The union representing University of Toronto teaching assistants is promising action after hearing a student group’s concerns over “multiple instances of racial violence and harassment” on campus and what they consider the university’s inadequate response.

The Graduate Student Union’s race and ethnicity caucus wrote a letter Feb. 6 calling on the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) 3902 to address recent incidents of racism on campus that have created a “toxic workplace environment for U of T employees.”

CUPE 3902 is the local that represents contract academic workers at U of T, including roughly 7,500 graduate students employed as teaching assistants or in other campus jobs.

The letter pointed to a number of troubling incidents in the first half of the academic year.

In September, history professor Michael Marrus made a racially offensive remark to a Black graduate student and was pressured to resign his senior fellowship position with U of T’s Massey College, where there have been concerns over racism.

In November, there were reports of razor blades hidden behind posters that read “It’s okay to be white,” a slogan associated with the white supremacist movement. Subsequent investigations found no evidence of razor blades but the posters — which U of T called “antithetical” to its core values — were reportedly part of a trolling campaign initiated on 4chan, the notorious imageboard website favoured by the alt-right.

That same month, a Black engineering student came forward to report several instances where students used the N-word and other racist language in online chats, prompting an investigation by the university.

“The cases of racial violence at hand, and the lack of appropriate response on behalf of the university, have culminated in an environment of emboldened racism and white supremacy at the U of T,” the race and ethnicity caucus wrote in its letter. “We are thus calling on our local to uphold its responsibility to ensure the health and safety of its members.”

In a written response, CUPE 3902 assured the caucus that it shared its concerns. “The rise in instances of racism, especially anti-Black racism, as well as the administration’s slow response, in some cases, and conspicuous silence, in others, have not gone unnoticed by our executive committee,” they wrote in a Feb. 15 letter.

The local wrote that it approached CUPE Ontario in November to share its fears that “the rise in white-nationalist activities across the province was emboldening racists on our campuses” and asked them to launch an anti-racism campaign. According to the letter, CUPE Ontario agreed and allocated $50,000 towards the campaign, which it will be leading.

CUPE 3902 said it would push for a campus-specific element in the anti-racism campaign and promised several other actions, including lobbying U of T to provide a safe space for racialized people and developing a working paper on racism as a health and safety issue.

The local further pledged to acknowledge its “own complicity in the perpetuation of oppressive structures of power” by engaging an anti-racism consultant to review its own policies and procedures.

“Issues of racism on campus have taken a backseat for too long,” the local wrote.

Kelly Hannah-Moffat, U of T’s vice-president of human resources and equity, said the university works hard to ensure that everybody feels safe and welcome on campus. U of T is consistently recognized as one of Canada’s top diversity employers, she noted.

But Hannah-Moffat said she also recognizes that there “is always more that can be done.”

“The issue is a top priority for us,” she said. “By no means are we naïve to the issue, and we feel that it’s something we have to work hard on, and it’s something that we have to continue conversations on.”

Hannah-Moffat said the university is continually making changes to improve racial equity on campus; for example, unconscious bias training or recruitment strategies aimed at improving representation on campus — last year, the medical faculty had only a single first-year student who identified as Black.

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Some high-profile changes have resulted from the advocacy of racialized students. In 2016, U of T became the first university in Ontario to initiate a program for collecting race-based data from its students — a move that Black community leaders pushed for and celebrated as a step in the right direction. Last year, the university agreed to hold its first-ever Black graduation ceremony after being approached with the idea by U of T student Nasma Ahmed.

Hannah-Moffat said when students or staff experience racial discrimination, there are “very robust processes” for investigating complaints. “There are a number of different avenues for employees to raise those issues, whether it’s formally or informally,” she said.

But CUPE 3902 chair Pamela Arancibia frequently hears from members who are too scared to speak up.

“What we see is a problem of enforcement,” she said. “People repeatedly come to us saying ‘there is racism,’ ‘there is discrimination,’ but in order to go forward with it, there’s a fear of reprisals.”

These same fears are often voiced to the race and ethnicity caucus, which was formed in 2014 to advocate for the equitable treatment of racialized graduate students.

For example, one graduate student and researcher wanted to report ongoing racial harassment from a lab mate but worried that speaking up would jeopardize future research or career prospects, according to Kenny Murphy, the caucus’ vice president of external communications.

“We’ve attended multiple anti-racism training sessions, in which student leaders expressed their frustration and burnout from engaging in anti-oppression work at the university,” Murphy said in an email. “In one case, a student representative broke down as they described feeling ‘dehumanized’ by their colleagues and supervisors.”

Murphy said the caucus is pleased with CUPE 3902’s initial response to its letter, but emphasized that efforts are still in the early stages. To date, the university’s response to racial discrimination and harassment on campus has been “generally slow and ineffective,” he said.

“As a result, the onus has repeatedly fallen on racialized students, faculty and staff to voice their concerns and call the university to action,” he said. “(This) takes time and effort away from their academic work, not to mention the mental and emotional burden that these folks have to bear, again and again.”

Clarification – February 26, 2018: This article was edited from a previous version to make clear that CUPE Ontario will be leading the anti-racism campaign, not CUPE 3902.