Members of the University of Guelph's Muslim community are upset after some individuals attending a banquet for engineering students urinated in a room reserved for Muslims to prepare for prayer.
At the annual University of Guelph Engineering Society banquet, some of the attendees urinated in wash basins located inside a wudu room, which is a private area reserved for Muslim students to ritually cleanse before attending prayer service in another nearby room.
The engineering society came out with a statement almost two weeks after the event took place on March 31 at Peter Clark Hall in the University Centre.
“When informed of what occurred during the event, I was shocked, appalled, and later ashamed to represent students of this behaviour,” said Grace Ly, president of the student Guelph Engineering Society, in the statement. "Within the Guelph Engineering Community, EngSoc strives to build an inclusive environment, and this behaviour does not reflect these values."
She then apologized on behalf of the society.
The wudu wash basins are located outside Peter Clark Hall where the year-end banquet was happening. The statement said "the door to the wudu room was unlocked as students were actively preparing for prayer." It said several male attendees of the event used the wash basins as urinals.
The statement also said Muslim students going from the wudu room to the prayer room heard banquet attendees speak about their offensive intentions of urinating in the space.
The banquet was ended early, although the engineering society hosting the event said that was due to people not wearing masks as required.
The space has since been cleaned and can be used again.
University spokesperson Lori Bona Hunt acknowledged the university is aware of the event and that it does not tolerate the behaviour.
She said via email that the U of G took action the day following the event and had discussions with students from the engineering society and the Muslim Students’ Association.
An email statement from the Muslim Students’ Association said they could not comment due to the ongoing investigation. The university did not say they were conducting an investigation.
“I think a lot of students just want the university and the dean of engineering to acknowledge that this happened,” an engineering student who wished to remain anonymous out of safety reasons told GuelphToday. She did not attend the event but later heard about the incident on the Engineering Society Instagram page.
“This affects a pretty good chunk of our student body and we prefer this to not be shoved under the rug."
She said she heard the event was shut down early due to a lack of people wearing masks but what should have been acknowledged was the urination incident.
“Systemically there must be something wrong if 300 students were there and conveniently no one noticed that a prayer room was being desecrated.”
On the Engineering Society Facebook page comments under the statement post included one from Taimoor Khan that read "This is horrible. I expected better."
"Completely egregious and utterly disappointing. You've also failed to mentioned the timing as this was right before Ramadan, so there is a lack of awareness and sensitivity from the entire organization," another Facebook user Jason Lee.
