Hello everyone! Long time no talk!
First, happy July! I hope you’ve taken some time during Disability Pride Month to engage with art, media, and stories from folks with disabilities. I also hope it’s been a productive and fulfilling time for you!
July has been busy for OUSA. Malika and I took some time to have introductory conversations with Ontario Student Voices and the College Student Alliance to discuss our current advocacy priorities and any potential collaboration opportunities during the year. These were rewarding conversations, and I look forward to our working together during the year!
Our Organizational Strategy and Governance Working Group also published our Annual Action Plan, outlining our internal objectives for the year, alongside rationale and associated projects. As a reminder our objectives are as follows:
- Improving the Policy and Advocacy Process
- Steering Committee Outreach
- Long-Term Planning
Home Office has also been hard at work, publishing our latest edition of Habitats: Students in their Municipalities, a series of student-written case studies on municipal-level topics and issues affecting undergraduate students across the province. It’s a great read, and I sincerely hope you check it out!
As we continue to begin writing our fall papers, our Managers of Research & Policy have finished up think tanks with the authorship teams. Think tanks are a vital part of the policy writing process that allow student authors to share their thoughts around the structure and content of our papers. They help us chart a path forward for how we want to meaningfully improve and update our policy, and allow us to divvy up the paper based on who is best suited to draft each section.
As well, we engaged in a professional development session to help us get ready for lobby meetings. Steering Committee members were joined by their Presidents, and we all completed government and lobby training together with some OUSA alumni — it was super fun and informative! This training will continue to help us as the year goes on, making sure that we’re prepared for upcoming lobby meetings, particularly during Student Advocacy Conference.
Finally, I had the opportunity to engage with a couple of our government stakeholders. Malika and I spoke to the Minister’s policy team and learned more about some of their future plans. This informed us about when and how we could productively advocate to the Ministry and work with them to consider student needs in anticipated policy changes. In addition, I participated in the Ontario NDP’s Post-Secondary Education roundtable. Here, Leader Marit Stiles, MPP Peggy Sattler, and MPP Catherine Fife were joined by various student leaders and professional staff from post-secondary institutions in the Kitchener-Waterloo region. This guided discussion circled several topics, including the economic state of the post-secondary sector, quality and capacity of student services, how work-integrated learning opportunities can help build Ontario’s economy, the ongoing affordability crisis, and the potential impacts of Bill 33. This was an important and meaningful conversation I’m grateful to have been part of. I valued the elected official’s opening remarks and intentional questions, and appreciated the insights and testimonials from colleagues in the sector. Lastly, Malika and I had a conversation with members of the public service at the Ministry to discuss student concerns related to work-integrated learning. We also had a chance to introduce OUSA’s priorities for the year and hear their insights on it.
With that, I think it’s been another productive month for OUSA! Stay cool in this wicked heat, and I look forward to chatting with you all sometime soon!
And if you haven’t already, stream Kesha’s new album, titled . (Period).
In solidarity,
Sayak