From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: York Students Take Over Administration Offices
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: University of Missouri
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1992 21:40:24 GMT

From: PENN@MITLNS.MIT.EDU (steve penn 26-567, 253-1521 Remember Our Humanity; Science is Not Neutral; MIT War Research Kills.)

Included below is an article from the New Liberation News Service
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NLNS  Packet 2.7b  -  24 March 1992
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York Students Take Over Administration Offices
Force Administration to Accept Demands

Doug Saunders, Excalibur

TORONTO, March 12, 1992--Chanting and dancing on desktops, 300 
students stormed York University's administrative offices on Wednesday 
and forced the university vice presidents to meet with them.
	"I've never seen this many people up here in all the time I've been 
here," said Bill Farr, vice president of finance and an administrator since 
the 1960s.
	The event was the culmination of two weeks of protest against racism 
in the university's full-time security force. One week earlier, officers asked 
three Black students to show their student cards, saying they looked "too 
young."
	"There is constant harassment on this campus," said a first-year 
arts student at the protest. "Black students feel under constant attack."
	Other incidents cited by the students included the assault of a Black 
female student by a bouncer at a student pub; a parking lot attendant who 
allegedly told a Black student that "this is not the jungle," and the 
harassment of a Black student studying quietly at the library.
	Students responded by wearing cards reading "John Doe" and "Jane 
Doe" around their necks. After learning that the security office planned to 
limit itself to self-investigation, the students organized the occupation.
	The students' demands include:
	-- a full-scale investigation of the security department by an external 
body;
	-- the formation of a security review committee containing at least 50 
per cent students, to establish a code of conduct for guards, to oversee the 
hiring and firing of doorpeople and bouncers, and to establish a complaints 
mechanism;
	-- the hiring of a second full-time race relations officer;
	-- an annual review of security by an external body;
	-- the immediate firing of any officer found guilty of discriminatory 
behavior.
	At the occupation, the students requested a meeting with the 
university president and other administration and security staff members.
	A crowd of Metro Toronto police officers waited at the foot of York's 
main building while the students occupied the ninth floor, which houses 
the offices of the president and vice-presidents. There were no arrests or 
incidents of violence during the four-hour occupation.
	Pam MacDonald, executive director of security, declined to sign a 
petition presented to her by students.
	"I won't be signing it," MacDonald said. "I'm not convinced there is 
racism involved."
	MacDonald later acknowledged that "their [the officers'] behavior 
was totally unacceptable and, understandably, people are upset."
	She said the Toronto police were "merely on stand-by."
	After learning that President Harry Arthurs was out of the country 
and the vice presidents had left the building, the students prepared for a 
long stay.
	(The next day university staff told the Excalibur that Arthurs was on 
campus during the occupation).
	After a two-hour wait, four vice presidents were led single-file into 
the crowd of students. They stood silently as Excalibur editor Jeannine 
Amber stood on a desk and read the demands to them through a 
megaphone.
	Amber noted that the university has only one race relations officer for 
45,000 students, and that despite the fact that York is Canada's most 
ethnically diverse university, security guards receive only two hours of race 
relations training.
	"If you've got all these people this angry in this office just to make a 
request, you can imagine what's going to happen if you tell them to fuck 
off," she said.
	After meeting for 15 minutes, the vice presidents agreed to hold a 
meeting between administrators and students March 16.
	Farr said he sympathized with the students.
	"We know perfectly well it's serious," he said. "They [the demands] 
didn't seem unreasonable."
	But MacDonald defended York Security against criticisms of racism 
and inaccessibility, although she acknowledged that the ID card incident 
"didn't look good."
	"I don't think it's fair to say the university hasn't been doing 
anything because I know there are things we've been doing," she said, 
noting that she has established a security complaints procedure.
	MacDonald claimed that the ethnic backgrounds of security officers 
at York are "probably one of the most mixed" in Canada.
	However, when asked while all of the guards attending the 
occupation were White, she hesitated before answering.
	"Basically, whoever happens to be on duty here happened to come 
over and respond to the scene," she said. "I think the figures will speak for 
themselves."
	According to MacDonald's office, 27 of the 30 full-time members of 
the force are White.

The meeting between the students and administrators transpired as we 
went to press; for a complete update contact Excalibur at 426 Student 
Centre, York University, 4700 Keele St., Downsview, Ontario Canada, M3J 
1P3, (416) 736-5239.

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