Inclusivity, like law school, is a work in progress.
Source: fotolia.com
Last issue, our colleague Simmy Sahdra authored a piece titled “They Say Sex Sells” for the Obiter Dicta. In this article, she correctly pointed out that Osgoode went to the Tilted Kilt for one of its O-Week activities. She also validly pointed out that our support of this venue contributes to women’s objectification in the service industry. For those who do not know, women staff at the Titled Kilt wear a minimalist “schoolgirl” outfit for their uniform. This uniform encourages a “sex sells” mentality, allowing patrons to “consume” women’s bodies alongside standard pub fare.
Overall, we recognize the concerns around our support of the Tilted Kilt. The decision to include that bar in the O-Week schedule was not entered into lightly. So while we take the concerns raised by our fellow students seriously and we share many of them, we also believe it is important to recognize the context in which the decision was made. Overall, we made our decision in the interest of accessibility and to provide appropriate accommodations for our students. Excerpts from an e-mail sent by O-Week leaders prior to the start of O-Week will hopefully provide some context:
[…]
Last week, Renard and I were contacted by [students] who requires accessibility accommodations. We were happy to oblige as we want to ensure that our O-Week is inclusive of everyone. Unfortunately, there are very few bars downtown that meet the criteria of being: accessible, large enough to accommodate all our students, within walking distance of Old Osgoode Hall, and within our budget […] . As such we had to get creative with a solution. Scotland Yard is an accessible venue that is able to host us, but does not have the capacity to serve 300+ students and leaders. As such, we had to find a second, nearby venue – this venue ended up being the Tilted Kilt.
The long and short of this is as follows – Renard and I do not expect you to eschew your personal views or issues with the venue choices for the Thursday Social Night. If you do not want to go to the Tilted Kilt, you are more than welcome to go to Scotland Yard that evening. We would also be grateful if you passed this message along to students who might feel similarly.
[…]
Michelle Legault, on behalf of
Renard Patrick and Michelle Legault
Osgoode O-Week 2016 Co-Chairs
As further context, we originally booked The Raq for our Social Night. However, we realized that this venue was a significant walking distance for some students and physically inaccessible. We attempted to book other venues in the area of Scotland Yard, including Bier Markt, Fionn MacCools, and The Jason George before choosing the Tilted Kilt. Did we pick a venue that some students may have felt uncomfortable attending? Absolutely. Did we, as a result, fall short of achieving greater inclusivity? Without a doubt. It was not an ideal choice, but one we had to make in the situation.
We authored this piece not to defend or misconstrue what happened, but to let readers know that we did have accessibility and inclusivity on our minds. We acknowledge that we fell short of those goals, and are grateful that our colleagues are challenging us to better plan for next
O-Week.
As a final note, we hope that you will still see Osgoode as the inclusive, welcoming community that you have grown to love. If anything, we can pause to appreciate that inclusivity is, like law school, a work in progress. We are grateful that students are involved enough in their community to ensure that we are actually making progress and a better space for all.
Michelle Legault
O-Week 2016 Co-chair
Heather Fisher
Legal & Literary Society President
O-Week 2016 Executive Committee Member