OUSA Fall General Assembly – October 2024
KINGSTON – On October 25th – 27th, the Alma Mater Society attended the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance’s Fall General Assembly hosted at Brock University in St. Catherines. At this meeting, the 9 member schools passed 3 policy papers on the following topics: Blue Ribbon Panel, environmental sustainability, and student financial aid.
The AMS sent 8 representatives. The Vice President University Affairs Ruth Osunde, Commissioner of External Affairs Dreyden George, Governmental Affairs Manager Eduardo Gomez Diaz were present. Additionally, Secretari
at Sylvie Garabedian, Commissioner of Environmental Sustainability Anne Fu joined this meeting as knowledgeable in specific areas of policy discussed. Lastly, the AMS brought their OUSA delegates. For the first time since 2018, AMS hired from within their membership to bring students who are not already internal hires. The delegates are Ahnaf Khan, Shaaminy Kathir, and Eric Zheng. The AMS represented a diverse array of age groups within the student body.
The OUSA Fall General Assembly is the culmination of a process that began this past summer. In the summer, OUSA met and assigned policy papers. Since then, the papers have been written and edited. It is utmost priority to the AMS that student voices are heard in the direction of writing the papers.
At the Fall General Assembly, all nine schools have the opportunity to review the papers. It is important that all the schools agree on everything in the paper, from wording to content, to share the consensus of 165,000+ students to the provincial government. This is done by feedback, breakout groups, amendments, and going back and forth until it is approved by all 9 schools. In these discussions the AMS wants to make sure the rec
ommendations are tangible.
What is notable about the policy papers is that they are used directly by the provincial government when making bills. The provincial government consults the papers OUSA writes when making decisions they make on behalf of students.
The process of writing papers at OUSA teaches the AMS how to update their policies. The AMS has adopted the format of structuring policy changes with principles, concerns, and recommendations.
CEA Dreyden George co-wrote The Environmental Sustainability paper with McMaster’s Vice President Maya Hobbes. The paper focused on sustainable practices that can be involved across campuses in Ontario. Topics discussed in the paper include educational policies, greenhouses, community gardens, and resource procurements. Other notable changes include adjusting the “broad climate action” section to mitigating long term impacts like storm water management systems and can infrastructures be able to withhold the impacts of climate change. Additionally, the “divesting” section chan
ged to “sustainable investing.” This change is meant to encourage investing in sustainable businesses which will positively impact the sustainability sector.
VPUA Osunde had the opportunity to edit the Student Financial Aid paper. This paper focused on topics such as: OSAP, net billing, and the way students receive payments. In the past, OUSA lobbied the government to increase $7million of funding to OSAP during the Covid-19 pandemic, in addition to advocating for Bill 166.
The third paper passed was the Blue-Ribbon Panel Paper. The Blue-Ribbon Panel was a panel commissioned by the Ontario Ministry of Colleges and Education. The panel’s goal with to research the long-term success of the education sector. This paper responded to the recommendations the panel brought forward.
A notable takeaway for CEA George was the opportunity of the integration of the OUSA delegates AMS hired and the environmental policy paper passing.
For VPUA Osunde, she mentioned how much she finds tremendous value in meeting and discussing structure, orientation, university administration with other student governments. It’s an exciting oppertunitu to laise with her counterparts at other universities.
If you are an AMS member who wishes to have their voice heard in the upcoming papers, the Commission of Externa Affairs is hosting a roundtable discussion on Wednesday November 13th, 2024.
From November 18th – 22nd, the AMS will attend for a week at Queen’s Park. Stay tuned for updates about the professional development and advocacy students will receive in this, and how they can implement what they learned in the AMS.
At this time, OUSA has released
their survey as part of a study they have been conducting since 2009. The data and information OUSA gather from this research will help them do a better job advocating for students at universities. This online survey will ask a range of questions on topics including financial aid, employment, and learning environment. If you are a Queen’s student interested in filling out this survey click here.
Follow @ceaqueensu to stay up to date on all things OUSA from the AMS!
