CSA Bike Centre

When welcoming some, turns away others

As we all know, it is a crucial necessity for one to feel safe and welcome at home, and the University of Guelph – being home to all of us – has never failed to deliver that mentality. That being said, according to the staff at the CSA bike centre, sexual harassments have driven female and transgendered students out of the centre, which has resulted in the exclusion of all male students from the centre every Thursday. Is this the appropriate way to combat this? Should this even be allowed?

The Bike Centre, located just off Gordon Street and South Ring Road, serves all type of students and even professors, creating a learning environment and communion for all U of G students. Yet male students have been excluded from the CSA Bike Centre every single Thursday since 2010! Have all male students posed a threat to female and transgendered students here at Guelph? Have we mocked and harassed female students to this extent? Have we asserted our presence as nothing but harassment and bigotry? I can’t speak on behalf of all male students at Guelph, but I can reassure the public that the majority of us have never posed a sexual threat towards females and never will.

But what now? Have the doors of opportunity closed on us in the name of liberty? It is of utmost importance to create a safe haven for all students, yes, but excluding male students from the Bike Centre, which is funded and run by the CSA, in order to further advance the participation of women and trans folk is certainly not the way to go about it.

The Bike Centre, whose number of volunteers and funding has seen a drastic decline in later years, has had its shares of transgressions and negligence. I have personally gone to the centre, impatiently anticipating the exhilarating hands-on experience of building a bicycle, and had to prematurely renounce my visit due to lack of volunteers and organization. What’s next? Will the hours of operation dwindle down to a complete halt of the centre’s service?

This simple act of kindness seems to have backfired quite rapidly, On the CSA Bike Centre’s website you will find such quotes as: “Our ultimate goal at The Bike Centre is to create an anti-oppressive environment for people to learn and work together every day that the shop is open,” and “Women and trans* folks are often heavily discouraged from developing their mechanical skills, and the cycling community tends to be pretty dude-centered.” “Work together every day that the shop is open;” But, in the fear of the centre being too “dude-centred,” the opportunity to “work together” is left obsolete.

This centre should provide a gathering place for those who are interested, passionate, or simply curious about the mechanics of bicycles, not used as a tool for political awareness . Now that their hours of operation are unreliable , how can we, male students, fix our bikes, or partake in any activities there if we are only given three days? This lopsided mentality towards men, whether it be a form of feminism or stemmed from past incidents, can be fixed and eradicated with the help of both male and female students. I may not be able to speak on behalf of all men, but I can assure that with some recognition and effort we – the Guelph student community – can settle this apparent hostility between the male and female student bodies.

Perhaps this is part of a bigger phenomenon? A mere occurrence in an old, rigid , historic battle between men and women? In this day and age, women have certainly gained the proper acknowledgment for vulnerability. On-campus organizations such as S.A.F.E (Sexual Assault Free Environment) exist, amongst numerous others, installed to assure the protection of female U of G students, on-and-off campus. Counselling, police patrol, and immediate on-campus protocol are among the many services provided, not only at Guelph but every university in Ontario. Sadly, outlying incidents do occur, weakening trust in this carefully sought after security system. But why treat this conflict with further conflict? Shouldn’t we include women and transsexual/gendered minorities in society? It’s 2014, and freedom and acceptance is granted every year to more and more people, why must we exclude males instead of strengthening the presence of these two groups? Your voices can be heard and your actions alike. University campuses host the most liberal grounds available, but now the tables have turned on us males, the majority of whom have never sexually assaulted anyone, we’ve been persecuted for crimes we haven’t even committed!

So, is this the result of continuous distrust in male students? Has there been neglect towards act of sexual harassment on campus? If so, should all male students be punished by being excluded by the Bike Centre? No, I say, absolutely not. What’s the alternative you might ask? To begin with, increasing the number of volunteers is crucial to expand the hours of operation; second, exclusion is never the answer, and therefore an integrated awareness-oriented day every week should take place. Perhaps even a day to raise awareness on campus, whereby the Canon is painted to commemorate victims of sexual harassment, followed by events that raise positive awareness on the issue in an attempt to avoid future incidents and create equality among male, female, and transgendered students here, at the University of Guelph, the place we all call home.