CAUTION: racial slur in para. 2.
An investigation has been launched after a racist event page was shared on the Lanark house group on Facebook Sept. 28. The Facebook page is owned and managed by the Rideau River Residence Association (RRRA), although an unknown student created the event.
Bethany Drader, a first-year political science student, said she received a notification that RRRA vice-president of programming Arpita Dar had cancelled an event called “Lynch a Nigger Day.”
Dar was added as an admin on the group without her knowledge, according to RRRA president William Verschuren.
“What [the student] did was invited Arpita to the group, and she didn’t accept but you’re able to make her an admin, so he made her an admin . . . without her permission,” said Verschuren.
Drader said she received the notification on the evening of Sept. 28, after the student had been posting “moronic” content all day.
Although the Facebook group was open for anyone to join, housing director Laura Storey said housing staff have been in contact with RRRA on how to close the page and vet future members.
According to Storey, RRRA is responsible for the pages and although housing staff can monitor, they do not manage content.
“My understanding is that RRRA owns the Facebook pages that are in question. They create them and they manage who joins,” she said.
Drader said she hopes the person who posted the event is held accountable.
“I think it qualifies as hate speech and there should definitely be some consequences,” she said.
Storey said the page was unacceptable.
“It is definitely inappropriate,” Storey said. “It is certainly not something that we would tolerate.”
Verschuren said while RRRA acted to remove the page, it is ultimately up to the Department of Housing to investigate.
“Housing is launching an investigation into it because it goes against student conduct. We just deleted it and shut it down as soon as we found out,” he said. “We can’t discipline students. All we can do is stop it, so we stopped it.”
Storey said that because the page is owned by RRRA and not the Department of Housing, they cannot act unless the student lives in residence.
“If the students lived in residence we could follow up, but if they don’t, it would fall under student affairs,” she said.
