Sources within the AVP say they believed they had more time to consult before a final decision would be made
Photo by Julia McClintock.
At the UVSS board meeting on Sept. 22, a policy was passed to turn the Anti-Violence Project (AVP) into a “service group.”
A “service group” operates underneath committee oversight and is staffed by UVSS staff, student staff, and some work study positions. An “affiliate organization” on the other hand, AVP’s former designation, has an elected executive board that is typically only undergraduate students. Other “service groups” under the UVSS include the Info Booth, the Food Bank, and the Peer Support Centre.
Previously, the AVP was categorized as an “affiliate organization” under the UVSS, and worked to offer resources and support to those who have been “impacted by gender-based violence,” both on campus and beyond. They offer support and can refer survivors to legal services, and also carry out advocacy work on behalf of survivors of sexualized violence.
However, despite the important — and often highly specialized — work that AVP does, staff have raised concerns over not being properly supported. A number of these concerns were shared in a presentation at the most recent board meeting on Oct. 6, after the policy passed.
“We’re all underpaid [and] overworked. We are really doing this work out of passion,” said previous Outreach and Operations Coordinator Chihiro Ebara.
Conversations around the AVP becoming a service group — or, alternatively, going independent — have been ongoing for over a year now. Only within the past six months has the change been set in motion.
Ebara said that “trying to work with management who has different goals and objectives makes it really hard for us to operate and agree upon things,” causing many at AVP to become interested in changing the group’s relationship to the UVSS.
During the board meeting, the policy to change AVP’s designation was brought to a vote three times, and eventually passed after multiple rounds of discussion, one of them “in-camera” — when only board members are present.
The updated service groups policy was “an unusually contentious issue,” said UVSS Director of Outreach and University Relations Griffin Foster, who noted that most other policies under the current board have passed unanimously.
Initially, the board was split, and Foster, as Chair, was the tie-breaking vote against the policy, in the hope that it would be sent back to the development phase and reviewed to better reflect community members’ concerns.
The second vote happened shortly thereafter, with the majority of the board voting against the policy. After the “in-camera” portion of the meeting, the policy was voted on a third time and was “reluctantly” passed, said Foster.
This change was sparked by information shared during the confidential portion of the meeting.
Foster said that it was passed “with the absolute intention, at the earliest possible time, to make amendments to the policy to bring it more in line with our community values.”
While Ebara said the AVP had expressed interest in shifting to a service group in the past, they had not made any final decisions, and were under the impression that they had time yet to do so.
Individuals familiar with AVP, who were not staff at the time, said they heard from prior staff members that most of AVP’s staff resigned in 2023 after disputes with, and alleged harassment from, UVSS management, causing their board, at the time, to “implode.” Since then, AVP says they have been working on finding their footing again, and reestablishing their regular counseling services and workshops.
This year, they have been seeing more volunteers come to participate, as well as higher attendance at support sessions.
However, some of this growth may slow as, along with being switched to a service group, the AVP is now responsible for oversight of the Peer Support Centre (PSC) — a UVSS service that offers guidance and support for students, especially those struggling with their mental health.
Oversight of the PSC was another item that Ebara said was floated in meetings, but not fully agreed on by AVP staff, who were told they would only be responsible for PSC timesheets and help with their budgets.
On April 1, 2025, the AVP Outreach and Operations Coordinator job description — Ebara’s position — was changed without consultation of the AVP staff. The updated position effectively makes the Outreach and Operations Coordinator responsible for much of the management of the PSC, including being responsible for scheduling, “strategic development,” promotion of programming, and more for both the AVP and the PSC.
Ebara said they were not informed of this change until they were approached by a PSC staff member in the hallway of the SUB during the summer, months after the changes had been made and approved by the United Steelworkers union.
“That was the first time I’d heard of that,” said Ebara. After bringing these concerns to management, Ebara said they claimed the AVP had already agreed to assume oversight of the PSC.
The addition of these responsibilities adds considerable hours of work to the job of the Coordinator, and potentially for other AVP staff as well. “To make staff, whose wages are garnered through [referenda], be forced to do work outside of what that funding is for is undemocratic,” said someone familiar with the AVP, who spoke with the Martlet on the condition of anonymity. Meaning, money that students agreed to pay annually to support the AVP will now go to AVP staff’s support of the PSC, thereby redistributing the funds.
“That used to be a huge red line that the UVSS was very wary of,” they said, “and I think it’s very sad to see them cross that line, especially on issues of sexualized violence.”
In addition to concerns over staff hours and reallocating the capacity of AVP staff, the source explained that the AVP and PSC do very different work, which makes integrating the two challenging.
AVP “[doesn’t] hire people … because they know how to work with people who are dealing with exam stress. That’s not what they’re hired for. [AVP’s] expertise is … in sexualized and gender based violence. And similarly, for [the] PSC,” they said, is “they’re not hired for their knowledge of sexualized violence. They’re just not. [They] attract very different volunteers [and] very different staff.
The source also shared concerns about the different governance structure that comes with being classed as a service. According to UVSS policy, service groups are governed by a designated committee, which provides “oversight” but “[does] not direct staff in day-to-day operations.”
According to the source, the structure of the committee is currently unclear, but they say it will likely have members of the Board of Directors on the committee, as well as AVP student staff and possibly others.
“[These are people] who are not elected because they know how to run a sexual assault center, are not elected because they know how to prevent gender based violence. They’re not elected because they know these issues, and they will be part of a very important decision making body for [AVP],” the source said.
Ebara resigned from their position at AVP on Sept. 19. “To feel like I’m not respected, like I don’t have the skills or knowledge, or I am not professional enough to do this work, even though nobody in management has this experience, was just not worth it,” they said.
“It’s just not worth the fight.”
The Outreach and Operations Coordinator position remains open for applicants, and Ebara’s previous responsibilities have been left up to the remaining AVP staff until the position is filled.
At present, despite the AVP’s presentation to the board on Monday, the future of the organization in relation to these policies is unclear.
Editor’s note: Nov. 17/25 A previous version of this story said “harassment by UVSS management,” when in fact this harassment is alleged but has not been proven.
Dec. 4/25: This article has been edited to clarify the source of this information.
