OUSA Lobby Week at Queens Park (Provincial Parliament) in Toronto
Our OUSA lobby week at Queens Park was very successful and we were able to drive some productive conversations, relationships, and attention for our student-focused initiatives. Our Advocacy was centered around a few key student-centered lobbying points, being Investing in Post-Secondary Education, Housing, Food Insecurity, and Responses to Hate-Motivated Attacks. Our conversations were focused on non-partisan advocacy for students and as such, we had meetings with MPPs from all of the parties represented at Queens Park in Toronto, the NDP, Conservative, Liberal, and Green party. Across all our delegates, OUSA spoke with many of the MPPs and Politicians at Queens Park. I personally spoke with MPP Sattler, MPP Chris Glover, MPP Natalie Pierre, MPP Wong-Tam, MPP Jennie Stevens, MPP Jill Andrew, and Deputy Minister David Wai. Our conversations were productive and insightful as to the state of affairs regarding the ongoing climate and efforts surrounding our 4 main advocacy topics with efforts being made across the different parties in order to address the issue. Our 4 main advocacy topics were recognized as priorities for the MPPs, and efforts are actively underway to better them. Some the MPPs have since utilized and referenced OUSAs advocacy points to push forward actions on the issues, and OUSA has maintained ongoing relationships with some of the MPPs to provide support for policies that are in the best interests of students.
OUSA GA Waterloo University 2025
Exciting stuff is on the way for our next upcoming OUSA GA which is to be held at Waterloo University. While Brock hosted the last GA here and was responsible for much of the organizational and logistic side of things, this time we will be acting as a contributor and will be authoring a section of the paper “Tech-Enabled Learning”. This policy entails measures for how we can improve upon the accessibility and affordability of technology and assistive technology in the post-secondary institutions through policy changes and the adoption of means such as Open-Educational-Resources. I, along with our policy writer Isabella, with support from Home Office at OUSA, have been actively working together on this topic for few weeks now and will continue to be working on drafts and edits for the next few weeks as we get prepared and ready for Waterloo GA. We will soon be opening up applications to become an OUSA GA and delegate and look forward to receiving feedback and input on Tech-Enabled-Learning from our delegates once we have the opportunity to do so. This is a busy time for my role as such most of my efforts have been directed toward Waterloo GA and the work that goes into our prep for it.
Other Engagement
Aside from preparing for the Waterloo GA, most of my other exec duties have revolved around attending and helping to facilitate the various BUSU and Brock events we have scheduled this semester, as well as meeting with Brock Personnel and the OUSA Steering Committee among other stakeholders.
I also attended a Levee celebration hosted by MPP Oosterhoff on January 12th. I was invited to this event, and it was a chance to speak with the MPP himself as well as members of the community. This was an opportunity to network with community stakeholders and to learn about initiatives going on to support the region.
This brings up to date my report to the board and as always, I am available to contact if the board would like to discuss anything, has any questions for me, or would like my assistance with anything.