In the fifteen months since I first became involved with OUSA, I have been given many valuable opportunities to lobby both local university administrators and provincial politicians, as well as bring our message to the attention of various
media outlets. As I will be graduating with a degree in Communication Studies, I have found both aspects of our political engagement to be fascinating and rewarding due to my being able to put to use skills only recently acquired.
While my personal experience with lobbying has been relatively limited – outside of OUSA’s own “LobbyCon”, my time has been spent mainly on campus – I find that I have been able to connect with media outlets on a regular basis. I suspect that this has happened for two broad reasons.
Firstly, I was lucky to have a chance to work with local media outlets before entering my two terms in university student politics. By having learned such basics as how to write an effective press release and what makes for an interesting news story (e.g. human interest stories and stories with a local angle), I put my skills to use when our campus community radio station (“CJAM-FM”) came under threat by an American private broadcaster. Happily, these skills have been equally useful when it comes to inviting outlets ranging from campus newspapers to the CBC to cover stories relating to OUSA. This leads me to my second reason.
Media outlets at all levels and across all mediums have been a pleasure to work with, and I suspect that our preparedness and professional conduct contribute to these positive working relationships. When I have submitted a press release to any outlet (this has been common to print, radio and television), I have always attempted to state clearly why an upcoming event matters, how it will affect the consumers of this particular medium and so forth. Of course, it is also wise to make as concise as possible any submission, as people operating under strict deadlines will not have the time to read anything longer than one page. Lastly, I have also found it helpful to avoid the use of all technical jargon.
For these reasons, I have been able to help communicate our various messages to tens of thousands of listeners, readers and viewers who in turn are now aware of OUSA’s educated solutions!
-Robert Woodrich
Vice President University Affairs
University of Windsor Students’ Alliance
