leen Velthuis pws Editor | nol Women United n Friday November 8 at 6 p.m., groups were gathering Library Square in downtown Vancouver for the annu- Take Back the Night march. This year the march was organized by Women Against iolence Against Women (WAVAW). The event attract- ed a variety of people who were there to help demonstrate the importance of being aware of violence against women, and to demand that perpetrators of violence be held accountable for their actions. According to statistics on WAVAW’s website, a 1993 study showed that four out of five female undergraduates at Canadian universities reported being victims of vio- lence in a dating relationship, and 29 percent of those women reported the incidents as sexual assaults. According to a 1995 study done at The University of Victoria, however, between one in five of the campus women students was a victim of sexual assault during her university career. The University of Victoria’s Sexual Assault Centre says that currently, a woman is sexually assaulted in Canada every six minutes. Khalida, a Women Against Violence Against Women (WAVAW) volunteer, agrees that violence against women is an issue that should be talked about. “We're just getting together to make a statement about obacco Funds Ethics rogram at U of T adha Subramani e Strand DRONTO (CUP)—A vocal anti-smoking lobby group asking a college at the University of Toronto to ounce $150,000 of donation money from cigarette nt Imperial Tobacco. he Non-Smokers’ Rights Association (NSRA) held a s conference on November 5 asking the University of St. Michael’s College to return the donation from Imperial Tobacco that funds the school’s Certificate in Corporate Social Responsibility. Garfield Mahood, executive director of the NSRA, and five other members of the community expressed their horror at the university's acceptance of the donation in an open letter to Richard Alway, president of the University of St. Michael’s College. The letter stated “This is a cyn- ical attempt by Imperial Tobacco Limited to buy respectability and legitimacy through an association with your university ... the money in question is tainted.” According to both Imperial Tobacco and the University of Toronto, the donations were given last year and have remained completely transparent, having been listed in the school’s annual report, which was published in the Globe and Mail, and in Imperial Tobacco’s 2001 Socio- Economic Contribution Report. Christina Dona, media relations manager for Imperial Tobacco Canada, stressed that the company does not solicit schools asking to give donations. She emphasized the application procedure required for the grants that Imperial Tobacco gives out, and added that Imperial Tobacco also funds programs at Queen's University, the University of Western Ontario, Concordia University and Carleton University. The President of Imperial Tobacco Canada, Robert Bexon, is a St. Michael’s College alumnus. “The decision that St. Mike’s took was reflective of the alumni’s commitment to the school,” said Susan Bloch- actually ‘taking back the night,’ because we don’t have it,” she said. Alison Spence, a local student and assault survivor thinks that a march for awareness is a necessary thing. “Violence against women is all too common in our society,” she said. “Take Back the Night is an awesome event. Being a past victim of both sexual and physical abuse, I know that it leaves you feeling cheap, used and weak. Take Back the Night gives you that feeling of sup- port and assurance that you aren't the only one, you're not the last, and there are many people there to help you through the tough times.” The first Take Back the Night march was held in Germany in 1973. Since then it’s been an annual event, and it’s now held in cities all across the world, bringing men, women and children together to walk without fear through the night. For more information about violence against women or how you can help, visit WAVAW’s website at Nevitte, director of public affairs for the University of Toronto. Mahood is incredulous at the fact that St. Michael’s accepted the donation. “When I tell people [about the donation], the reaction is consistent. People start to laugh,” he said. Joanna Cohen, a professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto, is one of the five communi- ty members that are part of this campaign. In the press release that the NSRA issued she wrote “[as] I have stat- ed in an earlier editorial, a university risks serious damage to its reputation when it accepts tobacco funding, espe- cially funding for programs in ethics or corporate respon- sibility.” However, the University of Toronto does not believe that they can impose a “hit list” of banned products or corporations from which they will refuse to accept dona- tions, because to do so would mean that there was agree- ment across the board on ethical issues, according to Bloch-Nevitte. The school leaves it up to the colleges to decide from whom they will accept donations. The NRSA is not satisfied with this position, suggest- ing that a university-wide standard on donations be established. “We are also asking that both the University of St. Michael’s College and the University of Toronto establish an ethical screen that would block future funding by the tobacco industry,” stated the NSRA letter. page 3 ©