Hello everyone!
On March 1-3, OUSA hosted its annual Spring General Assembly at the University of Waterloo. The weekend was filled with great discussions related to Student Financial Aid, LGBTQ+ Students, and Student Employment. I’m really grateful to all of our member schools who had delegates participating in very meaningful and complex conversations on our policies.
Given the government’s announcement on post-secondary education (see our press releases on tuition & OSAP and ancillary fees), we have been hard at work communicating our concerns to government. You may have caught it in some of our media and past newsletters, but we’ve been meeting with a number of key stakeholders to bring up our concerns, including the Deputy Minister of Training Colleges and Universities, the Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister, a number of policy staff in the Ministry, Opposition MPPs, as well as the university administrators on our respective campuses.
But OUSA still wants to hear from you. We want to share your stories and concerns with the government. How do these changes affect you? If you would like to share your stories through our Google Form, you can do so here. If you would like to share your story publicly via social media, use the hashtag #ONStudentsSpeak. The Google Form will close later this month so we can compile your stories and send them to Queen’s Park. Thank you to everyone who has already filled out a story as it will help us make a more compelling case to government about how these changes are impacting students!
OUSA has also hired two new Research & Policy Analysts, Britney De Costa and Ryan Tishcoff! We’re excited about our new research duo and all of the experience and passion they are going to bring to OUSA. To learn more about them, visit our website for their intro blogs here and here, respectively.
On February 1, an Ontario-wide survey, Thriving on Campus, was launched to study the campus climate of LGBTQ2S+ students across the province. The study will collect data on student experiences, well-being, and academic development. If you want to participate or learn more about the project, please visit the Thriving on Campus website.
In the next couple of weeks, we welcome our new Steering Committee members and prepare for our end of year gala, Partners in Higher Education. We look forward to seeing you there!
Until next time,
Danny Chang