Student petition about trail ownership closed after meeting with college
BY SAM TASKIE
An online student petition calling for the college to gain control of the wooded trails surrounding Trafalgar Campus has been closed after getting 525 signatures.
Computer Systems Technology student Hamza Jami, who started an online petition directed to Mayor Rob Burton, President Jeff Zabudsky and Ward 5 Councillor Jeff Knoll calling for Sheridan’s freehold ownership of the forests around campus, says he was asked to a meeting with Sheridan administration Thursday.
Jami told Sheridan’s JNM Journal the college has promised to improve safety by springtime.
Mary Preece, vice-president academic at Sheridan College promised Jami in a meeting Feb. 6 that the college would widen the pathways, clear excess foliage and install more lighting in the area, according to the JNM Journal story.
Jami gave in to pressure from both the town of Oakville and Sheridan College, and agreed to remove the Change.org petition.
Knoll, whose ward is home to Sheridan’s Trafalgar Campus, and Burton, are also members of the Halton Police Services Board.
The petition states:
“We the students of Sheridan College here in Oakville are getting frustrated with the constant reports of sexual assaults occurring within the Forests right next to our school.
Since September of 2013 we’ve heard of over 6-8 incidents of attempted assaults and yet nothing has been done to prevent these attacks from occurring. After hearing of these attacks, news crews and the public community started to express their concerns about the safety of the forest, however, nothing could be done because the forest where a lot of students walk is owned by the City of Oakville.
This petition is focused so that we can fight for our school to earn the land rights to the forest so that the school itself can earn Freehold rights to install security cameras and increase security measures across the board.”
– with files from JNM Journal
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