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February 2011
| Vol 2, Issue 9
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The Communiqué
OUSA's February Update |
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Dear OUSA Members, (OUSA President | Meaghan Coker)
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The year 2011 has started with lots of activity, as January was filled with considerable progress on a number of OUSA's ongoing priorities. Most visibly on our campuses across Ontario, the annual Blue Chair Campaign was a great success at raising awareness and bringing understanding to the issues of accessibility and early intervention. Accessibility continues to be a major priority for OUSA, and we are looking forward to jointly releasing our Access submission, "Breaking Barriers: A Strategy for Equal Access to Higher Education", with the College Student Alliance (CSA) and the Ontario Student Trustees' Association (OSTA) this month.
On January 17th, the Honourable John Milloy, Minister of Training, Colleges, and Universities, officially announced the creation of a Credit Transfer Innovation Fund, which included over 70 million dollars to assist in the development of an expansive credit transfer system between Ontario's university and colleges. This is one step forward towards opening up Ontario's pathway mobility between our post-secondary institutions and students recognize the access opportunities that this will mean for them.
With the announcement of the Provincial budget quickly approaching, on behalf of OUSA I was provided the opportunity to present our budget recommendations to the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs. In our submission, we highlighted the importance to provide for enhancements to the student financial assistance system and to increase Ontario's per student funding levels, with the aim of returning to a fairer cost sharing model between government and students. In addition to funding the long term enrollment growth as outlined in the Open Ontario Plan, we continue to stress the importance of the government providing leadership in terms of investing in teaching quality and student support services in our institutions.
During the question period of our presentation, we continued to receive support from MPP Elizabeth Witmer, Education Critic for the Official Opposition, on better allocating Education Tax Credit funding and the substantial impact that teacher training programs can have on the classroom learning experience for students.
In the lead up to the provincial budget release, we will continue the conversation around the recommendations OUSA has made to improve the accessibility, affordability, accountability, and quality of post-secondary education in our province, and the significant benefits these investments have for the prosperity of Ontario and all Ontarians.
-Meaghan Coker
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OUSA Participates in Government Pre-Budget Consultations
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 | | OUSA's Pre-Budget Submission (Click Image to View) |
(Click to Download)
TORONTO, January 24 /OUSA/ - The Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA) released students' priorities for the 2011 Ontario Budget in its submission entitled An Educated Investment: Advancing Post-Secondary Education. Meaghan Coker, President of OUSA, presented the submission to Ontario's Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs and participated in the Committee's pre-Budget consultations. She outlined students' three key priorities: ensuring access to higher education, adequately investing in our universities, and promoting student success.
Students' first recommendation to improve accessibility is to fulfill the Liberal government's platform commitment to reallocate funds spent on education tax credits to reduce students' up-front costs. Other proposals include reducing the expected parental contributions of Ontario Student Loans to make more families eligible for aid, and extending the Ontario Access Grants to all years of undergraduate study.
For the government's new five-year plan for post-secondary education, students recommend planning to meet the demand for growth, demonstrate progress toward a more fair cost sharing model, and invest in targeted quality improvements. Specific proposals to promote student success include pedagogy training for all new faculty and teaching assistants, the creation of Ontario Teaching Chairs, and a new matching program for enhancing student support services.
"The government showed its continued commitment to post-secondary education in last year's Budget by providing $310 million for new spaces in colleges and universities and $81 million for enhancements to student financial assistance," said Ms. Coker. "Students have welcomed these past investments and hope that Budget 2011 will continue building a more accessible and high-quality post-secondary education system."
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Students Welcome Government Initiatives to Improve Credit Transfer
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 | | Minister John Milloy Announcing Credit Transfer Improvements |
TORONTO, January 17 /OUSA/ - The Ontario government today announced important steps toward the creation of a credit transfer system in the province that will reduce the need for students to repeat courses at different institutions, saving them time and money. Over $70 million will be made available over five years to assist colleges and universities in developing more transfer opportunities and providing adequate information, advice and support to all transfer students.
Ontario students transfer between colleges and universities significantly less than in the rest of Canada, and more than one in five transfer students report repeating coursework. Many students also cite a lack of timely and accessible information and support to successfully transfer between institutions. The government's new credit transfer system will make considerable progress on all of these fronts.
"The introduction of a credit transfer system will have a positive effect on both the accessibility and affordability of post-secondary education in Ontario," said Meaghan Coker, president of the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA). "After identifying the problem, I'm pleased to say the government worked collaboratively with students and with our colleges and universities to expand student mobility and improve the student experience."
While the eventual goal of the credit transfer system is to promote the transfer of credits between all post-secondary institutions, efforts thus far have focused heavily on developing pathways between colleges and universities. With this announcement, undergraduate students look forward to now refocusing the discussion on how to simplify and promote the transfer of credits between universities.
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Executive Director Update | Alexi White
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With the winter holidays come and gone, January saw OUSA's attention focused firmly on the forthcoming provincial budget and 5-year quality plan for the sector. Thanks to excellent work from Sam and Alvin, OUSA produced an exceptional budget submission that brings together the themes we have been working on all year into one concise document. On January 24, Meaghan officially presented our recommendations to the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs. As the budget approaches, we will continue to work with decision-makers to see our students' needs addressed.
January also saw an announcement by Minister John Milloy that the government's plans for a credit transfer system are moving forward. He announced $74 million over five years to make it a reality. This is a welcome investment for undergraduate students and you can find OUSA's full response here in the communiqué.
