The Silhouette: Please introduce yourself.
Rijaa Khan: My name is Rijaa, my pronouns are she and her and I'm the [Women and Gender Equity Network] director this year.
What is WGEN?
WGEN is a peer-support service. We cater to women, trans folk, nonbinary folk and people who generally identify outside the gender binary. We also cater to all survivors of sexual and gender based violence, so, to people from all gender identities. We provide a safer space on campus and we're on the second floor of MUSC, room 204. People can come in and just chill. We have a library and many different resources. We run events throughout the year as well, and we have community care groups.
WGEN is a peer-support service. We cater to women, trans folk, nonbinary folk and people who generally identify outside the gender binary. We also cater to all survivors of sexual and gender based violence.
Rijaa Khan, Director, Women and Gender Equity Network
What inspired you to join WGEN?
When I was in first year, it was the year right before the pandemic, [so] everything was in-person and I would come to the space a lot as a service user to read or talk to people. For me, it definitely was a safe space. When you're on campus, you're always running around and it can feel really overwhelming. There wasn't really any space like WGEN on campus that I felt truly comfortable in. Then, because of my love for that, I became involved afterwards. I've been a part of the exec team since then, for the past five years now. Just because of the ways that the service helped me, I was inspired to join and provide that support for other people.
What is your fondest memory from your past five years with WGEN?
It was during the pandemic. We were running a music exchange event where we were sharing our favourite BIPOC artists for our campaign Bodies are Dope. I almost didn't want to go, but I decided, "I’ll turn my camera off and just be there." A lot of people came to the event and I think, like me, they came just to do something. But we ended up going past two hours because everyone became so comfortable talking about music and our favourite artists. I was in the trenches during the pandemic, and I'm sure everyone was, so this memory is so fond to me from this genuine feeling of community that I was reminded still exists.
I was in the trenches during the pandemic, and I'm sure everyone was, so this memory is so fond to me from this genuine feeling of community that I was reminded still exists.
Rijaa Khan, Director, Women and Gender Equity Network
I really appreciate that. I think the community aspect is really hard to come by even with life in person.
I think it's one of the biggest difficulties in running a service but it's one of the most important things. It can be really hard to make friends. When I was in first year, even though it was in-person, I struggled because I was in this huge program and you rarely see the same people every day. So, the only avenue to make friends for me was through services like WGEN, which is something I hear to this day from other people too.
What do you want others to know about WGEN?
For WGEN, people know us only through the purple room or from our events. One thing I try to emphasize is that we’re involved in a lot of the events they’re talking about. We have three campaigns every year: Transforming Mac in November, where we run the Trans Day of Remembrance vigil with the [Pride Collective Centre] and the [Queer and Trans Colour Club]; Bodies are Dope in February, which is a campaign centered around bodies, body neutrality, racialized bodies; and Making Waves, towards the end of the year, which is very workshop-focused. I've heard that these sorts of things aren’t available for people across campus, but I want to emphasize that they’re here.
What would you say to someone who is uncertain about visiting WGEN?
One user told me she circled the space for two weeks before stepping in. That was so relatable because it's something that I did in my first year. But, as soon as I stepped in, it was so welcoming and comfortable that I couldn't figure out why I was scared in the first place. I was someone who I was always scared of going to events too. We’re mindful to create events where, if you don’t want to socialize or talk to people, you can still come and do something together, like watch a movie or make art. Even if you're feeling anxious or shy, you can just be present and get to know everyone. It is really scary, and I want to validate those fears – I had those anxieties too – but it can potentially be one of the best memories that you have in your undergrad. Taking that leap was the best thing I could have done for myself. So, give yourself and the people in the space a chance to get to know you. From that, you can see how much you like it and whether you want to keep coming back.
WGEN’s Culture of Consent event educated students about consent and sexual violence misconceptions
cw: discussion of sexual assault
According to a 2018 survey conducted by the Council of Ontario Universities, 22 per cent of respondents from McMaster University indicated that they had experienced sexual assault since the start of the 2017-2018 academic year. Additionally, overall survey respondents indicated that the perpetrator was an acquaintance in 26 per cent of cases and a friend in 25 per cent of cases.
