1. Berger/Bilson recommendation #3 (Appendix B): "Allegations impeaching an identifiable teacher or student's character, accusing him or her of harassment, sexual or otherwise, or of racist behaviour, should be made through a complaint procedure with procedural safeguards for both the complainant and the person against whom the complaint is directed."

  2. One trusted, senior female appointed by the administration in September 1993 to "calm the waters" did however report feminist students to the equity office for action after complaints had been made by male professors about the CCC students' summer work on a brochure, "Welcome to the Department of Political Science," which contained phone numbers of anti-discrimination groups on and off campus and a history of the CCC. The Director of Equity Issues responded by congratulating the student work. But the end result was that the administration did not "facilitate" the distribution of the brochure, and copies made available outside the CCC instructor's door were continually destroyed.

  3. The experience of one student who did pursue her complaint through the equity office indicates that even if our group complaint had been pursued, it is very likely we still would have been driven out of the Department and probably the university. As well, two female Political Science professors at the University of Manitoba, Kathy Brock and Margaret Little, launched complaints through that harassment office but still had to find positions elsewhere and leave the province (Aldo Santin, "Last female professor quits, Sexual politics poisons University of Manitoba Department," Winnipeg Free Press June 3, 1995, p.A; also, CBC Radio Morningside interview, "Margaret Little and the Chilly Climate at the University of Manitoba," June 20, 1995).

  4. Marilyn Callahan, Special Advisor to the Vice-President on Faculty Women's Issues, Annual Report, September 28, 1993, p.13. Even if a complainant follows the equity process scrupulously, there is no protection of confidentiality and nothing prevents the respondent from distributing for publication the material from the harassment complaint file. These files are probably also subject to subpoena by other parties.

  5. "In June, a student did in fact file a complaint, with the Director of Equity, against a faculty member. Upon notification of the Director's decision that harassment, though not sexual, had occurred, the President of the UVic appointed a lawyer from the University of Calgary, Margaret Hughes, to advise him on his response to the decision. The advice: that the charges be dismissed. The President has accepted this advice. Hughes also recommends that the respondent not be permitted to evaluate the complaint's course work. She concludes that the respondent did not respect the complainant's right to academic freedom and violated his tenure document with respect to his own use of academic freedom. This assessment is apparently the basis for recommending that the charges be dismissed," ("UVic's Administrative Magic: Making Harassment Disappear," Margaret Laurence Chair in Women's Studies Prairie Region Women's Studies Newsletter, January 1994, p.7).

    The President was seriously embarrassed by UVSS and the Graduate Students' Women's Caucus demands that he resign over his treatment of the CCC and his overturning of equity office findings of harassment. The UVSS Board of Directors motions of November 29, 1993 also called for the immediate implementation of the recommendations from the Chilly Climate report. ("Chilly Climate Update," Kinesis February 1994, p.6; Sara Martin, "President asked to resign," The Ubyssey (UBC's student newspaper) January 14, vol.76, issue 25, p.1; Kim Bolan, "Student bodies say UVic president should resign post," The Vancouver Sun December 17,1993, p.B7; Sandra McCulloch, "Campus groups want UVic boss to relinquish job," Times Colonist December 17, 1993, p.D15; "Call for resignation of UVic President over Equity Issues," Times: Feminist (publication of the Victoria Status of Women Action Group) January 1994, vol.18, no.6, p10; "Equity issues Spark Call for UVic President to resign," Focus on Women, January 1994, p.4; "UVSS says get the fuck out," Martlet Index; Calinda Brown, "UVic president asked to resign," The Martlet January 13, 1994, p.3; Clarification, "Editor's note," The Martlet January 20, 1994, p.7; Matt Pollard, Letter to Editor, "Campus Harassment" Times Colonist January 18,1994, p.A4; Kim Bolan, "UVic governors give president their support over alleged harassment issue," Vancouver Sun December 20, 1993, p.B3).

  6. Robie Liscomb, "Anti-Harassment Office Created, Separating Anti-Harassment and Equity Issues will Strengthen both Efforts," The Ring, January 28, 1994, p.2. The equity office was restructured to report directly to the President rather than the Vice-President Academic, and the new Anti-Harassment Office would also report directly to the President. This reorganization was requested by the equity office, recommended by the Equal Rights and Opportunities Committee and approved by the Board of Governors in September 1993.

  7. Joan McEwen, Vancouver lawyer, was hired by the University of British Columbia to respond to complaints of pervasive racism and sexism in the Political Science Department there (Report in Respect of the Political Science Department of the University Of British Columbia Prepared for the Deans of the Faculty of Arts and Graduate Studies, June 15, 1995). Her report, similar in its methodology to ours in speaking about a culture of systemic discrimination without naming the names of those who spoke, has received the same extravagant reaction, with the predictable language: "McCarthyism" (Editorial The Globe, June 23, 1995, p.A20); "Smoke without fire," (Doug Ward, "Sexism at universities 'a national phenomenon'" The Vancouver Sun June 26, 1995, p.AI2). Doug Saunders called McEwen's report "cowardly and disgraceful" for "defaming the men" and "libelous" ('Chilly Climate' policies gain acceptance on campuses," The Globe, 1995, p.AI6). The "capture the discourse" strategy of feminist lawyers usually calls such reports a "victory" and a "vindication" for those who spoke of racism/sexism, and this of course is something university administrations cannot permit. Thomas Berger, who co-reviewed the UVic struggle, resigned in protest from his position on the UBC Board of Governors last year when UBC accepted McEwen's report (Kevin Griffm, "Berger leaving UBC Board over handling of report," Vancouver Sun, Nov. 8, 1995, p.Al).

  8. Denise Helm, "Latest UVic appointment does little to thaw 'chill' Times Colonist February 10,1996, p.l0.

  9. These annual conferences started in 1994, funded in the context of the Human Rights class action suit of sex discrimination launched against the University by the CCC. Of course, this is progress as well as a site of struggle. In 1994, one of the recommendations from the conference was to "Ask the President to implement the recommendations of the Chilly Climate Committee campus-wide and to provide protection and support to women on the Chilly Climate Committee," The Ring, December 10, 1993, p.5.

  10. Lilian Morgan, Letter to the Editor, "[Chilly Climate] Committee 'reeks of confrontational politics'" The Ring, January 14, 1994, p.8. See as a response a letter from Clare Porac, Chair-Elect, Faculty Women's Caucus, and Alison Preece, Chair, Faculty Women's Caucus, "The 'real life' of women faculty and students at UVic," The Ring, January 28, 1994, p.7.

  11. "Hotbeds of sexism, racism? Well, that's polisci," Times Colonist July 10,1995, p.A5. See response by Somer Brodribb, Sylvia Bardon, Theresa Newhouse, Jennifer Spencer, "Appeasement won't warm chilly climes in polisci," Times Colonist, July 15, 1995, p.A5.

  12. Mary Meigs, The Medusa Head, Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1993, p.33.

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