UBC Insiders On Air, Episode 13 – Caitlin Cunningham and Kaitlin Russell

The C/Kaitlins

For news this week, Neal and Maayan give a quick update on the suspension of Steven Galloway and the Faculty Association once again calling out the university, the CBC documentary “School of Secrets” and muse about whether Martha Piper lives in a completely different reality than everyone else, and the recent Board of Governors committee meetings where large international tuition increases were approved, but with some minor concessions to student concerns.

For our interview, we have two individuals featured in the “School of Secrets” documentary. Caitlin Cunningham is a former graduate student in history who went through the university’s complaint process after an assault by fellow student Dmitry Mordvinov. Kaitlin Russell is a current graduate student in history who raised the issue of graduate student safety within the department. Both tell us about UBC’s broken complaint processes, and the effects of institutional pressure to stay silent.

You can listen to an extended version of our interview here:

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Some episode links:

• The UBC Faculty Association does not understand why UBC would publicly announce Steven Galloway’s suspension while the investigation is ongoing and before Galloway was even made aware of the allegations against him.
• The Board of Governors approved large international tuition increases, with some minor caveats.
• The CBC Fifth Estate program “School of Secrets” is available for viewing on Youtube.
• There is now a group called silence is violence at UBC. Check it out.
• An interview on CBC’s As It Happens about the case with Sarah-Jane Finlay, the equity and inclusion VP