UPEI creates new positions in sexual violence prevention, equity, and student support

The University of Prince Edward Island has created seven new positions with a focus on student support, equity, diversity and inclusion, and sexual violence prevention, six months after a third-party review of workplace harassment and misconduct was released.

The report by Toronto law firm Rubin Thomlinson recommended the university hire more staff to help prevent and respond to issues in those areas.  

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"This is the beginning. There is lots more to do," interim UPEI president Greg Keefe said in an interview Thursday.

Including salary and benefits, the new employees will cost the university more than $500,000 annually, said Keefe. The province is paying for about two-thirds of that with UPEI picking up the rest, he said.

The Rubin Thomlinson report, released in a redacted form in June 2023, brought to light allegations of sexual violence, bullying, racism and sexism on campus, with both students and staff as victims.

It outlined evidence of what it called a toxic workplace culture, especially during the term of former president Alaa Abd-El-Aziz. His sudden retirement in December 2021 came just as a misconduct claim was being filed against him. The third-party review was commissioned a few days later.

Then in June, a day before the public release of the redacted report, the university put its vice-president of administration and finance on an administrative leave of absence. In October, UPEI announced that Jackie Podger was no longer an employee of the university.

The report called on UPEI to take action on issues raised by the people who contributed to the Rubin Thomlinson review and make the campus safer and more inclusive.

Keefe said the seven new positions bring the university closer to that goal, but acknowledged it will still take years of work to reach it.

"There will be more resources that are required. There will be many more things to do… This is the beginning of a long-term strategy."

We do receive complaints and frankly we have received more complaints in recent times and I think that's actually a good thing. People are trusting the process.— UPEI interim president Greg Keefe

He said the university now handles complaints differently than in the past, with new investigators and a separate process involving an off-Island firm should complaints be filed against senior administrators.

"We do receive complaints and frankly we have received more complaints in recent times and I think that's actually a good thing," he said. "People are trusting the process."

Union wants more action

Margot Rejskind, the UPEI Faculty Association executive director, said she still wants to see more action taken by the university.

"We do remain concerned that this is an announcement," she told CBC News. "We have seen those kinds of announcements before. And when we've come and asked for details about how it's going to be operationalized, they've declined to provide that.

"We've seen that they're not really interested in talking about how we're going to make this work."

While calling the new positions "great news," Rejskind said the university seems unwilling to do the "nitty-gritty work" needed to make things better.

For example, the faculty association has asked to work with administrators on improving the current harassment policy, she said. 

"We have not been able to get them to really enter into a discussion about that….

"I can tell you a dozen people, just off the top of my head, whose lives would be better right now if we could have a conversation and make some very small changes to what's going on."

The university said it plans to consult with the community on its plans for a new harassment and discrimination policy early in the New Year.