According to a 2018 survey conducted by the Council of Ontario Universities, 22 per cent of respondents from McMaster University indicated that they had experienced sexual assault since the start of the 2017-2018 academic year. Additionally, overall survey respondents indicated that the perpetrator was an acquaintance in 26 per cent of cases and a friend in 25 per cent of cases.
In response to the high rates of sexual violence on campuses, student leaders from universities across Canada released a sexual violence prevention report in August 2022 addressed to universities and the provincial and federal governments. The calls to action include creating education plans and implementing trauma-informed practices, focusing on survivors’ voices in institutional policy making and prioritizing a national standard for addressing campus sexual violence in the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence.
Events like the Women and Gender Equity Network‘s "Building a Culture of Consent" are part of addressing the prevalence of rape culture and sexual violence on campus. The event ran on Jan. 18 as part of the McMaster Student Union Wellbeing Week. The event aimed to educate students on the topic of consent, dispel common myths surrounding it and provide sexual assault resources.
Rijaa Khan, a fourth-year student in applied psychology and human behaviour and an events executive at WGEN, believes that there is a strong need for students to be educated about consent, particularly due to the misconceptions that can contribute to rape culture.
“A common myth that people believe in is this idea that sexual assault only happens in alleyways or dark places by strangers. That was one of the main myths that [WGEN] had to tackle because a lot of the time, according to statistics, sexual assault happens by someone that someone knows,” said Khan.
During the WGEN event, students created a Clothesline for Resistance, with designs on paper t-shirt cut-outs that reflected their main takeaways from the event. Some examples of the designs included messages such as, "Rape is 100 per cent the rapist's fault", emphasizing the importance of holding perpetrators accountable for their actions and rejecting victim blaming.
Khan also discussed the importance of bridging the disconnect between sexual violence resources and students' knowledge about them.
“A lot of people don't even know how to file a complaint or report that something has happened to them because they don't know the [sexual violence] resources that McMaster offers . . . If we talk more about consent and rape culture, the resources can reach more people who need it,” said Khan.
“A lot of people don't even know how to file a complaint or report that something has happened to them because they don't know the [sexual violence] resources that McMaster offers . . . If we talk more about consent and rape culture, the resources can reach more people who need it,”
Rijaa Khan, WGEN Events Executive
Khan highlighted that WGEN has a Safe(r) Space program that provides students with peer support. The initiative aims to create a safe space for individuals that are seeking help, including survivors of sexual assault. WGEN also focuses on being a resource for survivors and connecting them to other sexual assault support resources in the Hamilton community.
Additionally, WGEN will be hosting a weekly survivors community group, open to students who are survivors of sexual, gender-based, and/or intimate partner violence.
Khan advocated for students to actively learn about consent and statistics on how sexual assaults can occur, in order to change their perception of sexual violence in university settings.
“I think constantly challenging your understanding of rape culture is really important. A lot of [students] formulate these ideas of rape culture and how sexual assault can happen based on the media. Another common myth is that everyone who gets sexually assaulted actually reports [the assault]. Very few survivors actually report and when they do, a lot of the time it gets dismissed by our legal system,” said Khan.
Khan encourages students to follow WGEN’s Instagram to learn about resources surrounding sexual violence support and education.
C/O Sharon McCutcheon
A new initiative at McMaster hopes to provide accessibility for more students
A new student initiative requesting mutual aid is popping up at McMaster in response to the lack of support students are receiving with the university’s mandated return to campus.
According to the McMaster Oversight Committee Report released in May 2021, professors are not required to record in-person lectures or provide any alternative online resources for students who are unable to attend campus.
The mutual aid request calls for any students attending in-person classes to record and share lectures with their peers online.
The mutual aid request calls for any students attending in-person classes to record and share lectures with their peers online.
On Feb.7, a discussion panel, Push Back on Back to Mac, was held to further address the issues that the mutual aid request highlights.
Come listen to student and professor concerns regarding McMaster University's mandated return to campus, this Monday at 6pm EST pic.twitter.com/mx40fz8YDx
— Emunah Woolf (@emunahwoolf) February 4, 2022
Emunah Woolf, director of Maccess, a student-run advocacy and peer support organization for students who experience disability, chronic illness, mental health concerns or inaccessibility sat on the discussion panel for Push Back on Back to Mac.
