Dear all,

For at least four years questions surrounding the statues in the ‘Peace Park’ have been brought to the community’s attention. Students, staff, faculty and visitors have continually been concerned by the presence of (certain) statues on campus. However, the issue has yet to be resolved.

This letter is to inform you about recent developments about the statues on the UPeace campus and to request your participation in the decision-making process regarding them.

On March 31st, 2009, students decorated the school with banners, flyers, chalk and flags in order to draw attention to the issue.1 A brown-bag meeting was held to educate the community about the statues and hold a discussion. Around 100 staff, students and faculty attended. Over the course of the day 96 (and counting) signatures were collected in a petition asking for review of the statues.

On April 3rd another meeting was held with Vice-Rector Amr Abdalla. The meeting started with discussion regarding individual statues2, but progressed to consider whether there should be any statues at all. The group came to the conclusion that the presence of statues in the ‘Peace Park’ itself was the issue. At the end of the meeting a poll was taken: 62% of the people voted to remove all statues, with 17% against, while 21% voted for further discussion. All agreed that dialogue and discussion should continue, and that action should then be taken. At the meeting it was promised that the issue of the statues would finally be dealt with by the end of this academic year.

In accordance with this promise, we have arranged a meeting open to all students, staff, administrators, faculty, alumni and others in the UPeace community.

The meeting will take place at UPeace on Thursday, May 7th, 2009 at 1:00 PM in the Council Room.

We believe that the best way for this issue to be dealt with is through open dialogue with all members of the UPeace community. In this way, we can come to a decision about what to do regarding this issue, and ensure that any action taken is in accordance with the wishes of the community.

If you would like further information about any of the statues in the ‘Peace Park’ or if you have any questions for the organizing students, please e-mail us at uplift.upeace@gmail.com.

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter. We hope you will attend and encourage others to do the same. If you are unable to attend the meeting and wish for your views to be heard, you may write to uplift.upeace@gmail.com and we will share your input with the community. Please do ensure that your voice is heard. We feel strongly about the involvement of all members of the UPeace community, so don’t miss out on this opportunity.  

Love and Peace,

UPLIFT
UPeace LIberation FronT