It might come as no surprise, but two of my favorite things to discuss are postsecondary education and the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance. My last two days have allowed me a great amount of time to discuss both.
Tuesday involved driving from Waterloo to Oshawa with Alexi to present information on the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance to Your Student Association (the student government for Durham, UOIT and Trent in Oshawa students). This was an exciting evening. Presenting after our partners at the College Student Alliance, Alexi and I had the opportunity to discuss OUSA with the members of YSA and take questions on a number of topics. Even more exciting, after individual discussions with participants I was rejuvenated at the fresh ideas and concern for PSE that each student brought.
After spending the evening in Toronto bonding with Alexi, I packed up and headed back home to Waterloo for another exciting OUSA event. Acting in my capacity as the VP Education at UW, I had the pleasure of hosting a town hall forum with OUSA’s director of policy and research analysis, Paul, and the University of Waterloo’s Vice President Academic and Provost. This meeting allowed each party to spell out their vision for the future of PSE in Ontario.
One of the most interesting moments from today’s town hall forum was when Feridun, VPAP from the University of Waterloo, announced his disapproval for using students paying outside vendors for quizzes and assignments. This is an exciting comment, as over the last couple of months we have been working to protect students from this practice.
In the end this was a great two days that reminded me just how great working for students with OUSA really can be.
-Justin Williams
