The decision was made Dec. 22, noted the University’s president and dean of the Faculty of Dentistry, The Star reports. The suspension means that the students will be suspended from “clinical activities.”
“The suspension is necessary to ensure a safe and supportive environment for patients and classmates who participate in the clinics,” the statement said, adding that the students will resume classes on Jan. 12.
“This is a very complex matter and we must take the time necessary to gather information, follow a just process and to make informed decisions,” it continued. “Key individuals were away until Dec. 21.”
On its website Dalhousie also explained what the clinical suspension really means.
“They will not work with the public or directly with classmates in that setting. Students in Dalhousie’s DDS program are required to complete work in clinic as part of their degree requirements.”
A student affected by the posts came forward and that’s how the university first heard about the offensive page, which has since been removed, The Star reports. Included on the page was a poll in which men voted on which woman they’d like to have “hate” sex with and jokes about using using chloroform on women. One post shows a woman in a bikini with the caption “Bang until stress is relieved or unconscious (girl).”
CBC News reports that Dalhousie University president Richard Florizone wouldn’t say if the suspensions will be extended to include lectures.
He did say, however, that the announcement regarding the suspensions was delayed because the university’s administration had been given credible reports from staff that some of the men involved were at risk of self-harm. The administration waited to make the announcements until after the students were back in Halifax where they had access to counseling services.
Florizone also said that the students involved won’t be able to graduate while the suspensions are in place.
Four professors from the university filed a complaint over allegations that several male students posted the sexually hateful messages about female students on Facebook, The Star reports.
Professor Francoise Baylis, with the university’s medical school, said she was acting on behalf of other students who believe more should be done. She added that the professors filed a formal complaint on Dec. 21, under the auspices of the student code of conduct to Anne Forrestall, who is the university’s acting vice-provost of student affairs. They hand-delivered a print copy the following day.
Suspending the students involved, Baylis said, would help other students to “return to the classroom in a context where they would hopefully be able to have confidence that it is a safe environment and an environment that would be conducive to their continued learning.” Baylis also said that students have told the professors that they aren’t satisfied with the current informal restorative justice process.
“We are deeply committed to creating a situation whereby no individual student would have to put themselves at risk if they wanted to bring forward a complaint,” she said. “As people at the university with a faculty appointment, it seemed like a reasonable thing for us to do, to make sure no student would themselves have to feel obliged to make that complaint … and no student thereafter would bear any negative consequences for having attempted to bring forward a formal complaint.”
The effects of the cruel messages go well beyond those directly involved in the school of dentistry, Baylis said, per The Star.
“Think about the dental hygiene students, think about the dental assistants, think about the patients that come to the clinic,” she said, noting that the clinic is currently closed until Jan. 12.
The other professors who signed the complaint are Jocelyn Downie of law and medicine; Brian Noble of the faculty of arts and sciences; and Jacqueline Warwick of the faculty of arts and sciences, gender and women’s studies, The Star reports.
Florizone told CBC News that the university will decide over the next few days how next week’s schedule for the fourth-year students in the dentistry faculty will roll out.
Decisions regarding when December’s canceled fourth-year exams will be rescheduled will also be made this week, CBC News reports.
