‘Women on campus deserve to feel safe’: SFU student demands change after ‘daily’ harassment, catcalling
Posted July 31, 2019 5:25 am.
Last Updated July 31, 2019 11:20 am.
BURNABY (NEWS 1130) – She says she’s been the frequent target of harassment and catcalling from construction workers on campus, and now, a student at Simon Fraser University is demanding change.
Robyn Jacques says everyone to deserves to feel safe. She took to Facebook in June, posting “I deeply wish that SFU would take the sexual harassment issues on campus more seriously.”
Jacques claims construction workers at a new residence at SFU “whistled” and “catcalled” after her on an almost daily basis.
She told SFU’s The Peak newspaper last week that “It was a bunch of men and when they were together, they weren’t afraid to say whatever they wanted.”
“Women on campus deserve to feel safe, especially for those of us who live here,” she wrote on Facebook. “It makes for an extremely unsafe environment and I have had enough! ACTION NEEDS TO BE TAKEN.”
This all caught the attention of the university’s Residence and Housing department. Following a meeting with a representative, Jacques said they told her that construction workers have been warned if they are found to be catcalling at students on campus, they will be escorted off site and not allowed to return.
“This is a really great step and I’m so glad that Residence and Housing took this seriously,” she said in a separate post.
