The past two weeks have seen many significant infrastructure announcements at Ontario universities, funded as part of the provincial government's Building Together plan. The plan calls for $35 billion to be spent over the next three years on infrastructure across the province. Approximately $600 million has been allocated to post-secondary institutions for the purpose of expanding student learning space. Investing in expanded infrastructure and capabilities on our campuses is important, as concerns of crowded and out-dated spaces are very real to students in this era of continuing enrolment growth. Personally exciting to me is what the space means: not only the existence of more classrooms, but also what those classrooms look like and their possibilities for pedagogy and technical integration that is responsive to changing student learning needs.

The importance of investment on our campuses extends beyond new buildings though. It is reassuring to see that the infrastructure plan places a priority on the renewal of existing facilities and asset management. It is my hope that these efforts can begin to address the nearly two billion dollars of accumulated deferred maintenance at our institutions. Currently, institutions only receive a marginal amount of funding for maintenance, resulting in universities often deferring this important work. Between 2007 and 2010, the audited value of deferred maintenance jumped from $1.6 billion to $1.97 billion. A facilities condition index found that "overall, buildings in the university sector are in poor condition." A staggering 42% of buildings were found to be in poor condition, requiring maintenance.

Since 2005, provincial investments have contributed $26.7 million per year through the facilities renewal program, though that amount was reduced to $17.3 million in 2010. There were also supplementary investments in new capital projects in 2005, 2008 and 2009. Overall, provincial investment in facilities improvement and renewal has totalled over 2 billion dollars over five years. While this funding has helped stymy the tide of further deterioration of our campus facilities, a sustained long-term investment plan is required to adequately address growth in the system. Hopefully, the asset renewal plans required by Building Together will incentivize the funding necessary to maintain Ontario university infrastructure for generations of students to come.

A further hope for Building Together is that the government will open capital funding eligibility to projects that haven't typically received support in the past, such as student buildings or recreational facilities. Universities rely very heavily on students to fund these infrastructure projects through ancillary fees, a trend which continues to be a point of concern for students. With an average capital ancillary fee of $72 across Ontario universities, students are rightfully questioning why the provincial government chooses not to support student and recreational facilities used by faculty, staff and the broader communities that campuses situate themselves in.

In the final report of the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities/Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure Long-Term Capital Planning Project, compiled by the Courtyard Group in 2009, it recommended that "funding should be extended to traditional 'ancillary' projects which demonstrate significant contribution to student development." Students couldn't agree more. With Monday's announcement of funding for a mixed-use academic and health facility at St. Clair College, we are hopeful that the government has embraced this recommendation.

All told, it is assuring to students that the Building Ontario plan includes post-secondary education as a key component. An intention to tackle both the pedagogical and physical demands of Ontario's changing and growing student populations demonstrates the importance of the post-secondary education to the Province.

-Sean Madden

Students were delighted to hear the news yesterday afternoon that the McGuinty Government will be investing $28.5 million in continued funding to Pathways to Education. Truly, this investment will help students from low-income communities access education, as well as provide significant returns for the province. 

Since its inception in 2001, the success of Pathways to Education has been overwhelming. Beginning in the Regent Park region of Toronto, Pathways was responsible for reducing the regional secondary school dropout rate by 46 per cent. Concurrently, the program has been credited with increasing the Regent Park post-secondary intake rate from 20 per cent to 80 per cent, split evenly between College and University.

The staggering scope of these results prompted an initial investment of $19 million in Pathways from the province in 2007, allowing the program to expand to other communities such as Hamilton, Kitchener, Kingston and Ottawa. From a public administration perspective, it has been estimated that an investment in Pathways provides a return to society of $25 for every dollar invested and a $400,000 value for every graduate of the program. This return on investment is seen in effects such as increased income tax revenue generated from post-secondary graduates, decreased use of welfare and decreased health costs associated with risky behaviour.

OUSA has been a long-time advocate for investment Pathways to Education, most recently lobbying the government for extension of funding at our 2010 Student Advocacy Conference. In addition, our individual members have participated in fundraising activities in support of regional iterations of Pathways. For example, The Federation of Students at the University of Waterloo works to advocate for the role of Pathways in the Kitchener-Waterloo Community through our annual Colour Me Educated Campaign. During this campaign, students and university community members come together to celebrate the work of Pathways and to raise money for the program's Kitchener branch. The 2010-2011 campaign wrapped up in March with a Paint Drop (pictured above), and a donation of close to $4,500 to Pathways. University of Waterloo students plan to continue supporting the regional program in the future, kicking off a new campaign in January 2012.

