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Article in The Cord: http://www.thecord.ca/articles/24553

Wilfrid Laurier University Event:

Laurier Blue Chair 1

Laurier Blue Chair 2

Laurier Blue Chair 3

Laurier Blue Chair 4

OSAP does not cover the entire cost of education. In fact a student who relies solely on OSAP is required to live well below the poverty line. Students eligible for OSAP can only recieve a maximum of $11 900 from OSAP. As you rightfully pointed out, the Ontario Student Opportunities Grant (OSOG) applies to any student who receives more than $7000, so in effect it works as a debt cap. There is no doubt that OSOG is an amazing tool for access.

However it is this gap between the $11 900 cap of OSAP and the costs of education. For an independant student living away from home, the estimated true cost of education is approximately $17 400 (CMSF). The poverty line for a single independent indivdual in Waterloo is approximately $18 147 based on Low Income cut offs (OWR).

What does this mean?

There is a significant gap between the amount granted by OSAP and the amount actually required for a student to live and study in Waterloo. The gap is approximately between $5500 and $6200.

Well that is all fine and dandy, students can simply find employment during the 4 month break that they are not in school. Or can they?

This summer the student unemployment rate reached an all time high of 20.9% (CBC). So if one in five students are unable to find employment over the 4 months of summer, then how are students to address this gap?

Well they can just work while they study right? Unfortunately that is not a reasonable solution either, and it is because of a specific clause in OSAP.

OSAP limits the amount of income that a student can attain to $50 a week. If a student earns over the $50 a week threshold, OSAP will actually “claw-back” their funding. So if a student receives the maximum amount of OSAP and earns $400 in the month of October, then OSAP will effectively take back $200 of the loan.

So what are the numbers?

Well a student who receives the full amount of OSAP and is able to earn the full $50 a week for the approximately 34 weeks of school, will have available a grand total of $13 600. A short fall of at least $3800.

Our OSAP system is flawed, and our students are suffering the consequences.

Sources:
CMSF
OWR
CBC

Kory Preston
Vice-President of University Affairs
Wilfrid Laurier University Students’ Union

The Cord Article:

Laurier is one of seven schools to host the Blue Chair Campaign to advocate for greater access to post-secondary education for all potential students in Ontario by reducing financial constraints.

Greater leadership is demanded from the government to support potential students

“It’s really OUSA taking action to draw attention to the fact that in the Ontario post-secondary education system there are countless numbers of students who don’t have access to our institution and to a university degree,” explained president of OUSA Dan Moulton.

The campuses involved are providing information to students from Jan. 11 to 22 regarding the financial, cultural, geographical and motivational barriers that prevent youth in Ontario from pursuing a post-secondary education.

At both the Waterloo and Brantford campuses, Laurier students will be encouraged to join the discussion the challenges of accessing university.

“We have 1,000 fortune cookies to give out and each fortune cookie is filled with a little fact about education,” said Kory Preston, Wilfrid Laurier University Students’ Union vice-president of university affairs.

In addition to providing information, an on-campus party will be held by each school on Jan. 14.

Laurier’s event will be hosted at Wilf’s starting at 9 p.m., featuring a performance by Let’s Go To War. Wilf’s bartending staff have also created a special blue chair drink for the occasion.

“We’re going to provide some interactive activities for students who do come out and attend that event to start the discussion about what are the barriers to university and send a message to the government that these barriers should be reduced,” said Preston.

While some of the participating schools, including the University of Western Ontario, are using the campaign as an opportunity to raise funds for community education initiatives, Laurier has decided not to incorporate a fundraising campaign.

“We really wanted to make sure that our events themselves were barrier-free and we felt that in these tough economic times charging a couple of extra dollars to a student might be a deterrent from coming out to our event and starting a discussion,” explained Preston.

In the previous two years of the campaign, Laurier did raise money for Pathways to Education Kitchener which works to reduce poverty and promote education in local neighbourhoods.

Preston expressed a desire to reinstate a fundraising campaign in future years once the economic burden on current students is not as severe.

For now, Preston stated that the priority of the campaign at Laurier, “is having this discussion and send[ing] the message to the government that universities matter.”

Bringing the issue forward to become a priority within the provincial government will hopefully lead to greater funding in the future.

“We need to see more leadership on that part of our government and students are calling for that across the province,” said Moulton.