Happy New Year everyone!! I hope you’ve all had a safe and restful holiday season!
I’d first like to acknowledge that the ongoing pandemic and changing restrictions can be very challenging and cause a lot of stress. It's very hard to be a student at such an uncertain time and I know that a lot of you may be frustrated about online learning, while others may feel safer learning from home. Please remember to do what you can to take care of yourself and your mental health. OUSA has been voicing our students' needs and concerns and will be continuing this advocacy as things continue to develop.
Now onto the updates. Prior to the break, we officially wrapped up our lobby week (or what turned into a lobby month lol) – that is, OUSA’s Student Advocacy Conference – with a final meeting with the Deputy Minister of Colleges and Universities, Shelley Tapp. We had some great conversations about OUSA’s recommendations and it was a pleasure meeting with the Deputy Minister and her team!
In December we also held policy paper think tanks to brainstorm for the papers that we are writing in this policy cycle. As a reminder, the papers for this cycle are on Student Financial Aid, Mature Students, and Tech-Enabled Learning. Now that we’re back from the break, Steering Committee is hitting the ground running with policy writing as we prepare for General Assembly in March!
Coming up, the results and analysis of our Ontario Undergraduate Student Survey (OUSS) will be rolling out over the next couple of months, with the first report, “Affordability: Results from the 2020 Ontario Undergraduate Student Survey,” releasing later this week. Make sure to look out for that!
Later this month, we will be sharing OUSA’s 2022 Budget Submission and we’re also looking forward to releasing our Fall General Assembly-approved policy papers on Accountability and System Vision and Indigenous Students.
That’s all from me for this update! It’s a short one this month due to the holiday break, but we’re looking forward to getting back into things and starting off the year strong!
Until next time,
Eunice :)