OUSA Home Office, 1996
The Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA) was formed in 1992 as the result of an informal alliance of elected student governments. The goal was to present a united front on issues that affect Ontario’s undergraduate students in order to more effectively lobby the provincial government for change.
Representatives from student councils at Brock University, Queen’s University, the University of Toronto, the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University were the first members of OUSA. These groups reached consensus about the goals and structure of the organization, and, learning from the past mistakes of earlier groups, agreed that OUSA should:
- Provide a common voice on educational issues for students;
- Strive to unite Ontario’s full- and part-time undergraduate students to lobby for better financial aid, fair tuition fees, greater university accountability and more government funding for universities;
- Work to ensure that Ontario students receive affordable and high-quality post-secondary education;
- Provide research and ideas to governments and the public on how to improve the accessibility, affordability, accountability and quality of post-secondary education in Ontario
- Present credible and constructive policies, so that students’ issues are taken seriously by politicians and the public at large; and
- Maintain a decentralized structure, so that policy is set by the annually elected student leaders from our member campuses.
On February 27, 1995, the member schools officially incorporated after voting to make this informal alliance a permanent student organization. Since then, membership has grown to include Brock University, Laurentian University, McMaster University, Queen’s University, Trent University Durham, Wilfrid Laurier University, the University of Waterloo, and Western University.