Simone Mitchell wants SFU's International Exchange Student Services office to better prepare the participants in its field schools.

Mitchell says that as a woman of colour she was worried about travelling to China's Jilin University as part of an IESS programme. She said she'd heard stories about people of colour experiencing racism in Asia and if she was going to be a victim, she didn't want to go.

But she went, reassured by the IESS that its participants had never experienced problems of racism in China before. "I'd heard stories about Asia and I got the impression that I shouldn't go" she said. "But I didn't have any concrete information about China, so when the IESS office told me that there would be no problems with racism there, I trusted them. I mean, they've had a relationship with Jilin University for over ten years. I figured they knew what they were talking about."

Because she was busy fundraising for the trip, Mitchell was unable to attend the group orientation session before leaving for China. Randall Martin of the IESS maintains that she might have better understood the cultural climate in China, including its elements of racism, if she had been at the session. However, Mitchell says that she was given a three hour personal orientation at the IESS office where again, her concerns about racism in China were dismissed.

"It was really useless," Mitchell said, "we talked more about toilets in China than racism there... Maybe it's because everybody in that office is white that they can't understand racism as a problem the way people of colour do.

"I don't think they were deliberately lying to me," she added, "but they definitely didn't take my concerns seriously."

It turned out that Mitchell's concerns were valid. In China she said she was "elbowed, pinched, gawked at, and finally attacked." All of this prompted Mitchell to return to Canada two weeks ago, before the field school was finished. Since her return, she has reached what she says is a satisfactory settlement with the IESS, but she maintains "this should not have happened in the first place."

"Simon Fraser has a harassment policy stating that the university has a responsibility to prevent harassment and provide procedures to deal with harassment when it does occur... I know that they can't stop racism in China, but they could have made us better prepared for it."

Aside from discounting her concerns, Mitchell says that there were no support mechanisms set up for the group in China. "I really feel like there was nowhere I could go," she said.

"Why wasn't my leader prepared for this kind of situation? Why weren't we given any self-defense training? My leader didn't even have a calling card to call Canada in case of an emergency... It's not the incidents that really bother me, it was the way it seemed like the university didn't care."

Randal Martin of the IESS says that the office cares very much about each of its field school participants and belives that each of them was adequately prepared.

"Nobody's perfect," he said, "but I don't believe we were negligent. At least, I certainly hope we weren't... This has been very unpleasant for everyone and we're going to do our best to ensure that a situation like Simone's doesn't happen again."

Martin cites more cross-cultural training for future field school participants as part of the changes the IESS will make, and he says that the orientation Mitchell missed will be mandatory from now on.

Mitchell is pleased to know there will be changes, but nonetheless, she remains concerned. "I just hope that they're going to get some outside advice from other organizations," she says, "because I don't know if I trust the IESS to make adequate changes after the kind of insensitivity I experienced."

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