The University of B.C.’s Sauder School of Business will spend $200,000 for a new sexual assault counselor amid a rash of attacks against women on campus.
Dean Robert Helsley said the school would step in after commerce students voted down a proposal to fund the position with student fees.
“I was deeply disappointed,” said Helsley. “The position is going to happen and if it has to be the case that the school bears the entire cost that’s what I will do.”
Adding a sex assault counselor to the 10 general counselors already available to students on campus was part of UBC’s response to the discovery that students at the business school’s frosh week were singing a chant encouraging underage rape.
The chant said, “Y is for your sister, U is for underage, O is for oh-so-tight, N is for no consent, G is for go to jail.”
The university apologized, and Sauder’s student society, the Commerce Undergraduate Society, agreed that to pay $250,000 to salary and benefits for the position for three years to make things right.
The CUS constitution requires a vote on any expense over $50,000. When the votes were counted Friday, 70 per cent of students had voted against the proposal.
CUS President Sean Fleming denied that commerce students were insensitive.
“This vote doesn’t reflect an indifference to the issues, but rather a disagreement about the best way to tackle this,” he said.
The CUS will still spend $50,000 on the position, Fleming said.
There have been six sexual assaults on campus since April. Police believe they were all committed by the same man, who remains at large. RCMP and campus security patrols have increased, and signs telling women not to walk home alone are posted widely.
The president of UBC’s student society, the AMS, said women are taking steps to protect themselves.
“I feel that the immediate response is one of fear,” said Caroline Wong. “But students are being very proactive in how they take charge of their safety.”
An RCMP spokesman told CTV News that there were no new developments in the investigation.
