Sasha Anzulovich continues her fight with Thompson Rivers University, even after receiving an apology letter and a conditional offer to return to the school.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Sasha Anzulovich

Thompson Rivers University has apologized to a former student for an investigation she couldn't defend against, but the consolations weren't enough to convince her to rejoin the program.

Sasha Anzulovich was studying to be a social worker until 2021. She only needed to finish one more semester and a practicum before getting her degree. In February of that year, a harassment investigation derailed her studies.

"Now that I have this letter and an apology from the school, I see I really was backed into a corner. I just didn't know it," she said.

The investigation ended by not only concluding Anzulovich harassed an Indigenous student, but also required she go through the School of Social Work's professional suitability review. If she were to fail, she would be deemed unsuitable to be a social worker and barred from returning to the program.

The school's harassment policy, along with the suitability review, gave her with no opportunity for an appeal.

Anzulovich wouldn't accept the university's ruling and took it up with the BC Ombudsperson's Office.

Nearly four years later, the school apologized, but the apology was prompted by the watchdog investigation's proposed settlement.

"Seeing that letter told me I didn't have to suffer the way that I suffered," she said.

In October 2024, an investigator found the Kamloops university decided from the beginning she would be subject to the review, and it appeared Anzulovich never had a chance to defend herself.

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"In reviewing the available records, I was concerned that TRU did not approach the Review with impartiality and did not support your meaningful participation in the process. Instead, it appeared TRU unilaterally found that you had engaged in unsuitable conduct without satisfying essential elements of a fair process," a letter from ombudsperson officer Rachael Walisser read.

It goes on to say TRU failed to warn her she might be subjected to such a review. She didn't have clear information about TRU's decision-making process, an opportunity to respond, nor clear reasons for its final decision, according to the letter provided to iNFOnews.ca.

The letter added that "certain information was missing" from the university's records. It made the task of finding whether TRU's investigation was done fairly more difficult, but it also raised suspicions.

"When our office is unable to rely on records from a public authority to satisfy ourselves that the principles of natural justice have been applied, we question whether a fair process occurred," the letter read.

It ended by summarizing TRU's agreed upon settlement, which included policy changes to outline a clear and fair professional suitability review process, along with relevant training for staff and faculty. The university was also to apologize to Anzulovich yet still require her to go through a "revised" suitability review.

TRU's Dean of Education and Social Work Dr. Yasmin Dean issued an apology for Anuzlovich's "unfair treatment" in November 2024, then added a requirement that Anzulovich take at least a full year's additional course load on top of the review and the still-required practicum.

The disputed harassment complaint

As far as Thompson Rivers University is concerned, Anzulovich remains guilty of harassing another student. Though it wasn't examined by the BC Ombudsperson's Office, she asserts her innocence as she did while interviewed during the 2021 investigation.

"It felt surreal," she said, reflecting on the investigation. "I do remember saying no, I did not harass the complainant — more than once."

Leading to the complaint, Anzulovich was working on a group presentation for a social work-specific course in February 2021.

The group didn't get along well, but the incident that prompted a complaint appeared to be a last-minute disagreement between Anzulovich and the one Indigenous student in the group.

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They were collectively researching poverty on Indian reserves and health care for children. The other student disagreed with her work and spoke from her own personal experience, while Anzulovich said she was trying to "let the research guide" her and the other student's experience as an Indigenous woman was "valued" but "not the only one that exists."

"I was sent into a full body stress response to these words. I could no longer type as I was shaking so badly my fingers were just bouncing on my keypad," the student's complaint read.

The pair couldn't agree on what changes should be made and the student claimed Anzulovich was "silencing" her in the lengthy complaint.

Anzulovich sent an email in February in which she apologized for creating a "toxic" work environment, but later clarified to the university it was not an admission of guilt. She intended to "defuse" the situation.

The student's complaint was one of a series that went to the university in the following weeks as Anzulovich herself complained of tensions within the group, while also complaining she was "bullied" on a university social media group. The Indigenous student's complaint against Anzulovich was the only one that escalated to an investigation.

Before the investigation started, the school urged Anzulovich to simply drop the class and avoid working with the student in the future, which she complied with.

Unbeknownst to her, social work professor Jennifer Murphy had already started a professional suitability review process in February due to an "inappropriate" social media post Anzulovich made, according to internal university email records. It was folded into the harassment investigation before Anzulovich was ever notified.

Anzulovich only learned of this after she filed a Freedom of Information request to get those records, but she continued to argue for more to be released. BC's Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner is mediating the dispute.

She finished her last courses in the spring of 2021, but the school wouldn't give her a practicum until after the harassment investigation concluded. Though the outside lawyer retained for the job finished her report in June 2021, the university didn't inform Anzulovich of its findings until just days before the next semester began in September.

"I didn't know what they were doing was wrong until years later. All I knew was that I didn't really agree and I wanted to know more," she said. "That's why I didn't do the review."

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Thompson Rivers University refused to arrange an interview to discuss the investigation and the school's related policies. Its communications department instead responded with a written statement.

"Thompson Rivers University has fully cooperated with the BC Ombudsperson’s investigation as governed by BC’s Ombudsperson Act. The Ombudsperson has concluded the investigation as per Section 14 of the Act. TRU has taken the necessary steps in response to the recommendations," the statement read.

It went on to cite privacy legislation that barred the university from speaking further.

Another new career path

Anzulovich tried multiple careers and education paths before landing on social work.

She has spent most of her life in the Fraser Valley, which was interrupted before finishing high school with health issues. They started small at first, but steadily got worse, eventually causing her double-vision and inhibiting motor functions.

"The symptoms are intense. They come and go in waves," she said.

She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis several years later, finally getting answers for her declining health.

"While all of this was going on, I was still in courses," she said. "I was taught that life doesn't stop just because you're sick. You have to keep going, and I took that to heart."

After testing multiple career ideas and spending a year in post-secondary school, she finally landed on social work and was accepted to Thompson Rivers University. Having experience with disabilities and life in the foster system, along with influence from her mother who herself is a social worker, Anzulovich said she wanted to help people and found herself drawn to the social work field.

She continued through difficult rounds of medical treatment during her studies in Kamloops.

"I've been incredibly resilient and resourceful, and I felt those qualities and life experience would have made me a phenomenal social worker," she said. "And I am one hell of an advocate, which you have to be. I had to learn how to support myself. I had to become resourceful and I had to learn how to advocate for myself from a young age."

Her self-advocacy is a skill Anzulovich brought to TRU when she learned of the investigation against her and continued to push against it, she said.

"If I were to be in the field, I'd be applauded for my advocacy skills," she said.

Since leaving TRU, she has been unwilling to meet the university's demands for a suitability review and an additional year of course work, in part because of the added costs. She got a job as a realtor in the Fraser Valley region within the last year instead, but she soon stepped away as she deals with more health issues due to her multiple sclerosis.

Whether she would actually use the degree in the end isn't clear, but Anzulovich said she would still want to get her social work degree.

"Even if I didn't use it, just to have it because I put so much work and money into it. Blood, sweat, tears and sleepless nights. Time I should have been resting after chemotherapy went towards that degree. So, even if I did nothing with it, I still want it," she said.

For now, her fight with the university continues. With the conclusion of the BC Ombudsperson investigation, the matter remains with the privacy commissioner as Anzulovich attempts to pry more records from the university.

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