News in Brief

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The Saturday Club celebrates 120 years

For its 120th anniversary, the historically exclusive Saturday Club is aiming to draw more members to its meetings. 

The club first met in 1897 at the former home of Queen’s trustee, Andrew Drummond. Drummond hosted the club’s members every Saturday evening, inviting various speakers to give academic talks. 

At the time, membership was exclusive to male academics. The club did, however, welcome members from outside of Queen’s, including lawyers and professors from the Royal Military College and community leaders. Spouses’ involvement was limited to preparing and serving tea and cakes after the talks. 

The 120th anniversary of the club falls on Nov. 6. To celebrate the occasion, the Saturday Club has made a website and is openly promoting its meetings. 

The club has unique rules. Titles of the lectures are deliberately vague, and content must be based on research that is preferably not yet published. However, all talks must be accessible to non-experts. 

Peter Taylor, a professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, will be the next speaker. The lecture, Science and Art, will take place on Monday, Nov. 5 at 5:30 p.m.

All talks are held in Watson Hall, Rm. 517. 

Human Rights Office report late

The Human Rights Office 2016-2017 report has missed its September deadline, meaning a report hasn’t been published since 2015. 

“The Human Rights Office is accountable to the Provost’s Office and the Senate Educational Equity Committee with respect to our reports,” Stephanie Simpson, executive director and university advisor on equity and human rights,” wrote to The Journal in an email.

“The 2016-2017 report was expected in September 2018, but we encountered a delay,” she continued. “We anticipate that report being available in the near future.”

The University didn’t respond to questions about the nature of the delay in time for publication. 

The reports account for information including the number and types of harassment and discrimination incidents where individuals sought the help of an advisor. The categories of cases range from discrimination against persons with disabilities and racial harassment to sexual assault. 

The reports also contain information like how many help sessions the Office has per year and what method of contact complainants use, whether it be telephone, walk-in, referral or online. 

In the most recent publication, the Human Rights Office reported 121 cases in 2014, which fell to 105 the following year. 

In 2015, 62 of 105 complainants were students. Of the respondents, 30 were students and 31 were staff.  

The reports also contain summaries of updates to the various extensions of the Human Rights Office like the Positive Space Program and the Human Rights Legislation Group. 

Because no reports have been published in the past two years, it’s difficult to access updates on the number of sexual assault cases.

This information would reveal whether there’s been an increase or decrease in the amount of sexual violence cases at Queen’s since the 2016 appointment of Barb Lotan as the Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Coordinator. 

Until 2009, the Human Rights Office published reports annually before switching to every two years. There are currently three reports dating back to 2010 available on the Office’s website. 

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human rights, News in Brief

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