Students highlight Dalhousie’s problems and progress
The Equity and Accessibility Office of the Dalhousie Student Union (DSU) have released the results of their 2013-2014 survey, with an overall “positive” reaction to questions posed.
Despite progress, there is still work to be done, the survey concludes.
The survey collected information about the experiences of roughly 170 respondents on a variety of topics, ranging from physical accessibility and gender issues to financial costs of university. The Equity and Accessibility Office plans to use the survey to inform the DSU about what is and isn’t working.
Dal has about 18,000 students and fewer than 200 surveys were completed. Jillian Banfield, author of the survey and its report, said, “We wanted to get responses from students who often don’t have a voice or aren’t given an opportunity to voice their concerns, so we did target certain events where we knew there would be underrepresented types of students.”
The survey revealed issues for transgender students, from a lack of gender-neutral washrooms to a need for “better access to services and spaces”. Dal still lacks a comprehensive policy for issues involving transgender students. University policy is to deal with these issues on a case-by-case basis.
International students were not a prime focus of this survey, but the results revealed that some felt unwelcome at DSU events and underrepresented by the union’s executives. International students also said there was a lack of understanding from staff and faculty as well as a lack of academic support.
Many of Dal’s buildings were cited as physically inaccessible to students. It was suggested that all renovations and new building projects should be designed with accessibility as a primary goal.
As well, a need for more services and better engagement for aboriginal students was indicated by the responses in the survey. It was reported that there was a lack of aboriginal culture represented on campus and a need for more aboriginal programming.
The Sexton campus was referred to as being ignored by the DSU. Comments also indicated that Sexton campus has a shortage of female washrooms, which can only be found on the main floor of one building.
The new preferred name policy, which requires the school to use students’ preferred names rather than their legal or given name, was referenced as a stride forward for the university.
Banfield suggests students keep speaking up to improve the campus and campus life.
“Students can keep reminding the administration and reminding the DSU that we know these are issues that exist, that need to be addressed,” says Banfield.
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