Why doesn’t UVic have more buildings named after women?
File Photo by Belle White
If you haven’t been on campus recently, you may not have noticed that the University Centre has been renamed. Now known as the Jamie Cassels Centre, after the previous president whose term ended in October 2020, the building is a stark reminder that there just aren’t many buildings at UVic named after women. In this case, the term ‘buildings’ refers to establishments with classrooms, research labs, or auditoriums, not residences. Although there is a good percentage of residences named after women compared to other buildings at UVic, residences are not as commonly interacted with by students. UVic has 86 listings on their building directory. Of those 86, 36 are named after people. Only eight include a woman’s name. Of those eight, five are residences.
UVic students launch petition to rename Trutch Street
Photo sourced from petition website.
Four UVic students have put forward a petition to rename Trutch Street in Fairfield. Jade Baird, Ashley Yaredic, Rachel Dufort, and Sicily Fox will be speaking with city councillors on April 22 and presenting the petition for the second time.
The petition started as a group project in James Rowe’s Environmental Studies 407: Mindfulness, Sustainability, and Social Change class. As of April 12 it has garnered 1 330 signatures.
Passionate about the processes of decolonization and reconciliation, Baird and her group want to challenge colonial place names.
“All four of us are settlers, and we believe that decolonization is a settler’s responsibility,” wrote Baird in an email to the Martlet.