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Rainbow staircase a visible sign of progress at Nanaimo university

Sep 5, 2016 | 12:22 PM

NANAIMO — A colourful new feature at Vancouver Island University’s Nanaimo campus is seen as the culmination of many years of work towards creating an inclusive environment.

Just in time for a new semester, a prominent staircase leading to the cafeteria has been painted in rainbow colours.

Given the unique hillside layout of the campus, the choice to highlight a staircase was an obvious one, according to VIU Students’ Union executive director Michael Olson.

“We thought why not make it something a bit more VIU specific and there’s not a lot that’s so unique to VIU as staircases,” says Olson.

The initiative was spearhead by VIU’s ‘Positive Space Alliance’, a movement created in response to some homophobic issues on campus in the early 2000’s, according to Olson.

Issues of Xtra West, a gay and lesbian newspaper, used to be distributed on campus, says Olson, and someone kept throwing big piles of them out. When an administrator tried to stop the act, they became the target of homophobic emails.

Olson says another motivator behind the birth of the PSA was when a student went to the school’s human rights department and pointed out they weren’t represented in any of the course materials, since all of the couples were portrayed as men and women.

The mandate of the PSA, which is made up of hundreds of students at the school and guided by a steering committee, is to raise awareness of diversity in sexual orientation and gender identity.

Olson says there’s been a lot of progress at VIU in terms of inclusivity with the LGBTQ community.

“VIU’s policies and procedures have certainly demonstrated a commitment to the community for making sure that people are included and respected.”

He points to several washrooms recently converted to non-gender washrooms on campus and policies and procedures surrounding registration, as examples.

While the bright colours of the staircase are already receiving rave reviews, Olson says there is always more that can be done and several things are “in the works”.

“What’s great at VIU about this, it’s not just that they painted a rainbow staircase to say look at how inclusive we are, it’s actually a visible identification of the commitment that VIU has made that we can see.”

A news release from the university states the initiative was “propelled forward” after Nanaimo city council made the decision to paint two downtown crosswalks in rainbow colours in honour of Nanaimo’s first ever pride parade in June.

Olson says the staircase will remain as a permanent feature.

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Learn more about the activities of VIU’s Positive Space Alliance here.