Students are overjoyed that the provincial government has recognized the tremendous role played by early outreach programs like Pathways to Education. As Ontario strives to attain the goal of 70 per cent participation in university, it is vital that the doors remain open to students from all backgrounds. There is more work to be done to continue to widen accessibility through early outreach programs, but this is certainly a great step and a demonstration of the value placed on access to education in this province.

-Natalie Cockburn

The past month has been busy but very rewarding. There were a number of announcements by the Ontario government throughout June that were good news for students. The government's long-term infrastructure strategy included significant investments in university capital - and many new projects have already been announced on campuses across the Province. Provincial funding for the successful outreach program Pathways to Education was renewed, while a pilot outreach program entitled Life After High School was launched in 37 high schools to help students pay for post-secondary application fees and explain financial aid to high school students. Finally, the government's youth mental health strategy was unveiled, which included commitments to fund mental health counsellors on campuses. All of these investments reflected the priorities and advocacy work of OUSA over the past year - and we were happy to see such positive steps being taken for students.

I also had the pleasure of attending the European Access Network's conference in Amsterdam to discuss access to post-secondary education with my counterparts from around the world. It was an extremely interesting and helpful forum for dialogue, and I've come back to Ontario with lots of new ideas and perspectives. You can see my more complete thoughts here.

Our advocacy work here at home continued as well, on topics including credit transfer, Aboriginal learners, accountability processes, OSAP, ancillary fees, and copyright protection. We also just returned from our annual Strategic Planning Conference, where we set our annual action plan and some exciting and ambitious goals for ourselves for the coming year. We are also currently wrapping up our research work on cost inflation in the university sector.

As we move into July, our attention will increasingly be focused on the upcoming Ontario election. As the rest of their parties release their education platforms, we will be working with the College Student Alliance on ensuring that all students know both why they should be voting and how to do it.

The summer is in full swing, and at OUSA, that means months of preparation and planning for the year ahead. At this year's Strategic Planning Conference, OUSA's Steering Committee set out an ambitions plan for engaging members, and reaching out to students for the upcoming year. OUSA is planning on extensive campus visits this year, where we will feature more town-halls, information sessions, focus groups, and advocacy meetings.

 

This year's team is also eager to build on the student vote excitement from the recent federal election, with some very exciting Get Out The Vote plans for the coming fall. We have much more planned, but you'll have to wait and see to find out what we have in store.

For those who are new this year, make sure to sign-up for the mailing list so you can get this Communiqué every month. For those who want to add people to the list, you just need to forward the email from inside this message (found at the top), instead of sending it through your regular mail application. Sign-up now to stay informed!

Where did June go?

This summer has become something of a high-speed train, barrelling towards the school year at a ridiculous pace. With the election, the implementation of OUSA's second Ontario Post-Secondary Student Survey, the creation of three brand new policy papers and much more, there is no shortage of things to do (or be excited for!). Luckily, we've been making some excellent progress thus far.

We just got back from a productive three-day retreat with the Steering Committee, where research and policy was discussed in detail. When all was said and done, the research team was left with an ambitious set of objectives to pursue. In addition to our three upcoming policy papers on accountability, system growth and tuition, Steering Committee will begin working on renewing our policies on students with dependents, and rural/northern students. Additionally, new policies on credit transfer and student health will be developed. These exciting new initiatives will allow us to lend new research to on our on-going advocacy efforts in the credit transfer and student health areas. 

In addition to our policy papers, the Ontario Post-Secondary Student Survey is currently well underway. In co-operation with the College Student Alliance, OUSA has been developing a questionnaire centred primarily on issues of quality and affordability, which we are hoping to field to over 280,000 college and university students at over 26 post-secondary institutions across the province this year. It will be a large undertaking, and I'm pleased to announce that we'll be partnering with Abacus Data Inc. on the project.

As the summer continues, I'm becoming increasingly excited about where the year will take our organization. I only wish I could somehow expand the number of hours in a day to better accommodate the ambitions of our students. 

Summer is here! And the last month has been a busy month in the OUSA office. The Steering Committee has set the strategic priorities for the organization of the coming year, and it looks like it is going to full of many exciting research projects. I have been tasked with working on a policy paper on Student Health for the General Assembly in March, and am also providing research support for a policy paper on System Growth. Both of these topics are timely as universities are projected to continue to grow over the next ten years, and institutions will have provide health care for an

increasingly diverse student population. In addition, over the past month I have continued discussion and consultation about our Aboriginal Students policy paper in preparation for student discussions on our campuses which will be held this fall. Finally, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to meet with the Parental Engagement Office of the Ministry of Education, and we are currently assisting in the development of materials for the parents of secondary school students outlining student financial aid and post-secondary application procedures.