Hello and Happy Spring!
I hope those of you who are students have been staying well through your exams, and the rest of you have been enjoying the warmer weather.
April started off with our 18th annual Partners in Higher Education Dinner (PiHED) in Toronto! As one of our favorite events of the year, it’s always so lovely to see all of our sector partners and member institutions together for a night of celebration. We were thrilled to welcome Minister Quinn to the event to provide our opening remarks, and so grateful to have Faith Ogunkoya, the Manager of the Black Student Success Centre at McMaster University, as our keynote speaker. You both provided insightful remarks about the future of our sector with an emphasis on the support that students need.
Congratulations to all of our award winners, the night was a huge success and we’re excited to continue working with our partners to prioritize student issues. A massive shoutout to Tiffany, OUSA’s Manager of Operations and Communications, who planned and executed PiHED!
Malika and I also got the chance to meet with the interns at OLIP to share more about what OUSA does, and get to know each of them a little bit better. As a sponsor of the program, we were grateful to learn more about the exciting work that each of them is taking on in the program.
Our Managers of Research and Policy also finished and published OUSA’s updated Environmental Sustainability Policy Paper — a huge congratulations to the authors, as well as to Abi for their hard work on this!
We were also able to meet with the new Deputy Chief of Staff and Director of Policy at the Ministry of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security to discuss their priorities for the upcoming year, and learn more about what they are working on. Additionally, we’ve started quarterly check-ins with the Strategic Policy and Planning Division at the Ministry’s Office, and we are so excited to continue building this relationship.
A huge thank you as well to MPP Peggy Sattler, the NDP’s Shadow Minister for MCURES, for taking the time to have a final meeting with us as I wrap up my term. We learned more about what’s on her radar from an Oppositional perspective, which will add another piece of context, in addition to our other government meetings, for the next Steering Committee as they set the advocacy direction for the year ahead.
Last but not least, our Steering Committee is just about done wrapping up our terms with OUSA! As we’ve all been working on transition with our successors at our home institutions, we all came together one last time in person to onboard the new team, and prepare them for all that they will do with OUSA during their terms. Although it was sad to say our goodbyes (and even included some tears on the TTC), we are thrilled to see all of the important work that the next generation of student advocates will be able to do throughout their terms.
As the year comes to a close, I’ve also been able to take some time to reflect on how grateful I am for each and every member of our Steering Committee. Their commitment to their roles, dedication to uplifting student voices, and passion for so many important issues has been so incredibly inspiring, and has pushed me to be better in many ways throughout this last year.
We ended off the day with an Alumni event, allowing the new board members to meet some of OUSA’s former steering committee members and home office staff, learning from their insights and creating new connections.
Thank you for reading!! Best of luck to all the student leaders who are just beginning their terms this month, and thank you to those who have put the last year of their lives into this work. Only one more month until these updates will be written by someone else – and I can’t wait to find out who that is :)
With love,
Michelle