“McMaster is not listening to disabled, immunocompromised, neurodivergent and otherwise at-risk students when we say we need hybrid learning options. We've tried letters, petitions [and] organizing. I don't feel hopeful for an adequate and safe response,” stated Woolf in their announcement of the mutual aid request.
“McMaster is not listening to disabled, immunocompromised, neurodivergent and otherwise at-risk students when we say we need hybrid learning options. We've tried letters, petitions [and] organizing. I don't feel hopeful for an adequate and safe response."
Emunah Woolf, director of Maccess
During the panel, Woolf expressed their hope to expand current support in terms of online lectures and course content. The panel was in agreement that more access was necessary for returning to campus, with solutions ranging from completely online classes to hybrid models.
“We had at the height of [the panel] over 100 people in attendance, which is wonderful and more than I expected. I think we were able to really demonstrate various perspectives on the return to campus, whether that's from faculty, staff and students [and McMaster Students Union] members and workers as well,” said Woolf.
Although the panel saw positive responses in support of their stance, Woolf also spoke about some of the backlash in reaction to the mutual aid request.
“When I started talking about the mutual aid initiative, I was warned quite a bit that the university might get worried about it and take action in some way to shut it down just due to, I think, concerns of intellectual property and students recording lectures and then distributing them,” said Woolf.
Some faculty also raised concerns during the question and answering session about having themselves and course material being recorded. However, Woolf mentioned that during the panel, a point was raised about how the best way to keep students from recording and distributing course material was for the professor to post it online for the class themselves.
“I also think that there are ways to get creative with how we teach in a way that hybrid can work . . . The fact is, it takes a little bit of thinking and I don't know if professors are willing to put extra work into their course development, especially if they had originally planned it to be one way,” said Woolf.
“I also think that there are ways to get creative with how we teach in a way that hybrid can work . . . The fact is, it takes a little bit of thinking and I don't know if professors are willing to put extra work into their course development, especially if they had originally planned it to be one way.”
Emunah Woolf, director of Maccess
Woolf also stressed the importance of including disabled people during planning so any issues are worked out before the plan is used to prevent band aid solutions being used later on that don’t work as efficiently.
“[McMaster] should have been bringing people who experienced disability into those conversations to talk about accessibility from the forefront because disabled students and staff, we aren't expendable and we deserve to be included and safe on campus but also to be acknowledged for our value and our knowledge here. [I]t would have been a really good use of disabled community knowledge and wisdom to bring us into those conversations from the beginning,” said Woolf.
[I]t would have been a really good use of disabled community knowledge and wisdom to bring us into those conversations from the beginning."
Emunah Woolf, director of Maccess
In addition to the impact that Woolf has seen as the director of Maccess, Woolf said they have also seen the difference in their own studies as a fourth-year social work student.
“All of my classes are continuing to have online options, which is wonderful, but I think that my safety shouldn’t have to rely on essentially luck of where I am in the university,” said Woolf.
“All of my classes are continuing to have online options, which is wonderful, but I think that my safety shouldn’t have to rely on essentially luck of where I am in the university."
Emunah Woolf, director of Maccess
If students are interested in contributing to the initiative or would like to access lectures through mutual aid, they can visit the mutual aid spreadsheet at tinyurl.com/MacMutualAid.
Travis Nguyen/Photo Editor
MSU Service directors talk about their plans for the upcoming hybrid year
While the pandemic certainly took its toll on student life, a group of dedicated student leaders have been working tirelessly to maintain essential mental and physical health support services. There are many services that aim to create a safe(r) space on campus for marginalized communities. The McMaster Students Union has five such student services: the Women and Gender Equity Network, the Student Health Education Center, Maccess, Diversity Services and the Pride Community Center.
SHEC is a service for any McMaster University student looking for health-related support, childcare resources and breast-feeding spaces. They also offer free health items such as condoms, pregnancy tests and other external health resources.
“As MSU SHEC, we are a completely peer-run health advocacy, information and resource connection service. We operate under a broad definition of health, recognizing that wellbeing looks and feels different to each person. We provide free health supplies and educational materials and are dedicated to promoting our four strategic priorities: sexual and reproductive health, empowered bodies, substance use and mental wellbeing,” explained Anika Anand, the director of SHEC.
Similarly, WGEN offers peer-support services, but these are catered towards survivors of gendered violence and promoting gender equity.
