The King’s Wardroom will be amending its equity and equality policies following an unprofessional response to a suggestion for a BIPOC open-mic night.

Kay Nelson, a second-year student, reached out to the Wardroom over Instagram messages on Oct. 17 with an idea for the Wardroom to host a BIPOC open-mic night. 

They sent an example of a similar event at the University of Ottawa and wrote: “Idea…” 

The Wardroom has not run an event specifically for students of colour in the last five years, according to weekly event schedules on its Instagram. 

“First and foremost, [the Wardroom is a] space for students, by students,” said Nelson. “And that doesn’t mean just the majority of the population of King’s. It means the minorities of the population of King’s as well.”

Four days later, Nelson received a response from the Wardroom’s Instagram, stating that while they would love to see an event like this run, they would not be able to be the ones to facilitate the event. 

Nelson said this message confused them, and they asked for more clarification on the role of the promotions manager — which they understood to be in charge of filling the Wardroom’s event calendar. 

The final response from the promotions manager confirmed this aspect of their role. They wrote that if Nelson would like to see the event happen, they should organize it themselves or reach out to the Racialized Student Collective to find someone else to organize the event. 

To Nelson, the unwillingness of the Wardroom staff to reach out was a serious issue. 

“I didn’t expect it to be on me to reach out to the Racialized Student Collective,” said Nelson. “So my question was mainly just: what barrier is stopping [the Wardroom] from reaching out to the Racialized Student Collective?”

Nelson posted the messages online, to see how others would react to them — and to see if they were right in feeling like the messages were unprofessional and harmful. 

“The response that I got was overwhelmingly: this is an unprofessional way to be communicating, especially with a student who reached out for an event,” said Nelson. 

After the outpour of online support, Nelson wrote back to the Wardroom, expressing their concerns with how the idea was being received and asking for more clarifications as to why the Wardroom wouldn’t be able to run the event. 

Ell Zagar, the hospitality co-ordinator and spokesperson for the Wardroom, stepped in when the messages were posted online. They developed the action plan laid out in the Wardroom’s statement online. 

According to the Oct. 27 post on the Wardroom’s Instagram, some of the action items the Wardroom has committed to include: 

• Researching equitable hiring and creating an equitable hiring procedure. 
• Researching anti-racist practices in organizations and then implementing them 
• Running anti-oppression for bar staff training again

The last point refers to the anti-oppression training that Wardroom staff participated in last spring, organized by Zagar and the Nova Scotia Public Interest Research Group (NSPIRG). They did not run another session this fall for new staff. 

Nelson said they are happy with the proposed changes, but they’re looking to see if real action follows — not just policy change. 

“It seems like every three or four years at King’s, something is stated about the racism here and nothing is ever done about it,” says Nelson. “That’s an issue.”

This is the third time in 10 years that the Wardroom has had to amend its policy regarding anti-oppression training for staff members. 

In 2016, the Wardroom planned to host a Wu Tang themed night. It was cancelled 12 hours before the event, after a racialized student expressed concerns online about the event, according to an article from The Watch. The King’s Student Union (KSU) president at the time then committed to giving Wardroom staff anti-oppression training.

In 2020, during the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, Wardroom staff made another commitment to being an anti-racist institution, and to reviewing their equity policies in training, hiring and general procedures, according to the Wardroom’s Instagram post on July 17, 2020. This year, the Wardroom staff is promising much of the same. 

Since the Wardroom is run by students, Zagar says it is constantly in a period of staff turnover.  

One difference this time around is the new director of equity position at King’s, which replaced the position of equity officer. Karen Mutyabule started in the new position this year. She says the new role has a wider reach and is able to implement change. 

Since the new position is part of the senior administrative team, Mutyabule says she can oversee equitable policy changes across the university and hopefully prevent the continuous policy changes in its student institutions. With policies from the Wardroom being linked to wider equity policies in King’s, Mutyabule says she’ll be able to check in with students about how the policies are functioning — and work with the Wardroom’s staff to make changes. 

“That connectivity makes sure that there’s another step to holding folks accountable for things,” says Mutyabule. 

The Wardroom also recently reinstated its advisory committee, which reviews Wardroom procedures and policies three times a year. 

With the new support systems in place, Zagar and Mutyabule said they are hopeful that the changes will last longer than previous incidents. 

“I’m hoping that all of those pieces can keep us accountable,” says Zagar, “but the other thing is that students keep us accountable as well, as patrons and as members of the [KSU] that owns the Wardroom.”

There is no date set yet for a BIPOC open-mic night, but Zagar says the event will be prioritized in the coming months.