Students express concern over seating at 2019 Welcome Day
Traditionally, Welcome Day at the Faculty of Law is a day of celebration—for making it through the LSATs, for gaining admission into one of the top law schools in the country, for meeting new friends, and for embarking on a new stage of your career. But one group of students at the 2019 Welcome Day in February was troubled by an attempt at inclusivity during their introductions to the school.
At lunch, students were divided into groups based on legal interests and placed with upper-years and alumni who specialize in those fields. For most groups, their shared legal interest was obvious. The incoming students had specified their interests in a pre-event survey. The alumnus or alumna seated at their table also wore a name tag indicating their corresponding interests. However, for one table, no common legal interest could be immediately identified.
When the students attempted to find a common legal interest, Sara-Marni Hubbard, the Student Programs Coordinator, allegedly hinted that theirs “was more specific than that.”
Over the course of the lunch hour, students were encouraged to guess what characteristic bound them all. When someone suggested that all the students were LGBTQ+, Hubbard allegedly confirmed it.
A student placed at the table said the experience was uncomfortable for several participants. “It instantly made everything super uncomfortable because it was a semi-professional event, and it’s not like anyone else was grouped based on their personal/cultural identity,” the student said.
The student added that there are already opportunities for students to meet others who share their identity.
In an email to the law school, Rebecca Xie (1L) said, “Not only was this a betrayal of my implicit trust in the Faculty of Law’s discretion and confidentiality with our personal information, outing people without their permission can be unsafe for people who remain partially closeted for various reasons, even to other LGBTQ+ people.”
In her reply to that email, Hubbard apologized for putting students in an uncomfortable position. “If I knew … going into the lunch, I would not have encouraged the group to guess what [the] commonality was. It’s certainly not my place to out anyone, and I value and honour everyone’s coming out process,” said Hubbard.“I’m sorry and regretful for any part I played in that.”
Asked to comment, Hubbard told Ultra Vires: “Since writing my email … I have learned from the organizer of the event that the students were not placed at the tables based on personal identity.”
“I didn’t know why we were seated together, and like many others at the table, made an assumption that wasn’t true,” Hubbard added.
According to Assistant Dean Alexis Archbold, “Those students were placed there because they indicated on the pre-Welcome Day survey that they were interested in social justice law/constitutional law/admin law.”
“If several students at the social justice law/constitutional law/admin law table also identified as LGBTQ, it was truly a coincidence,” added Archbold.
“It’s interesting that [Hubbard] said she was uncomfortable with the table, since she was the one that made us aware that it was the ‘gay table’. The first thing she said when everyone arrived was that we should guess why we were all seated together,” said Jeffrey Wang, the 2L assigned to the table.
“When no one spoke up, she continued to push the topic until she left. If she didn’t say anything, no one would have known and it wouldn’t have mattered that we were seated together,” Wang added.
Students commented that, regardless of intention, their experiences at the table marred what would otherwise have been a pleasant welcome to the Faculty of Law.
“Considering the multiple LGBTQ+ friendly societies which are designated safe spaces for members and allies of the community, it’s incredibly surprising that they didn’t run this initiative by any relevant student groups,” said another 1L student who was placed at the table.
*Editor’s note: Some students quoted in this article requested to remain anonymous.
