The president of the University of Windsor Students' Alliance (UWSA) says she was shocked to learn of the three hate crimes that allegedly occurred in the CAW Student Centre earlier this month.
In a statement on Instagram this past weekend, USWA said homophobic slurs were found carved into the door of the University of Windsor’s Campus Pride Centre on Apr. 10, 2024.
The following day, a second homophobic slur was discovered etched on the door. The slur was covered, and campus police were then notified of the incident.
On Apr. 12, a third homophobic slur was discovered engraved into the door.
"In no place in my mind would I think that anyone on our campus would do such a heinous act," said Ghallia Hashem.
"There is no reason to go out of your way, and the campus pride centre is in a safe place that's secluded, because that's what our community members have already expressed that they want. So that means someone went out of their way to walk all the way to the campus pride centre just to etch homophobic slurs onto the door."
Hashem says the UWSA stands firmly with the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.
"We also want to reaffirm that we are completely against all forms of bigoted hate speach. Whether that be homophobic, transphobic, Islamaphobic, anti-semitic. Any sort of hate speech. We stand firmly against it and we to reaffirm that we do stand with all of our students."
As a result of the alleged incidents, the pride centre coordinator made the decision to close the centre for the remainder of the school year.
She says when the centre volunteers were informed they felt disheartened and unsafe.
"This was an act that targeted the really only exclusively safe space for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. So they felt that their safe space was targeted, so they no longer had that safe space."
She says they're inviting students, alumni, faculty and staff to provide feedback before the fall semester through a needs assessment...
"It's a very comprehensive needs assessment that's specifically for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community and it takes approximately 15 to 20 minutes to complete. So that way throughout the summer we would be able to visit that needs assessment, evaluate it, see what we need to do and what we need to implement to ensure that our community feels safe."
Hashem says they plan to reopen the pride centre in the fall while working close with campus police to ensure student safety.
Students looking for resources of support can reach out to a number of organizations, including the Peer Support Centre, Student Counselling Centre, Campus Pride Centre and UWinPride.
-With files from CTV Windsor