October 15th, 2019
TORONTO, ON - On September 10th, OUSA launched its letter-writing campaign in response to changes made to the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP). The OSAP letter-writing campaign allowed students to put their stories into action by writing a letter addressed to provincial leaders. The purpose of the campaign was to voice students’ concerns about the changes to OSAP. Sending over one thousand letters makes it impossible for the provincial government to ignore student concerns.
OUSA also sent a public letter to the Minister calling on the provincial government to reverse the changes to OSAP. This letter highlighted students’ concerns and stories and asked the provincial government to engage in meaningful consultation with students to create an OSAP framework that allows all willing and qualified students to access post-secondary education.
The campaign ran until October 7th and received attention from both campus and community media. OUSA would like to thank all 1,023 students who submitted letters. Each letter was sent to the student’s local MPP, the Premier, and the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities - meaning a total of 3,069 letters have been sent to Queen’s Park. OUSA received submissions from students at 28 institutions across Canada, students shared 178 personal stories, and letters were sent to 94 MPPs. OUSA delivered all the letters to Queen’s Park on Friday, October 11th.
“The participation in this campaign clearly demonstrates the changes to OSAP are significantly impacting students across our province,” said Cat Dunne, Vice President at the University Student’s Council and President of OUSA. “We are humbled to bring these stories to the provincial government and hope that the magnitude of letters, and the personal stories shared, illustrate how important it is for the government to listen to students and implement a financial aid system that works for all qualified and willing students across Ontario.”
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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.
Crystal Mak
Operations & Communications Coordinator
Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance
416-341-9948