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Welcome to issue 9 of the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance's monthly newsletter, The Communiqué. This issue features our press release on OUSA's recent submission to the Government of Ontario on a new tuition framework, as well as an announcement of OUSA's Partners in Higher Education Dinner.
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 Our annual Blue Chair awareness campaign is in various stages of completion at our member campuses, and with yesterday's release of OUSA's Tomorrow's Tuition: A New Framework for Affordable Higher Education, we're continuing to have important discussions about access and persistence for Ontario's students. Blue Chair seeks to raise awareness about those barriers that can keep a student from attending a post-secondary institution; be they informational, motivational, geographical or, a common concern, financial. As we reach out to students at our universities, we hear that many that did make it to school had to overcome very real concerns about being able to afford it, and once in had to make tough choices about balancing work and classes. With cost and debt concerns already a significant barrier to education, it is critical that the next framework for the regulation of tuition put students first and hold affordability and fairness as its core considerations. Students are already facing the legacy of sustained tuition increases above their ability to pay and are often stymied by unfair practices in how tuition is charged as they try to cope.
As the government considers the rate of allowable tuition increases, we ask that they work to preserve and enhance the progress made with introduction of the tuition grant. Similarly, it is important that our universities and colleges work with the government to address some payment practices at their own institutions that punish students who rely on aid disbursement schedules or in study work to pay, or that have forced students to chose between financial assistance or paying for education that they do not receive. There is growing recognition by students, administrations and governments alike that our students are changing. Their ability to pay, the demands on their time, their ability to participate in a traditional "full course load" have changed dramatically, and what is needed is a call to action to reconsider what is fair to today's student.
What OUSA asks with its Blue Chair campaign is for students to consider the barriers that they might have had to overcome in order to partake in the personally and socially enriching experience of university. We ask that they consider the peers who might not have been so fortunate. And, increasingly, to consider those things that might keep them from successfully completing university. What we're asking with Tomorrow's Tuition is for those that we trust to provide an affordable, accessible, accountable and high quality education to do the same.
-Sean Madden |
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Students call for fair and affordable tuition regulation in Ontario
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The Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA) submitted its recommendations today to the Ontario government on how to strengthen its regulatory framework on tuition fees. The current regulations, set to expire this academic year, have allowed tuition fees to increase by five per cent annually for six consecutive years, making Ontario the most expensive province to study in Canada.
"For the first time in the history of the province, Ontario's students now contribute as much to the operating costs of universities as the government does," said Sean Madden, President of the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA). "At this critical juncture, students are urging the government to reduce the cap on tuition increases moving forward."
The submission, Tomorrow's Tuition: A New Framework for Affordable Higher Education, outlines students' proposals for a fair and affordable tuition framework. This includes the necessary step of limiting tuition increases to no more than inflation, while government increases per-student operating grants to cover reasonable inflationary costs. The submission also urges the government to utilize a uniform tuition cap to flatten the escalating cost disparities that exist between programs, and ensure international tuition predictability beyond the first year.
Students are also calling on the government to enforce fair tuition payment processes that would put an end to flat-fee billing and charging deferral fees to students who cannot pay their full tuition fees before the start of the first term. The new proposed regulations would require institutions to charge on a per-credit basis and at reasonable deadlines. The submission also contains a number of suggested improvements to the design and eligibility of the new Ontario tuition grant to have the maximum impact and better support high-need students.
"The government's significant investment in tuition grants will be quickly eroded if fees are allowed to increase well above inflation," continued Madden. "We are looking forward to continued work together to protect the investment and build an accessible and high quality post-secondary education system."
Copies of the submission are available on our website. The Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance represents the interests of over 145,000 professional and undergraduate, full- and part-time university students from nine student associations.
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Toronto Star: Long-promised Ontario Online Institute still far from launch
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Republished from the Toronto Star, Sunday January 29, 2012. By Louise Brown, Education Reporter.
The Ontario government's plan for a sleek new system of online higher learning that would help students mix and match online credits and train profs to design better web-based courses appears to have stalled nearly two years after it was unveiled.
The Ontario Online Institute was announced by the McGuinty government in the 2010 Speech from the Throne and cited again in a speech by MPP John Milloy last May, when it also was touted on a government website as coming "in late summer 2011."
But it still hasn't materialized, despite a 150-page feasibility report delivered to Queen's Park last spring.
A ministry spokesperson said it has been neither shelved, nor given the go-ahead.
"We're putting an awful lot of work into looking into the best way to move forward; there may be ways that we can do more, but I can't say any more," said Heather Wright, director of communications for the ministry of training, colleges and universities.
While there has been no announcement as to why the institute did not launch last summer, MPP Glen Murray, the new minister of training, colleges and universities, has mused publicly that one of the government's promised three new Ontario campuses might be "online."
But students are "disappointed at the lack of progress on this project almost two years after it was announced," said Sam Andrey, president of the Ontario Undergraduate Students' Alliance.
