Unpopular Dissent

Get the full story from the University of Alberta student newspaper, The Gateway, here

Would someone please mind explaining to me exactly how shutting down the office called the “Office of Human Rights” (OHR) would ever make it easier to find where to go with a complaint of human rights abuse? The sections of the article I’m referring to are:

According to a memo released by the Office of the Vice President (Finance and Administration) on 30 October, the responsibilities of the OHR will soon be reorganized under a single point of access for all University human rights and resources concerns: Internal Audit Services.

The administrative decision to reorganize the OHR was designed to make it easier for those on campus to seek advice about equity, human rights, and safe disclosure services in one place, said Phyllis Clark, Vice President (Finance and Administration). (emboldened mine)

and

However, Dr Frank Robinson, Dean of Students, noted that these services have largely been, and will still continue to be, available under different offices, including the Student Ombudservice.

“I see this as a step of clarifying where you go.” (emboldened mine)

This is quite obviously a flagrant abuse of power in the name of profit and fiscal efficiency: shut down the expensive office in favour of consolidating its function with other offices.

What part of “Internal Audit Services” and “Student Ombudservice” indicate that “THIS IS THE PLACE YOU GO WHEN YOUR FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHTS HAVE BEEN VIOLATED” quite as well as an office that fucking called itself the “Office of Human Rights”? (Read: they don’t indicate it at all!) How does obfuscating the place you go at all “clarify” or “make it easier” to find where to file a human rights complaint? (Read: it doesn’t!)

Dr. Lise Gotell said it best:

“My concern about this is that once the OHR moves into Internal Audit, there’s no visibility attached to human rights on this campus… Good universities and good workplaces [...] have taken questions of diversity and equity very seriously, because they realize that in order to be economically successful, you have to be a good workplace, and good workplaces promote respect for diversity, they don’t hide it.”

While the memo regarding the closure of the OHR didn’t indicate why, exactly, the office had been closed, the excuse given was the office’s official role was complicated by its mediation between employees, employers, and students.

Boo-fucking-hoo.

The office’s role was to mediate between employees, employers, and students in a confidential setting! So you’re shutting it down because its job was too difficult? I’m sorry, but I call bullshit. The office was closed to save money. End of story.

The University of Alberta is an intellectual corporate entity, hardly a place of education, and this latest move to close down the only visible human rights office is yet another indication of the profit motive hard at work.

Anyone remember when they removed the option for students to pay with credit card because it cost the U of A spent one third of a percent (0.33%) of their budget to keep it available? They promised it would go back into enhancing student experience at the U of A. I don’t think anyone short of the Medicine and Engineering faculties saw any of that money, because they’re by far the most profitable faculties on campus. I also doubt the money went toward undergrads, and instead towards profitable research.