President Jacques Frémont responded to thousands of petitioners demanding the school improve its mental health services after four student deaths last year, and also gave an update on the school’s anti-racism campaigns after two Black students were carded on campus last year.
The University of Ottawa announced on Friday that they will suspend all operations in China after the World Health Organization declared a global health emergency due to the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The president of the University of Ottawa said a Scientology linked anti-psychiatry exhibit on campus that has been widely condemned and protested by students is “outrageous” and “hurtful to many members of the community,” but ruled the school will not be removing the display.
“We can learn biology isolated in a classroom, but at the end of the day when we go out into the real world, which is so scary, all disciplines are going to be together, and we’re gonna have to figure it out from there.”
The University of Ottawa Students’ Union voted to shift its executive structure at a Board of Directors meeting on Sunday, resurrecting the president position and adding a student services commissioner to its leadership team.
The University of Ottawa has launched a scholarship fund to honour the three students who died in a plane crash near Tehran, Iran earlier this month. The scholarship fund is established in collaboration with the Canadian Science Policy Centre and the U of O will match all donations to the fund up to a maximum total of $100,000.
Most of the Rideau Canal Skateway opened on Wednesday morning, with seven kilometres of ice now stretching from Hartwell Locks at Carleton University to Somerset Street on the edge of the University of Ottawa campus.
The nation’s capital mourned the lives of 63 Canadians and several Ottawa residents who were killed in Wednesday’s plane crash by hosting a vigil at Parliament Hill on Thursday. Hundreds attended the event, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The U of O has given notice of a potential privacy breach impacting 188 people, including elementary and secondary school students who attended a summer program on campus. The breach stems from an incident in late November 2019 when a password-protected laptop was stolen from a university employee’s vehicle.
The University of Ottawa is making ancillary fees students could opt out of in the fall semester under the Student Choice Initiative mandatory again for the winter 2020 semester, following a court ruling last month quashing the provincial policy.
In the wake of four University of Ottawa student deaths in the past eight months, students are pushing the administration to implement concrete changes to its mental health services. A petition with close to 3,000 signatures is asking the university to hire more professionals and implement more training for staff and professors.
The provincial government is looking to appeal last month’s Divisional Court of Ontario ruling striking down the Student Choice Initiative and deeming it unlawful, according to the Globe and Mail.
The University of Ottawa Students’ Union considered changing the structure of their five-person executive committee, including adding a presidential position, at a Board of Directors meeting on Sunday, but after over three hours of debate a number of concerns were raised and the decision was pushed to January.
The General Assembly to decide whether an anti-abortion group could receive resources and support through the University of Ottawa Students’ Union failed to come to fruition after the meeting faced difficulties reaching quorum.
Ottawa police are asking for the public’s help with an ongoing voyeurism investigation in Sandy Hill. Detectives are probing seven incidents that have taken place since October where a man wearing a black hoodie was seen looking into women’s windows, police say.
“I am saddened to share the news of the death of a member of our student community,” reads an emailed statement from U of O president Jacques Frémont sent on Friday.
The Canadian Federation of Students and the York Federation of Students took to the halls of Queen’s Park on Friday to celebrate the court ruling quashing the provincial government’s controversial Student Choice Initiative, saying the decision marked “a historic day for students.”
A town hall discussion on anti-Black racism on the U of O campus saw more than 30 Black students and staff share discriminatory incidents that they have experienced at the school. Speakers presented a number of different recommendations that the school implement, including hiring more Black professors and changing curriculum.
Tierney said it cost about $120 to degender the bathrooms in the visual arts building, and that was only because they outsourced the sign-making. The university could do it for less, Tierney said, because they can make their own signs on campus.
Ontario’s Divisional Court has unanimously sided with student groups in a legal challenge against the provincial government over the Student Choice Initiative, deeming the policy unlawful, according to the Canadian Federation of Students.
The seven University of Ottawa students on exchange in Hong Kong are safe amid escalating violence between protesters and police, the university says. Meanwhile, several universities across the country are urging their students to leave the city.
The union representing support and administrative staff at the U of O says their bargaining unit met with the university administration after 84 per cent of their members voted in favour of a strike mandate last month, but a tentative collective agreement was not reached.
The University of Ottawa’s administration is now meeting two of the eight student demands outlined in an open letter on campus racism released last month, according to University of Ottawa Students’ Union executives: representation and consultation.
The meeting in the University Centre Alumni Auditorium saw students fire criticism at the union for the recent re-approval of the official club status of an anti-abortion group on campus. The UOSU also made amendments to its constitution.
Firefighters extinguished a fire in the U of O’s 90u residence building Sunday night, with no injuries reported. The fire was located in the garbage chute room of the building, said acting district chief Luc Marshall.
