The University of Winnipeg allows all students to enter and enjoy their BIPoC Lounge – so long as they don’t identify as white.
Inside the University of Winnipeg’s Bulman Student Centre, the university’s students’ association opens its BIPoC Lounge everyday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. to serve as a safe space exclusively for students who identify as Black, Indigenous, or as a person of colour.
The University of Winnipeg Student Association claims that the BIPoC Lounge is a dedicated space for people of colour to “learn and heal through their understandings and experiences as a BIPoC.”
A list of the lounge’s rules posted at the entrance clearly states that students who do not identify as Black, Indigenous, or as a person of colour do not meet the requirements to enter the lounge and are not welcome inside.
The lounge’s Facebook and Instagram pages promote exclusive movie nights, study sessions, and book club meetings, among other events, open only to students of colour.
The University of Winnipeg celebrates its campus’ racial diversity, boasting that 11.8% of the student population identifies as Indigenous.
Among the university’s international students as of 2019, 582 came from India, 135 came from Nigeria, and 52 came from China. Between 2019 and 2023, the number of international students climbed from 13% to 18% of the student population.
The University of Winnipeg’s student association does not make clear whether or not racial minorities such as East Asians or Jews are allowed inside the BIPoC Lounge.
True North reached out to the University of Winnipeg Student Association and the BIPoC Lounge for comment, but did not receive a reply.
Universities offering racially segregated programs to racial minorities has become a growing trend in Canada.
In 2022, True North reported on a similar program at St. Catharines, Ont.’s Brock University, where students who identified as black, Indigenous, or a person of colour could exclusively access their BIPOC study hall, which offered“racialized” students free tutoring from fourth year students.
Earlier this year, True North reported that the University of Waterloo began offering racially segregated swim times exclusive for “Black folx,” to help the black community develop a “better relationship with water.”
