After months of community research and consultation, the Right to Campus Toolkit has been launched online. The Toolkit is a series of new online resources designed by a small group of dedicated undergraduate students to increase physical and social safety on and around McGill’s Downtown Campus. The goal of the project is to provide students, staff and faculty with the information and support they need to understand and navigate the intersectional dimensions of equity and safety at McGill.
The Right to Campus Toolkit is part of a larger campaign organized by the non-profit organization, Women in Cities International. The organization strives to increase the empowerment, safety and inclusion of women and girls in urban settings. The Right to Campus Campaign was launched by two student interns from McGill, Dina Al-Shawwa and Arianne Kent in the summer of 2016. The concept is based on Henri Lefebvre’s book, Le Droit à la Ville (1968). “Through this lens, having a right to a public space is about more than just the right to being physically present in the space, but as well a right to engage and interact with the space in a secure and equitable manner,” explained Kent.
During the first year of the Right to Campus Campaign at McGill, Kent and Al-Shawwa worked with Campus Life & Engagement to refine the training that Frosh leaders are given each year to increase the focus on equity and safety. Later in the fall, the Right to Campus team organized a Community Engagement Day activity, during which a group of students completed safety audits of McGill to demonstrate how one’s identity can impact the way they feel in a certain space. Among other projects, the team hosted public awareness events and an art exhibit during the winter term.
After a busy first year, Al-Shawa and Kent pitched the Toolkit to the Sustainability Project Fund (SPF) as a way to further the campaign’s mission on campus. Funds were awarded primarily to compensate two coordinators, a graphic designer, and film producer. This summer, the team worked to develop and design the Toolkit. The final product is a user-friendly website that provides information and tools for navigation and empowerment at McGill. “The idea is that it can be a place for people to share knowledge about issues that relate to safety, equity and inclusivity on campus. The toolkit will consist of a series of unique elements, with the end goal being that the totality will provide the information necessary to encourage an increasingly safe, equitable, engaged, and active McGill University,” said Kent.
The project was truly a collaborative effort, involving many key stakeholders at McGill. “A lot of research went it to it – both academic and community-based research. We went all over campus and spoke with people with various stakeholders: students, faculty and staff, said Hannah McCasland, one of the project coordinators. “One of the main goals for the toolkit was to create pathways for communication between different groups on campus. We give concrete tips of how you can feel involved on campus; for example, how you can have your ideas represented or how you can speak to your professors. There is a lack of communication right now and we wanted to give concrete tips and resources for how students can bridge those gaps,” she explained.
The project coordinators hope that the Right to Campus Toolkit will propagate positive change on campus by increasing awareness and promoting constructive discussion, as well as by providing a platform for community members to share their knowledge with others. The Right to Campus Toolkit is an excellent contribution to social sustainability at McGill and will surely be an important resource for students, staff and faculty for years to come.
To access the Toolkit, please visit www.righttocampus.com.
RSS