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Guest Editorial
By Carolyn Turgeon

If you read a paper – any Ryerson or Toronto paper – you’ve heard about the string of sexual assaults that have taken place on and around campus.

If you check your RMail, you received an email last week from Security and Emergency Services, detailing its plan to send Security Watch alerts to all Ryerson email accounts.

Previously, the notices were only physically posted around campus, making them easy to walk by and be ignored.

Even if it was in talks before, we can safely assume that the timing of the electronic alerts is due to the recent incidents, and the need to let students know what’s happening in a more direct way.

No one can say for sure that emails to students will help prevent assaults. But we do know that it can help keep students informed. Help them grasp the severity of the situation. Encourage them to look out for their fellow students.

The only long-term way to put a stop to the sexual assault culture that currently prevades is to expose it.

The problem: the option to opt-out of these alerts will be coming to you starting Oct 8.

No matter what effect these electronic updates have on the safety of the Ryerson campus, allowing students to take themselves off the emailing list is counterintuitive.

Sure, they can ignore the messages they receive. They can skim them, or specifically not read those boring old security notifications.

But they’ll see the subject line before they delete it.

They’ll know that something terrible has happened on our campus and, like it or not, they’ll be a little bit more educated about it. And as sad as that is, that may be the best education that security can offer.