The Eyeopener, March 23, 2016

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Volume 49 - Issue 21 March 23, 2016

theeyeopener.com @theeyeopener

Since 1967

PHOTO: JAKE SCOTT

YOU’VE

GOT THE GEAR.

NOW WHAT? Making ends

meet in a creative industry is tough.

How some students make it work

P5

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2   NEWS Wednesday, March 23, 2016

By Alanna Rizza

On average, 40 incidents — rang-

ng from sexual assaults to verbal

outbursts — are recorded by Ry- rson’s Integrated Risk Manage-

ment (IRM) security every week.

But students only receive an aver-

age of 1.6 of those reports in inci-

dent emails.

First-year history student Con-

nor McKenzie woke up in To-

onto Western Hospital on Oct.

24 after being assaulted on Gould

treet. He said he had no recollec-

ion of the night before and all of

his belongings were missing.

Three days later, he spoke to

ampus security. Security received

a call on the night of the assault

and then contacted the ambu- ance. He said they told him the

aftermath of the incident was

aught on camera, but the assault

occurred in a “blind spot” so the

uspect could not be identified.

McKenzie said witnesses, who

he met on the street days later, told

him he was hit and robbed. A pub-

ic security report was not issued.

McKenzie said he was

“shocked” to find out there was

no public report. “That’s informa-

ion we should know, I don’t see

why they should hide that from

us,” he said.

Ryerson began issuing incident

mails at the beginning of the 2012 school year to increase trans-

parency and safety awareness. Ju-

ia Lewis, director of Ryerson’s

RM, said they determine which

ncidents are sent to students and

faculty using “risk-based criteria.”

“Some of the reports we receive

aren’t substantiated,” said Lewis.

“That’s part of the risk assess-

ment, is to really have a filter to ensure we meet the goal of having

an informed sense of security.”

The criteria IRM uses is based

on whether the incident is consid-

ered an ongoing threat, accord-

ing to Daniel Paquette, account

director of IRM. If a suspect has

not been identified, it’s considered

to be ongoing. The exception, Pa-

quette said, is if an incident is con-

sidered “extremely” serious.

Tanya Poppleton, manager of

security and emergency services at

Ryerson, said that ongoing risks

do play a role in the assessment,

but whether or not the incident is “a risk to public safety” is the

biggest factor. Serious incidents,

Poppleton said via email, are “cer-

tain assaults” — including sexual

assault, robbery, hate promotion

and some serial connected crimes.

Poppleton added not all inci-

dents are made public because people would “be bombarded

with emails and then no one is go-

ing to read the ones that pertain to

[them].”

The Eyeopener has weekly

meetings with security where in-

cidents are discussed. Poppleton

said that providing campus papers

with the briefs that aren’t emailed

is an initiative for having a more

informed community.

The week of Nov. 23, there was

a report of a fight involving four

individuals at Church and Gould

streets. Two people were taken to

the hospital and one arrest was made. No public report was is-

sued.

The week of March 14, security

was called about a male trying to

escort a drunk female into a taxi.

Police were called due to concerns

about the female’s safety. No pub-

lic report was issued. IRM has records of all reported

incidents, but they do not release

statistics. York University posts

quarterly reports online, along

with five-year category compari-

sons.

“Statistical reports and edu-

cation initiatives are important

means of informing and engaging

with students on community safe-

ty issues,” Janice Walls, interim

chief spokesperson and director of

media relations at York, said in an

email. “It provides a transparent

means for the community to com-

pare trends.” The University of Toronto also

posts weekly and annual reports.

A log of all emailed incidents

can be found on Ryerson’s web-

site, but those only make up a

fraction of the cumulative total.

York, which has approximately

20,000 more students than Ry- erson, posted 830 public reports

from May to October 2015. Ryer-

son has 26 posted online from the

same time period.

Poppleton said anyone can

count how many specific types of

incidents occurred if they go on-

line, and that a stat report isn’t

necessary. “If you put out a num-

ber that doesn’t help anybody,”

she said.

Alyson Rogers, co-organizer of

the Ryerson Feminist Collective,

said that security transparency

is important, especially when it

comes to social activism on cam- pus. She added that she thinks

some institutions don’t share this

data to cover up a bigger problem.

“It’s easier to say, ‘Oh there’s no

problem here, because we can’t see

it,’ and I think that might be what

security is doing,” she said. “They

can address it as singular crimes,

as opposed to a systemic issue.”

Lewis said that IRM uses the

numbers to advance crime preven-

tion work on campus, and that’s

where the value to the public is.

“We do collect numbers, of course

we track everything, so that in-

forms our priorities and the need

to have crime prevention within the community,” she said. “The

value to the community is crime

prevention work, and it has to be

informed prevention work.”

With files by Nicole Schmidt Ryerson security reports are selectively released in accordance with risk-based criteria. PHOTO: CHARLES VANEGAS

How much is Ryerson security telling you? Approximately four per cent of Ryerson campus security incidents are made public, an Eyeopener  investigation finds

Soup and Substance Global events, local impact:

Ryerson's campus climate

Check out our website for more details, future

topics and past webcasts: ryerson.ca/soupandsubstance

Faculty, staff and students are invited to participate

in this discussion about Ryerson’s culture.

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Noon to 1 p.m. | Podium (POD) Room 250

Faculty and staff experiences: Ways to improve the climate

@RyersonEDI #RyersonEDI

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4   EDITORIAL Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Our cover model and online editor Tagwa Moyo knows all about the hustle. PHOTOS: JAKE SCOTT

t’s getting to be the end of the

emester. And for some students

hat also means the end of their

cademic career. For fourth-year

tudents, April looms with not

ust the classic crunch that comes

with papers and final exams —

t comes with the pressures of the

apidly advancing real world.

Perhaps the scariest version

of this apprehension comes for hose who are not planning to go

on to another degree, or any oth-

r kind of school. Knowing that

you are a month away from the

eal world, a month away from

dult responsibilities with no stu-

Time to look forward The real world might seem like a scary place. But our challenges can also be

our opportunities — make the gig economy work for you dent status to use as an excuse,

can be a terrifying moment.

In our arts section this

week, you’ll read about the strug-

gle that photography students

in particular face breaking into

a shrinking industry. And that

narrative has often been true for

many students that choose to

study fine arts — fine arts pro-

grams boast some of the lowest

employment rates among gradu-

ating students. But especially for

our generation, graduating into

a difficult economy still large-

ly occupied by baby boomers with 30 or 40 years of seniority

on us, it can be scary no matter

what you’ve studied.

That’s the bad news. If you’re

a young person in university,

you’ve probably heard some ver-

sion of that a thousand times. But

you can relax, because I’m not

here to beat you to death with

another version of it. I’m here to

shine at least a little optimism on

your futures, no matter how com-

plicated your respective indus-

tries may be.

You all have the pieces that

you need to make your degree

work for you, and to grab that

job that you’ve been dreaming

about. You’ve heard people talk

about