A violent altercation outside a lecture hall earlier this year has left Tatjana Lichtenstein with serious concerns about U of T’s vigilance in protecting students.
Lichtenstein, a TA in Professor Doris Bergen’s Europe in the 20th Century class, was shocked by what she called “a public attack” on March 6. As unsettled as she was by the attack, Lichtenstein also expressed grave misgivings over U of T’s handling of the incident.
“The university was not prepared to do anything to protect us,” she accused. Lichtenstein wanted two of the students embroiled in the fight, whom she saw as the aggressors, to be banned from tutorials and lectures.
“I did not want the other TAs to be teaching them, and I certainly did not want them to be placed in my own tutorials,” she said.
According to Lichtenstein, a student in the class identified only as “Dave” was targeted for a beating by two classmates whom he told to “shut up” when they were talking over the professor’s lecture.
A junior TA in the course, who tutored one of the accused attackers, was called to help and witnessed the end of the fight. When this TA sought to have the two alleged aggressors kicked out of tutorials, history department chair Dr. Jane Abray told her that, in accordance with university policies, the accused would not be removed from class until proven guilty.
When asked to comment, Abray said that university confidentiality policies prevent her from speaking publicly about the incident.
Lichtenstein found the refusal baffling.
“There were so many witnesses to this incident, it was, you know, a public attack,” she said.
Fei “Angus” Ni, one of the alleged attackers, painted the incident in a much less ugly light.
“I’ve never gotten in a fight in my life, and this just kind of happened,” said Ni about the accusations. Ni said Dave spoke viciously to him and his friend Eugene Chao and that the two went to speak to Dave after class.
“[Dave] jumped on my neck and knocked my glasses off…And I had to respond. And basically that’s how it happened,” he said. Ni showed The Varsity a receipt for a new pair of glasses costing over $300, dated two weeks after the attack.
Dave has not responded to repeated queries from The Varsity.
With the history department and the TAs not seeing eye-to-eye, Bergen stepped in and volunteered to tutor Ni and Chao personally.
“It turned out to be very enjoyable because she was a much better TA than the TAs themselves,” recalled Ni. If blame for the altercation is to be laid, the decision may rest with Trinity College investigating officer Brian Kolenda, a recent U of T graduate who is handling the college’s in-house investigation. Kolenda declined to comment on the incident due to the nature of his role, but Lichtenstein and Ni confirm that the course TAs and all three students involved in the fight have spoken with him.
Ni and Chao themselves approached the dean of Trinity College the week of the altercation, but Ni says he only heard from Kolenda near the end of April, well over a month and a half after the incident occurred. Ni has not heard from campus police or the community security department.
In the meantime, many of the course’s hundreds of students have not been informed about the incident.
“To be honest, I hadn’t even heard of it,” said student Jeffrey Newberry, who had just emerged from the class’s final exam. He noted that a uniformed officer was present while students wrote the exam.
In a striking twist that came shortly after the altercation, Lichtenstein saw Ni and Chao looking at automatic rifles on a laptop during a lecture, within clear view of their classmates.
“I don’t think they’re going to pull out a rifle anytime soon, but I think what it’s a sign of is a kind of intimidating behaviour.”
Lichtenstein told Kolenda about the incident, but Ni only heard about it when The Varsity asked him to respond. “Oh my god! Honestly, I can see why someone would get scared by that,” he said. According to Ni, he was showing Chao a rifle component called a “forward assist,” which he was studying for an upcoming military test. Ni is a member of the Queen’s York Rangers army regiment.
Lichtenstein said the university’s actions have left her with a “broader sense of insecurity” about campus safety at U of T. For increasingly large lectures to be a useful learning environment, she feels, students need to be able to supervise each other. “The professor is standing as a dot up on the stage with a microphone, and he or she can’t really discipline the students.”
Both Trinity College and U of T’s Campus Community Police have confirmed they are investigating the incident, but neither has revealed when they will announce their findings.
