Dalhousie could be under public microscope for a year: internal email

Dalhousie University has been warned by an outside public relations expert they retained that the university will likely be dealing with the dentistry school Facebook scandal for more than a year, according to an internal email obtained by CBC News.

The email was written by Sherry Porter, a member of the Dalhousie board of governors.

• Dalhousie students condemn restorative justice in Facebook scandal

• Dalhousie suspends 13 dentistry students from clinic amid Facebook scandal

• Is Dalhousie dentistry Facebook scandal 'ideal' for restorative justice?

The email says that Kim West, a partner with communications firm National Public Relations, says the discovery of the misogynistic Facebook page comes “on the heels of 18 months of high profile incidents, so the bar has been raised for scrutiny.”

A series of university campuses in North America have been at the centre of scandals involving sexual assault, harassment and misogyny. The list includes Saint Mary’s University, where a frosh week rape chant was caught on video at the beginning of the 2013 school year.

The email from Porter says West “feels we will be into this for at least a year, that we are doing a good job of scaling it and what will be important when the reports come back — how do we deliver on it.”

On Monday, Dalhousie announced it was suspending 13 fourth-year male students involved in the Facebook page from working in the university clinic.

The university also delayed the start of fourth-year dentistry classes until January 12.