“WGEN is a community-building and peer-support service run by and for women, trans and non-binary folks, as well as all survivors of sexual and gender-based violence. We focus on creating community and non-judgmental spaces among these folks through our safe(r) space, multi-event campaign weeks and peer groups. A big part of our mandate includes supporting folks through peer-support and free resources,” said Neha Shah, the director of WGEN.
Maccess, a service dedicated to disabled students on campus, on the other hand, is reorienting its disability activism strategy to not only raise awareness for disabilities on campus, but to actively advocate that disabled students on campus are invaluable to McMaster.
Maccess, a service dedicated to disabled students on campus, on the other hand, is reorienting its disability activism strategy to not only raise awareness for disabilities on campus, but to actively advocate that disabled students on campus are invaluable to McMaster.
“We are a peer-support, community-building and activism organization, run both and by disabled students. We use the term "disability" to include folks who identify as having a disability, mental health concerns, neurodivergence, chronic health conditions and addiction. Our priority this year is to move away from just the recognition that disabled folks exist on campus, to where we recognize disabled folks are valuable on campus,” explained Emunah Woolf, the director of Maccess.
Diversity Services is extending the services it traditionally offers and has plans on adopting the long-established peer-support system used in the past by WGEN, SHEC and PCC to further extend its avenues to provide support.
“Diversity Services works on celebration, advocacy and generally uniting all folks across campus that identify as religious, cultural and other minorities. We are joining Maccess, PCC, WGEN and SHEC in their practices with the pilot of our new peer-support services. These are taking place as community circles that are closed spaces for people to come in and find people with similar intersections of identity as themselves,” explained Sofia Palma Florido, the director of Diversity Services.
Amidst the uncertainties of an entirely online 2020-2021 academic year and a hybrid 2021-2022 year, these MSU services have been compelled to adapt to these circumstances. They have had to drastically alter how they reach and provide their services to students. Across the services, the directors found offering services with the same engagement, quality and reach to be some of the most pressing difficulties of an online environment.
“In our workshops we would commonly have events that promote learning and expanding students’ horizons. When we moved to an online setting, everyone involved, be it volunteers, executives or guests at our events, were already so affected by Zoom exhaustion that it was very difficult to execute everything to its full potential," said Palma Florido.
Nonetheless, Palma Florido has strategies to appeal to first and second-year students to get involved with Diversity Services. She hopes that these strategies will engage students who have not had the opportunity to physically or extensively interact with Diversity Services and the other MSU services.
“Particularly targeting first and second-year students, my goal is to create and facilitate spaces for these new students who have never been on campus to find community. So, allowing for spaces where people can create community with people that have similar lived experiences is something I cherish for myself, and I really want to make that happen for new and returning students,” said Palma Florido.
Services like SHEC have also experienced a shift in their culture and dynamics operating online.
“We operate using a safe(r) space protocol which is creating that supportive, non-judgmental environment. This aspect has been tough to create digitally, so it did involve a lot of training on digital responsibility for our volunteers and execs to facilitate safe(r) space online,” said Anand.
Anand remains optimistic however, finding brighter sides to the constraints of an online environment and even embracing some of the pros it has to offer.
“Although operating virtually has placed additional barriers on access and visibility, it has also provided an additional layer of anonymity for service users trying to access our space and peer-support. Service users may feel more comfortable accessing services since they are not seen walking in and out of space,” explained Anand.
For a service like Maccess however, an online environment has allowed it to open itself up to more students, namely disabled students, who were unable to access the service in person.
“We tried to shift our metric of success for events by focusing on quality over quantity. So, if we have a Zoom event that three or four folks got out to and we had a great conversation and we were able to offer them support and community, we consider that a success. In some ways moving online did allow us to have more accessibility, for example an issue we had in the past is that folks’ disabilities would prevent them from coming to the Maccess space on campus,” said Woolfe.
Woolfe also draws attention to the opportunities a newly online community brought to disabled students on campus.
“Previously we were not able to create Discords as an online community created a lot of liability issues, but to have a space where disabled and immunocompromised folks could meet one another from their room or hospitals was a really positive thing we could do. It allowed us to provide captions, extended hours and other accessibility needs,” explained Woolfe.
Shah is viewing the online Fall term of WGEN as an opportunity for expanding WGEN’s services to meet intersectional and survivor communities’ needs online now, and to plan for a gradual opening to in-person activities.