"We know demand is going up - there were 495,000 online course registrations in a year in Ontario - and we were excited at the opportunity to see Ontario take it to the next level, remove some of the barriers and take steps to improve quality," said Andrey, whose organization represents about 150,000 of the province's 400,000 undergraduates.
The Canadian Federation of Students, Ontario, said it was surprised the institute did not launch last fall to serve the growing number of students who "often need a course for their program that isn't offered at their institution, so they turn to online courses for that flexibility," said president Sandy Hudson.
Neither group wants the province to create an actual online university; they would prefer a "portal" to serve as a clearinghouse for the often confusing myriad of online courses now offered by colleges and universities - a place where students could do one-stop shopping to find the course they need.
A two-month feasibility study commissioned by Queen's Park by Maxim Jean-Louis, chief executive officer of the Contact North distance learning network, noted that in 2008-2009 there were more than 20,843 courses and 787 programs offered online in Ontario. Online course registrations constituted 11 per cent of all post-secondary course registrations in colleges and universities in 2010, the report said; a total of 495,716 registrations.
"If Ontario is to achieve the ambitious target of a 70 per cent post-secondary attainment rate for its workforce, an Ontario Online Institute should target underserved groups: aboriginal students, first-generation learners, new Canadians, people with disabilities and students in small, rural and remote areas of the province," said the report, which suggested the government earmark about $7 million a year on the project.
"It is still difficult for a student in an Ontario college or university to take online courses from other institutions, either outside or inside the province, and count these credits towards their degree at their home institution," noted Jean-Louis. "This is a particular challenge for students wishing to take online courses, especially lifelong learners, who often want to 'mix and match' courses from different institutions.
"This partly explains why more than 40 per cent of Alberta's (completely online) Athabasca University students come from Ontario."
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8th Annual Partners in Higher Education Dinner
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The Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance is excited for its eighth annual Partners in Higher Education Dinner and we hope you will attend.
The event take will take place at the Fairmont Royal York in downtown Toronto on Wednesday, April 4th, 2012 at 6:00pm. Please save the date. The RSVP package as well as information regarding the agenda, cost, keynote speaker and menu will be sent out in the upcoming days.
The aim of the Partners in Higher Education Dinner is to be a public forum for constructive dialogue among all stakeholders about the challenges and opportunities for the future of higher education in Ontario and Canada. This initiative is among a series of efforts by OUSA targeting collaboration, common visioning and community-building in the sector.
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Canada's State of Emergency
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The condition of social services on Aboriginal reserves has attracted some attention in the media recently, particularly with the state of emergency in Attawapiskat First Nation. As usual, most of the attention has fixated on determining who is "responsible" for the situation. The provincial government pointed to the federal government, the federal government implicated the Attawapiskat Band Council, and the council cast blame back squarely on the shoulders of unresponsive government officials.
Casting the question of responsibility aside, it is hard to deny that Attawapiskat, like many Aboriginal communities in Canada, has social services that are chronically underfunded. Given that over a third of Attawapiskat's on reserve population is under the age of 19, education funding is particularly important. A recent comparison undertaken by the Chiefs of Ontario found that band schools receive approximately 35% less of the per-student funding that students in the provincial system receive. Much of this discrepancy stems from a 2% annual cap on federal funding for education that has been in place since 1996. Statistics Canada estimates that educational costs from the 1997-1998 to 2003-2004 school year increased by 3.5% annually, and have further risen since. The population of school-aged First Nations youth has outpaced this growth substantially during this period as well. Federal funding has not kept pace with the increasing costs of providing a quality education at the primary and secondary levels.
Attawapiskat First Nation also has a severe shortage of physical space for instruction. The community's only primary school, J.R. Nakogee School, has been closed since May 2000 because of site contamination from a diesel leak. This has left students housed in temporary portables. More than a decade and four federal Indian Affairs Ministers later, funds still have not been provided for a new school.
The provincial government has been reluctant to step up to the plate and fill this funding gap, since, in accordance with legally-binding treaty agreements, First Nations education is a federal responsibility. The federal government has refused to lift the 2% cap on neither funding for First Nations education or on the Post-Secondary Student Support Program for Status Indian and recognized Inuit post-secondary students, citing effectiveness and fiscal constraints. In the end, Attawapiskat's youth suffer. Parents are reluctant to send their children to substandard schools, and inadequate preparation not only leaves students lacking the hard skills necessary for success in a post-secondary environment, it also impacts student confidence and motivation.
Education is certainly not the only issue facing Attawapiskat First Nation, but it is a crucial one. Children and youth require early support to develop the professional and personal skills they need to become strong contributors to their communities and the economy. All Aboriginal students deserve access to a culturally appropriate and supportive primary, secondary and post-secondary education system that meets their learning needs - whether on reserve or off. Rather than finger-pointing and blame shifting, the provincial and federal governments should be working together with Aboriginal communities to improve the education systems available to all Aboriginal students.
