A Saint Mary’s University alumnus has returned his two degrees to the university in response to the school’s frosh week chants endorsing non-consensual sex with minors.
Daren Miller, a chartered financial analyst living in Calgary, said he travelled to the university campus Sept. 17 to return his bachelor’s degrees in arts and commerce.
He was accompanied by women’s rights advocates and members of the Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia, a group fighting to save the Halifax Infants’ Home, which formerly served as a women’s hospital and home for unwed mothers, he said.
The university came under fire after a video was posted online showing frosh leaders singing the chant, spelling out the word ‘young’ with the lines “Y is for your sister . . . U is for underage . . . N is for no consent.”
Miller, 42, said he immediately thought of his two daughters when he first heard the chant.
“The thought of them ever wanting to go to Saint Mary’s with that kind of environment . . . I thought it was completely out of the question,” Miller said. “To know also that [the chant] was ongoing on a systematic basis for many years just made me think that this is something I just do not want to be associated with.”
Saint Mary’s spokesperson Steve Proctor said the school’s first priority is its students.
“We’re trying to make everyone feel secure and focused on their studies,” Proctor said. “We have established a president’s council that will provide us with a report of recommendations on how to change the culture within the community with respect to sexual violence.”
Proctor also said the issue of sexual violence will not be solved overnight.
“The issue of sexual violence is . . . a societal one,” Proctor said. “It is not something that one report . . . is going to solve.”
But Miller said he felt the university’s actions thus far are not enough to help solve the greater issue.
“I believe that the trouble is more than student-related,” he said. “It’s entwined . . . in the ethos, in the culture of the entire university.”
Miller said he questioned the university administration’s ability to connect with students.
“I think that there needs to be a complete cleanse at the university of the leadership positions,” he said.
Sydney Trendell, a third-year criminology and psychology student at Saint Mary’s said that Miller was right to protest, and said his large-scale action would help show that the chant was “tasteless” and “intolerable.”
“It is understandable that someone would not want to associate with this behaviour,” Trendell said via email. “We must stand up against things like these because by giving it mediocre repercussions or sweeping under the table, we are doing nothing but normalizing these mindsets.”
