NEWS RELEASE
May 25, 2021
OUSA releases “Habitats: Students in their Municipalities 2021”
TORONTO, ON - Today the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA) released its annual publication, Habitats: Students in their Municipalities. Each year, students from OUSA’s member institutions highlight the successes and challenges they face in their municipalities through a series of case studies on municipal-level topics and issues affecting undergraduate students across the province.
“Post-secondary students bring immense value to their communities, yet they are often overlooked when it comes to municipal issues,” said Eunice Oladejo, Vice President External Affairs at the Western University Students' Council and OUSA President. “The concerns outlined in this publication highlight the need for increased collaboration between municipalities and universities to ensure municipalities can meet the needs of students and improve the lives of all residents.”
This year, students have provided a roadmap of municipal-level concerns and proposed solutions to support all of us in our communities. They have shown that, especially in the context of COVID-19, student and community concerns are broad, complex, extensive, and require collaboration and coordination between universities and their local municipalities.
Articles in this year’s edition of Habitats explore persistent and ubiquitous concerns around housing – including those related to quality, affordability, and availability – and access to community resources to address food insecurity and mental health. Others offer insights into opportunities that have been borne out of the global pandemic, exploring questions about what it means to live in one’s community and how students can play an important and critical role in our pandemic response and recovery efforts.
Habitats offers policymakers, politicians, students, and administrators access to student perspectives on the issues and topics that are relevant to them and their communities. It is our hope that sharing these perspectives with stakeholders will contribute to building meaningful and lasting partnerships between students and their municipal communities. The authors have demonstrated the importance of student voices in these conversations, and as we move forward during and after COVID-19, it is more necessary than ever that we listen.
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About: OUSA represents the interests of 150,000 professional and undergraduate, full-time and part-time university students at eight student associations across Ontario. Our vision is for an accessible, affordable, accountable, and high quality post-secondary education in Ontario.
Contact:
Chisanga Mwamba
Communications and Operations Coordinator
Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance
416-341-9948 |[email protected]