The University of Fraser Valley has a problem. Not with violence, since records show that UFV is a rather safe campus. No, the problem is in deciding who, in those brief and isolated punctuations of time when violence occurs, should be safe from violence. Should UFV adopt an approach that does not exclude its students on the basis of sex, race, and so forth? Or should it adopt the position that some groups are more worthy of safety than others? They have chosen the latter. According to an interview by local radio station Star FM:

University of the Fraser Valley hasn’t had any incidents like at UBC, where three women on campus have been attacked over the last three weeks. But security is still an important consideration, especially in the parking lots at night.

Director of Security Brian Leonard says they have emergency call towers around the lots, and also have lots of places showing how to get in touch with security. “So we strategically place numbers, placards in most cases, throughout the university. We have both non-emergency and emergency numbers. And of course the best recourse for someone in the event of an emergency is to call 911.”

Leonard says security patrols the campuses in Abbotsford and Chilliwack 24/7 and you can call them to walk you to your vehicle. He also says at the Abbotsford campus the lots closest to the main doors of building A are reserved for women only in the evening.

Director of Security Brian Leonard’s email address is brian.leonard@ufv.ca. Please direct your dissent toward him. I received this picture from a user on Reddit who claimed to be a student at UFV:

A quick trip to the parking page on the university’s website (which I have screenshotted in case they take it down) shows the same same diamond-shaped red and yellow signs, and explicitly states that it has a section for women-only parking:

“Women’s designated parking stalls are available in the evenings after 4:30pm in Lot 6 and Lot 7 (immediately north of Building A west, and east of Building A east) on the Abbotsford campus.”

The website is more current than the above picture, as the website notes that the women-only parking begins at 4:30, whereas the picture says it starts at 6:00. In other words, they have expanded the span of time when women-only parking is applicable since a year ago (the date of the picture).

One might wonder: are male students never assaulted? Are they never victims of crime? Of course they are. Some may wonder whether or not UFV’s women-only parking is the product of Feminist-fomented rape hysteria or traditionally-minded white-knight administrators who haven’t evolved since the sinking of the Titanic, when men went down with the ship while women were given lifeboats.

After several days of looking I haven’t been able to find any conclusive data on the exact political or cultural motive. And at this point, after spending too much time looking, quite frankly I don’t care.

I don’t care what anyone’s rationalization is for the University of Fraser Valley’s treatment of its male students. It’s unacceptably sexist, regardless as to who is doing it. If their argument is that women deserve special treatment because men are more likely to engage in street crime, would they also accept the rationalization that whites are deserving of special treatment since most recorded gang activity is by persons of color? Of course not. Nor should anyone. In further research at UFV, I noted that the ratio of men to women on the UFV campus is 36% male and 64% female, according to a university publication: I’m curious as to whether UFV has ever engaged in a public discussion of the issue of male educational attainment. Admittedly, I have not been able to find any evidence of this. And it would defy all logic for UFV to assert that it must actively discriminate against male students despite violence not being a big problem, while totally ignoring the issue of male educational underachievement – which is a big problem.

This isn’t the first time we have seen something like this. Last year, after a woman reported she had been raped at the University of Waterloo, the school declared that female students have priority for rides on the university bus system. It later turned out that the rape accusation was false. We are setting a dangerous precedent in our educational institutions. We need to continue to call out these universities and, in no uncertain terms, publicly declare that what they are doing is unacceptable.

The picture of the UFV sign for women-only parking has been added to the compilation page “The Face of Anti-Male Bias in Academia.” Again, if you would like to email Director of Security Brian Leonard, who advocated and instituted this policy, please do so at brian.leonard@ufv.ca. I have sent an email to him which reads:

Mr. Leonard,

My name is Jonathan Taylor. I am the founder of avoiceformalestudents.com, the motto of which is educational equity for men and boys.

I am aware that you are the individual behind the University of Fraser Valley’s institution of a policy which excludes male students from equal access to parking based on notions of campus violence. I have posted an article about it here.

I’m curious: in those rare punctuations of time when assaults occur at UFV, are male students never assaulted? And if most of the violence were perpetrated by persons of color, would you find it acceptable to institute whites-only parking?

I hope you will reconsider this policy, and consider engaging in future policies that do not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, and so forth.

– Jonathan Taylor

Founder, A Voice for Male Students