“This year, we are planning on providing similar services that we did last year, but hopefully with more options to access these both online and in person. Julia, the assistant director and I have also planned to increase our focus on two key areas of our mandate: survivors and ease of access. We hope to increase the amount of programming we provide to survivors, especially with a focus on intersectionality — so providing closed spaces within our identity-specific events,” explained Shah.
Like the approaches taken by SHEC and Maccess, Shah is also mindful of student accessibility needs, and has ideas to make the WGEN space even more inclusive to student accessibility needs.
“We are working to address how it can be really intimidating to enter our safe(r) space, that there are many misconceptions about peer-support, and that there are also some concerns about accessibility about our physical space. We hope to work with other services to address these concerns,” explained Shah.
McMaster students are strongly encouraged to seek out support from MSU services if needed.
McMaster students are strongly encouraged to seek out support from MSU services if needed.
Content Warning: this article contains mentions of suicide
Following deliberations at the Feb. 25 Student Representative Assembly meeting, the SRA has decided to rescind Peer Support Line.
Created in 2013, PSL is an anonymous hotline and online chat system students may access to receive peer support. The service currently operates from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. every day.
As a part of the regular service review, which every McMaster Students Union service must go through, the MSU services committee deemed PSL’s current structure as unsustainable. Following deliberations with Executive Board, the board in charge of making long-term decisions on behalf of the student union, the two governing bodies decided to recommend rescinding PSL.
One of the main concerns both EB and the services committee have about the current operation of PSL is the number of crisis calls it receives.
“Five years on, the PSL now receives mainly crisis calls, posing severe safety concerns for all parties involved — both the users of the service and volunteers who are performing front-line trauma intake, which is not something that student volunteers are trained or equipped to facilitate,” said Preethi Anbalagan, vice president (Administration) and vice chair of EB. “To be clear, if rescinded… the resources currently used to facilitate PSL would be earmarked to enhance the depth, profile, and awareness of all peer and crisis support services.”
In addition, both EB and the services committee feel that peer support networks have expanded considerably since PSL was first introduced in 2013, such the creation of of hotlines such as government-funded Good2talk and the MSU’s Student Assistance Plan, which includes a hotline equipped with professional counselors, among others.
“Since [2013], the peer support resources of the MSU have grown considerably, Women and Gender Equity Network and Maccess have become very important peer support services. In addition, renewed focus in both the Student Health Education Centre and the Queer Students Community Centre has resulted in expanded peer support availability as well,” said Anbalagan.
Both the services committee and EB recommend incorporating the chatline function into other peer support services. They both also also recommend increasing promotions of chat lines such as the Student Assistance Plan and the Good2Talk line, both of which are equipped with professional counseling.
EB specifically recommends the MSU continues develop the Caring Communities Network, a program launched by MSU president Chukky Ibe to train individuals in various clubs or associations to provide support and give referrals.
EB also stresses renewing the MSU’s commitment to peer support by developing other forms of identity-based support programming and explore creating a peer support centre in the Student Activity Building.
During the Feb. 25 SRA meeting, the services committee, EB and PSL gave delegations outlining their stance and the future of peer support within the student union.
Executives from PSL made their own delegation, where they argued that the MSU should not view discussions of suicide as a crisis.
PSL argued that their service has never branded itself as a crisis line and that many individuals who access their line eventually access professional help after receiving peer support from PSL volunteers.
“Most of the students who call PSL to talk about suicidal ideation would not consider themselves to be ‘in crisis’ — in fact, it is often the very fear that it will be taken as a crisis and escalated beyond their control that prevents these students from discussing their ideation with professionals or even friends,” said Pranali Raval, PSL’s assistant director.
They also stressed the importance of the kind of support PSL offers.
“We would like to point out that the newly introduced or strengthened services — i.e. the Student Assistance Plan, COAST, Good2Talk — offer professional support, as opposed to peer support. While these services may allow student involvement, they are not in the form of peer support,” said Victoria Wong, PSL’s promotion coordinator.
The SRA ultimately voted in favour of rescinding the service. PSL will continue to function until the end of this semester, after which point it will no longer exist within the MSU peer support network.
[thesil_related_posts_sc]Related Posts[/thesil_related_posts_sc]
