For most of the past 20 years or so, Alkis Gerd’son has lived on the University of Victoria campus where he began as a student in 1988. He had wanted to stay longer, and take a few courses now and then. But it may be time for him to finally move on.

Gerd’son has failed to convince the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal that the university discriminated against him because of his mental disabilities when it decided to evict him from his campus residence.

In a ruling dated May 21, tribunal member Barbara Humphreys agreed with UVic’s submission that Gerd’son was asking for “an open-ended right to remain in residence”.

“This, from his point of view, was the perfect accommodation,” Humphreys wrote. “However, the University is not obligated to provide him with a perfect accommodation.”

Humphreys’s 50-page decision tells a story of a man who may have found an ideal refuge at the UVic campus as he dealt with his own personal challenges. Gerd’son has been diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and allergies.

Gerd’son obtained a bachelor of arts degree at UVic in 1993, and another bachelor’s degree in education four years later in 1997.

“When the hearing began, Mr. Gerd’son had lived continuously in residence at the University since 2000, and had occupied the same apartment since May 2004,” Humphreys observed. “He has not taken any courses toward a degree since 1997. Since 2003, he has taken a number of courses in the department of continuing studies.”

There were two occasions wherein Gerd’son left the campus for extended periods of time. One was from August 1993 to April 1994 when he went to New Brunswick. He was in New Brunswick again starting in March 1999 and he stayed there for a year.

While staying at the UVic campus, he commuted to take classes at UBC from September 1994 to the summer of 1996.

In 2003, a university staffer called his attention to the fact that he was not registered in any degree courses.

Five years passed before the university began proceedings to evict him from his campus apartment. On September 3, 2010, the B.C. Supreme Court ordered Gerd’son to vacate the place.

Gerd’son argued before the human rights tribunal that the university’s policy of allowing residence only to degree students was arbitrary, a point that Humphreys did not accept.

Instead, Humphreys agreed with the contention of UVic officials that the university’s mandate of granting degrees and its housing policy are related. On-campus housing is a scarce resource, she stated. “Its eligibility requirements for a residence apartment, which are the ones impacting Mr. Gerd’son, have a built-in accommodation, in that a lower course load is applied to students with disabilities,” she noted.

The tribunal member also wrote that it wasn’t disputed that Gerd’son suffers from mental conditions. “Throughout his evidence, he testified about the symptoms, effects and consequences of his disabilities,” she wrote in the decision. “In particular, with respect to his eviction, he stated that, because of his disabilities, he needed the stability of remaining on campus until he completed his academic goals, or more time to make the move off campus.”

However, Humphreys pointed out that Gerd’son failed to prove that he was “medically required to remain in residence, or to be provided with an indeterminate longer notice period regarding his eviction”.

“Although he had not taken any courses between 2000 and 2003, Mr. Gerd’son was accommodated by the University in 2003, when, as he described, it agreed that he could remain in residence for two, maybe three, years while he took CS [continuing studies] courses to obtain a PR [public relations] certificate,” Humphreys wrote about how the university assisted its long-term resident. “It further accommodated him by allowing him to remain in residence until September 2008.”

Gerd’son had also argued that UVic did not provide any evidence that it suffered undue hardship because of his long tenancy, or will suffer the same if it allowed him to stay on campus.

In her decision, Humphreys noted that the university offered him help so he may be able to transition to off-campus housing.

“The accommodation sought by Mr. Gerd’son—to stay in residence until he completed an evolving academic plan—was unreasonable,” Humphreys wrote.