Hello and Happy May!!
It’s hard to believe that this is my final presidential update. It has been an amazing and quite unpredictable year serving as President of OUSA. From constant changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, to very tough societal issues that have affected our campuses, it has not been easy. Nonetheless, it has been an honour to serve in this role and represent the interests of students across Ontario.
This past month, the final policies for both Mature Students and Tech-Enabled Learning were published! You can read those and more of OUSA’s policy papers at our policy library online, and keep an eye out for our policy paper, Student Financial Aid, coming out soon.
Additionally, we also hosted OUSA’s Teaching Awards on Wednesday, April 16th. This was an opportunity for our alliance to recognize stellar instructors across OUSA’s member campuses and their investment into students. A huge shoutout and thank you to all professors who were recognized with an award!
The end of April was also busy with our response to the Ontario government’s 2022 budget. OUSA was disappointed to see a major gap in support for students regarding the accessibility and affordability of post-secondary education, anti-sexual and gender-based violence prevention and response, the sustainability of the post-secondary sector, and mental health support specifically for students. These issues remain major concerns for students and topics that OUSA will continue to advocate for.
Looking ahead to this May, OUSA will be focused on the provincial election, which was called last week! We have launched our “Get Out the Vote” campaign as a resource for folks to look up how and when to vote. To learn more, check out ousavotes.ca for 2022 provincial election FAQs, and follow us @ousahome on Instagram and Twitter to stay informed! Elections are a great opportunity to exercise your democratic right so make sure to read up on party platforms and make a plan to vote. We hope to see post-secondary student issues being discussed and addressed in all the political party platforms.
Before signing off, I want to give major recognition to the 2021/2022 OUSA Steering Committee. As mentioned earlier, it definitely has not been an easy year, however the perseverance of our committee has been extremely inspiring. As well, a big shout out to YOU on getting through another academic year. Whether you have finished off your first year or final year, you should be extremely proud of yourself and all that you have done.
Well, that’s all from me. For the final time,
Eunice :)