Queen’s AMS Heads North to Sudbury for OUSA’s Fall General Assembly
From October 23–26, the Queen’s Alma Mater Society (AMS) attended the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance’s (OUSA) Fall General Assembly (GA), hosted this year at Laurentian University in Sudbury. Over four days, delegates from universities across Ontario came together to discuss key issues facing post-secondary students and to collaborate on OUSA’s provincial advocacy priorities.
OUSA represents undergraduate students from nine member institutions, each with a representative on the Steering Committee who helps shape policy, manage government relations, and guide research. Our Commissioner of External Affairs, Edlira Ballaj is the Queen’s representative on the Steering Committee.
This semester, the OUSA focused on three major policy areas: Accountability and System Vision, Indigenous Students, and Mature Students. Queen’s AMS played a major part in these papers. Commissioner of External Affairs, Edlira Ballaj and Government Affairs Manager Shanal De Silva, co-authored the Accountability and System Vision paper. Chair of the Board, Dreyden George, co-authored the Indigenous Students paper. These papers were developed and refined over the summer in preparation for the assembly.
The Queen’s delegation included President Jana Amer, Vice-President of University Affairs Alyssa Perisa, Commissioner of External Affairs Edlira Ballaj, Government Affairs Manager Shanal De Silva, Chair of the Board Dreyden George, and delegates Vani Nayyar, Vishwas Gowda, and Indigenous delegate Ellery Ingersoll-McNeely.
Before heading to Sudbury, the team took part in a pre-GA online amendment period to review and propose changes. Once at Laurentian, delegates spent three days participating in breakout sessions, where they discussed each policy paper in smaller groups and worked directly with authors to refine amendments. This new format, introduced by OUSA, helped make the plenary session run more efficiently.
On Sunday, October 26, delegates gathered for the final plenary, where both papers co-written by Queen’s representatives were successfully passed. Thanks to the new breakout system, this turned out to be one of OUSA’s shortest and smoothest plenaries to date!
The AMS is proud to have worked alongside eight other universities to pass meaningful policy changes that will help strengthen student advocacy at the provincial level. Through OUSA, Queen’s continues to ensure that student voices are heard and that real progress is made for students across Ontario.
Next stop: Western University for OUSA’s Spring General Assembly!
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