'A lot of trust was lost': UVic students push for accountability after student's fatal overdose

University of Victoria students say they welcome the institution's commitment to implement the recommendations in a recent report following the overdose death of a University of Victoria student but wonder why critical life-saving prevention measures weren't adopted earlier.

The report into the death of Sidney McIntyre-Starko, a first-year student who died after taking drugs on campus, contains 18 recommendations aimed at improving the university's overdose prevention and response measures.

Isabelle Easton, UVic Student Society's director of campaigns and community relations, says the student society had spent years pushing for changes that might have proved life-saving if they had been adopted by the university prior to McIntyre-Starko's death, including mandatory naloxone training for student staff in residences, on-campus drug testing, and academic amnesty for students seeking medical help in a crisis.

"Substance-related deaths are preventable, and they should never happen on campus," said Easton. "It's incredibly frustrating that the university failed to protect these students because they failed to listen to the students in the first place."

The report, written by former Abbotsford police chief Bob Rich, says McIntyre-Starko "likely would not have died" if the university's response had been better.

McIntyre-Starko took drugs for the first time in a campus residence building with two other first-year students one evening in January 2024, according to the report. She quickly lost consciousness, along with one of the other students who was revived after bystanders called campus security and first responders.

The 18-year-old suffered a cardiac arrest from fentanyl poisoning and died in hospital days after the overdose, according to her parents. 

Easton says many of the measures recommended in the report were policies the UVSS had been advocating for over the past five to 10 years.

"The UVSS, along with many students on this campus, see this as a failure of the institution and of the system," she said. "[The report] acknowledges miscommunication and the gaps in the emergency response, but it really avoids naming it as systemic negligence and as the system not being designed to protect students well enough."

University says it will implement all recommendations

UVic president Kevin Hall says the university will implement all 18 of the report's recommendations, which include:

• Designating university officials to oversee and investigate critical incidents on campus.
•  The creation of crisis communications and family liaison roles, additional first-aid training and resources.
• Implementing and advertising a medical amnesty policy for those calling for help with a suspected overdose.
• Increasing the distribution of harm reduction supplies on campus.

Hall says most of the recommendations should be implemented before September, and the university has already worked to improve transparency since McIntyre-Starko's death, along with other measures taken in the past year, such as installing opioid emergency kits with nasal naloxone on every student residence floor.

Easton says she is encouraged to see the university help expand the UVSS's naloxone training sessions, along with holding a recent assembly with 50 students to hear their feedback on harm reduction and harm reduction supplies on campus.

However, some students are still wary of the university's commitment to action in the wake of the report.

"Frankly, I feel like I've lost a lot of trust," said Adrianna Balic, a fourth-year UVic student who is one of several who created an online petition advocating for mandatory naloxone training for students living on campus last fall in response to McIntyre-Starko's death.

Zachariah Fenniri, who completed his UVic degree last fall and now works as a mental health crisis first responder, calls the report "one piece of the puzzle" of the changes needed at UVic. 

He is among those supporting the petition as well as greater overdose prevention awareness among students on campus.

"I think that there are some positive takeaways, but to call this a complete response to the death of a student on campus, I think, is insufficient," said Fenniri.

He says some of the recommendations give the university a task that is short on specifics. For instance, one recommends UVic increase the distribution of harm reduction supplies, but doesn't say how, where or to what extent.

Fenniri says he is also discouraged that the university has not yet responded to the petition for mandatory naloxone training and that the issue was not reflected in the report. 

The university says it is aware of the petition, noting it was discussed at the student assembly, but did not say whether mandatory naloxone training is something it is considering for students living on campus.

Beyond measures laid out in the recommendations and petition, students say they also want to see on-campus access to drug testing facilities. Although UVic funds Substance Drug Testing, it is located off-campus and is a 30-minute transit commute.

For the university to prove it is serious about improving transparency and preventing future overdoses, Easton says it needs to show it is listening to students.

"A lot of trust was lost between UVic as an institution and the student body, specifically residence communities," she said. 

"I think rebuilding it means that the university has to listen to and work with students, instead of just releasing statements and kind of talking at us and telling us what the problems are and how they're going to fix it — they need to engage students in that process."