time at UPEI it wasn't unusual to hear about these types of experiences. In fact, when I was there we started BIPOC USHR at that time on campus and the reason we started it was because racialized students came and talked to me and said they didn't feel fully supported,'" she said.

In the report some incidents of racism are highlighted. The report suggests "prevalent use" of the N-word on campus and incidents where racialized students were called terrorists.

"I've heard that from Black students before, that they have heard the N-word commonly on campus, they've heard racial slurs. So it's always been a bit of a struggle for me when it comes to what do we tell international students? What do we tell people who want to come here?"

There is a lack of cultural safety at the school and a lack of an effort to create it on campus, Ali-Faisal said.

"It's not good. It's not good and I mean it's unfortunate because what's sad to me is that there are other universities across Canada that are making efforts, are doing things to try to address racism and create an anti-racist space, a culturally safe space," she said.

"There are models across Canada UPEI could follow and that might make those universities more attractive to international students. So, this isn't good at all for UPEI and I really hope that moving forward they really look to those other models that are out there."

Grace Meade is heading into her fourth year at UPEI, studying diversity and social justice and feels like students are in the dark about things that have been happening.

"It's hard to have a perspective on being proud of your institution while there is so much stuff that we study in class and study all the negative impacts of it and it's kind of like contradictingwhat we are learning in class," she said.

"It's a little disheartening, because we picked this institution when we were in high school and we were really proud of where we were going ... so whenever you're going to a school and you have a bunch of really negative impact in the news and stuff it's a little bit harsh on your education."

UPEI alumnus Bob Gray taught at the university,was part of the board of governors prior to 2011and coached basketball at the university.

"When I read the report it was painful. It was painful reading, you had to put it down for a while and start up again. It's just devastating," Gray said.

"It's a good university. There are a lot of really good people doing really good things ...but we knew something was wrong. But we had no idea the extent of it. And when you got rot at the top it's really hard to cut it out from the bottom."

UPEI's board of governors responded to the Rubin Thomlinson report in a statement saying, "We deeply regret that, as an institution, we have not always lived up to our values, particularly in the time period covered by the review. We must do better, and we will. We will to continue to work hard to create a safe, respectful, and positive environment for all members of the UPEI community."