On the advocacy front, work continues on two of our main budget requests: the elimination of post-secondary tax credits in favour of up-front grants and new investments in the quality of teaching and learning on our campuses. Over the course of the month, OUSA continued to push for change not only to the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities but also the Ministry of Finance and the Premier's Office.
I also want to congratulate the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations for a very successful two-day conference on internationalization of universities. The dialogue on the ongoing concerns of international students and faculty was particularly insightful, and we look forward to their next conference this summer.
Finally, I am looking forward to February when we will release a submission on the needs of international students, as well as our access strategy, developed in coordination with the College Student Alliance and the Ontario Student Trustees' Association. In cooperation with our student partners, we have already begun consultations with the political and civil services decision-makers in the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities on implementing our recommendations.
-Alexi White |
The DORPA Report (Director of Research & Policy Analysis | Sam Andrey)
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New policy development was in full gear in January, and research support for our upcoming policies on student success, ancillary fees and Aboriginal students was a high priority for most of the month. All three policy areas have been high priorities for students, and I am very excited about getting feedback on our new policy ideas from our students.
I also further developed our proposal for more undergraduate research opportunities on Ontario's campuses and spent some time digging through university financial statements to further assess international tuition levels. We finished preparing OUSA's submission for the pre-Budget consultations and are hoping that our final preparations for the Budget will have an impact on the forthcoming Ontario Budget.
One highlight this month was the opportunity to present some of our new ideas around student financial aid to the government and sector stakeholders. We also met with the government to discuss next steps on the province's international agenda.
February will be focused on finishing our submission on support for international students and finalizing our three new policies for Spring General Assembly in Kingston.
-Sam Andrey
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The Communications Post (Director of Communications & Public Relations | Alvin Tedjo)
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 Access to education is one of OUSA's top priorities, and nothing demonstrates that more than OUSA's annual Blue Chair campaign. The Blue Chair campaign's main function is to raise awareness of the access barriers that students from underrepresented groups face in attempts to access higher education. This is represented by empty blue chairs that are placed in classrooms and hallways throught OUSA's member campuses. Students can then find more information on the access barriers at information booths and the website. OUSA began its 4th Annual Blue Chair Campaign across Ontario at its member campuses in January. So far, it has been a resounding success, with each school using a unique campaign to inform and engage students, from Waterloo's Colour Me Educated Campaign, to Brock's Giant Muskoka Blue Chair. Check out the various Blue Chair web pages to see what each school is doing to promote access to higher education. OUSA would like to thank all the volunteers on all of our campuses who are doing so much work for the Blue Chair campaign this year, who are helping to make a more accessible post-secondary education system in Ontario. Still on access, OUSA will be releasing its holistic access strategy, co-written with the College Student Alliance, and the Ontario Student Trustees Association, representing over 2.5 million Ontarians in all levels of education. The coalition of organizations account for 1 out of every 5 people in the province, and will be releasing its recommendations to the government later this month. -Alvin Tedjo
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| Research Rumblings (Research Analyst | Laura Pin) | 
Welcome to Feburrrary! Month of much snow, and also the final preparations for the Spring General Assembly. I spent most of the last month working on three major projects: finalizing the Access Strategy, researching Cost Inflation, and also providing research support for the policy paper on Aboriginal students. The Access Strategy has just undergone a final editing process, and should be released publically later this month. Many thanks to everyone who has participated in the writing of this document through editing, research support and focus groups.
This month I also had the opportunity to attend a working group on mental health in post-secondary education at Ryerson University. The group brought together stakeholders from a variety of colleges and universities, including physicians, counsellors, directors of health services and student representatives. There was a general consensus that mental health is an important issue on campuses and more needs to be done to ensure students are adequately supported through counselling and other services available on campus. I look forward to continuing to work with the mental health working group, to investigate concrete steps that can be taken to better support post-secondary students.
In February, I plan to delve deeper into the cost inflation document, which will investigate what the different drivers of cost increases are in the university setting, and also provide research support on the policy papers in anticipation of the Spring GA in early March.
-Laura Pin |
Read OUSA's Blog
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 | | Click to Read OUSA's Blog |
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McMaster Campus Update
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Busy times here in the MSU, with the completion of our presidential election and moving right into the election of our student assembly for 2011-2012. The MSU would like to congratulate Matthew Dillon-Leitch (a past OUSA GA delegate, pictured-right) on becoming the MSU President-Elect.
Our Blue Chair campaign will begin February 28th with information tables, OUSA swag, a speakers corner and the Street Team out in full force promoting access and the good works of OUSA. Finally, just before the holidays, the Executive Board approved strengthening our advocacy role by changing the position of OUSA Campus Coordinator. They have been upgraded from a volunteer position, to a paid part-time manager known as the Advocacy Director, and will be responsible for leading the Street Team, organizing events and promoting advocacy on the McMaster Campus.
Joe Finkle
MSU VP Education
OUSA VP Administration
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Student Government Elections Update
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Queen's: Congratulations to former OUSA Research Analyst - Morgan Campbell, and OUSA Steering Committee Member - Kieran Slobodin, on their election as AMS President, and VP University Affairs for 2011-2012. The Alma Mater Society at Queen's University is also hosting OUSA's Spring General Assembly from March 11th-13th.
Laurier: Congratulations to former OUSA Food For Thought Campaign Participant, and OUSA General Assembly Delegate - Nick Gibson, on his election as WLUSU (Wilfrid Laurier University Students' Union) President.
Waterloo will be electing its executive this week, and Western, Brock, Windsor will be complete by the end of the month. Stay tuned to the next communique to find out next year's student government executives. |
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Alvin Tedjo
Director of Communications & Public Relations
OUSA | Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance
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