Helloooo everyone!!
Long time no chat – and I really mean it this time. These past two months have gone by faster than I ever could have imagined, but I hope everyone has been making the most of their summer! I’m sure all of us, student leaders and students alike, are enjoying the last few days before everyone returns to campus.
First and foremost, the Ministry of Colleges and Universities has a new Minister! Our sector is now spearheaded by Minister Nolan Quinn. We want to congratulate him on this appointment and look forward to working with him and his team to address student concerns in various government initiatives. We also want to express our sincere appreciation for Minister Jill Dunlop, for all her engagement with us over the past three years during her tenure at Colleges and Universities. We wish her the best as she takes on the lead for the Ministry of Education!
In regards to sector and stakeholder engagement, myself and our executive director, Malika, have gotten the opportunity to have introductory conversations with the Council of Ontario Universities, Ontario Student Voices, College Student Alliance, and the Ontario Student Trustees' Association, in order to discuss our shared advocacy priorities, as well as opportunities for collaboration throughout the upcoming year.
We also spoke with Deputy Minister David Wai in order to share OUSA’s advocacy priorities for the upcoming year, as well as learn more about Wai’s team priorities for this year. We spoke at length about student housing, mental health, and Bill 166. We look forward to continuing to engage with him and his team throughout my term!
It’s been a busy summer over at OUSA, with lots of summer school training sessions, policy paper think tanks, and of course a whole host of Steering Committee intro blogs – go check them out to learn more about each member of our board! We also welcomed and introduced our Indigenization Strategy Intern, Sophia, who will be joining us for the next several months.
Our Advocacy and Communications Intern, Bianca, hosted OUSA’s first ever Open House, creating an opportunity for students to connect with their student leaders and learn more about our roles and the advocacy work that we do. You can read her post-event blog here, and I would like to offer a huge personal thank you to all those who attended and participated in the event.
Home Office has also been working hard to finalize and publish not one, not two, but THREE policy papers: Rural & Northern Students, International Students and International Education, as well as Housing, Transit, & Community Development! Each of these papers touch on key student-facing issues, alongside a series of policy recommendations that aim to enhance the post-secondary landscape in regards to each of these topics.
They also finalized and released what might be one of my favorite of OUSA’s publications, Shared Perspectives: A Joint Publication on Post-Secondary Affordability, providing jurisdictional-specific analysis of the disparities on marginalized student groups, regional shortfalls, and areas for improvement as it relates to post-secondary education. This year’s publication includes contributions from the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA), the College Student Alliance (CSA), the National Educational Association of Disabled Students (NEADS), Students Nova Scotia (StudentsNS), and of course, us, as OUSA!
On a more fun note - our Steering Committee got the opportunity to meet in person this month, as well as get some bonding done with a little trip to the Museum of Illusions! Hope you enjoy the pictures below.
Hope you all had a very bratty summer, and good luck to all of you returning to school this coming month!! We have lots of campus visits ahead, and I can’t wait to see all of your lovely faces on our campuses across the province :)
XOXO,
Michelle