Sam Andrey is the Executive Director of the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance, and Zach Dayler is the National Director of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations. With files from Laura Pin.
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Sam Andrey | Executive Director
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 With the launch of the new Ontario tuition grant and the ongoing discussions around next year's tuition framework regulations, tuition fees were top of mind for all of us throughout January. Our submission on the topic has now been released, and our advocacy efforts continue to see our recommendations implemented.
Thanks to a couple of excellent conferences, two other topics were also given renewed energy this month: credit transfer and student success. Our friends at OCUFA held a two-day conversation on supporting student success, and the College University Consortium Council hosted two days of discussion on pathway mobility. Both topics are high priorities for our students, and it was refreshing to see such consensus on the importance of making progress on both fronts.
We also worked in January with the Ontario College of Teachers and the Ministry of Education to strengthen the qualifications and training for school guidance counselors to place a greater emphasis on post-secondary pathways and financial assistance.
Moving forward this month, transformation and reform will be the talk of the town as the Commission on the Reform of Ontario's Public Services releases its report on February 15, and the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities Glen Murray outlines his vision for innovation and productivity in Ontario's post-secondary education system at the Canadian Club on March 9. What the Commission and the Minister recommend for Ontario's universities and which recommendations make their way into the pre-Budget discussions will certainly keep us hopping. We'll also be participating in an event late in the month with the Council of Ontario Universities on how to improve international student support services.
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Alvin Tedjo | Director of Communications
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With the launch of the Ontario tuition grant and ontariotutiongrant.ca, its been a busy time on the web and in the office as the office has been inundated with telephone calls and emails asking for details on the grant. Much media attention has been given to the grant's launch, as well as some interesting pieces by OUSA members looking for ways to improve the grant in the future. If you missed it, check out how the grant could make access grants better, and how the grant doesn't co-operate with co-op students.
On the conference front, we have finalized the location of our 8th annual Partners in Higher Education Dinner to be held at the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto. It has been scheduled for Wednesday, April 4th, 2012, beginning at 6:00pm. Registration and further details to come in the next few days.
The 5th Annual Blue Chair Campaign is in full swing on OUSA's campuses. Read our blog on how the Blue Chair represents a seat for some, and is a symbol for others.
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Chris Martin | Director of Research
|  I heard more "Waiting for Godot" jokes in January than I've ever heard before in my entire life. However, instead of Godot, Ontario seems to be waiting for Drummond (I couldn't resist either). For our part of this, OUSA has been working hard to prepare a submission on transformations and reforms that could be enacted in post-secondary education with current resources. The basic thesis of this submission is that by rewarding universities for excellence in teaching, a government could enhance productivity and quality system-wide. We're also moving forward with our partners at Abacus Data to analyze the results of the Ontario Post-Secondary Student Survey, conducted last fall. Given that over 8,000 students answered our rather lengthy set of questions, the amount of data the project yielded to us is quite staggering. It's shaping up to be an exciting spring. |
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Laura Pin | Research Analyst
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As February begins, Spring General Assembly is quickly approaching. Work on the policy papers has continued. I have mostly been providing support for the Student Health paper led by Sean and Natalie, and we are excited about developing policy on such an important topic. Many thanks to all the student volunteers who contributed research to the paper. On the topic of student health, Colleges Ontario, in conjunction with the College Student Alliance and OUSA, is preparing a one day symposium on mental health in Ontario post-secondary institutions. The event will happen on May 17th. Stay tuned for further details! Finally, one other project that has occupied some of my time this past month has been a submission to the Commission for the Review of Social Assistance in Ontario. OUSA is submitting recommendations on how Ontario Works (OW) and Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) interact with OSAP, and making recommendations to smooth the transition between programs.
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January is always a big month for the Alma Mater Society because of our Executive Elections and Referenda. The elections this year were quite successful, with 10% higher turnout than last year! Three teams ran and engaged students in great debate on the priorities of the AMS and Queen's University. On February 1st, it was announced that Doug Johnson (President-elect), Mira Dineen (VP University Affairs-elect) and Tristan Lee (VP Operations-elect) won the election and will be the 2012-2013 AMS Executive. Mira will join the OUSA Steering Committee as a voting member once transitioned, and next year's Academic Affairs Commissioner (the AMS' non-voting Steering Committee member) is set to be hired within the next week! February will see the hiring of all AMS full-time staff for 2012-2013, the continued recruitment promotion for hundreds of part-time staff and thousands of volunteers to be hired in March, the opening of a Grocery Store in the Queen's Centre, the allocation of thousands of dollars worth of grants to deserving student initiatives, and a much-needed break over reading week.
-Amanda Judd
Alma Mater Society Communications Officer
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The Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance represents the interests of over 145,000 professional and undergraduate, full- and part-time university students from nine student associations across Ontario.
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Alvin Tedjo
Director of Communications
OUSA | Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance |
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