- Pan-Canadian Framework (including CST)
- GST Textbooks and Academic Materials
- Intellectual Property/Copyright
- Northern issues
- Graduate students
- Aboriginal
- International student issues and tuition for international students
- Debt ceilings
- Tuition and Ancillary Fees (including CST)
- Research
- Childcare
- Repayment Assistance Plan
- Tax credits
- Deferred maintenance
- Part Time Students/Adult Learners
- Early Outreach
- Quality
- Online/Distance learning
- Affordable housing
- International campus governance and international branch campuses
- Students with Diverse abilities
- Needs vs Income and Access Grants
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
First Blog, First Update
Hello everyone!
As your BUSU executive tries to bring the Students' Union into the new-media age, we will be developing a number of ways for you to stay informed about what we are doing on your behalf this year, and a number of methods for how to contact us with your ideas and concerns.
This blog will be one of the ways that you can keep in touch with my activities, as your Vice President University Affairs this year. You can also find me on Facebook under Rob Lanteigne, find the Brock University Students' Union facebook group, and you can follow me on twitter at @roblanteigne. Of course, you can always check the main BUSU website at www.busu.net, and use traditional e-mail at vpua@busu.net. My office is located on the second floor of the Students' Union building (above Isaacs), and you're always welcome to stop by.
I will be attempting to blog at least monthly, but hopefully more frequently, so you are aware of what I am doing on your behalf, as well as keeping track of what all levels of government are doing that you should be aware of.
This year started with a quick disappointment out of the gate, where the provincial government announced on May 1st that they were chopping two very important grants for our students. The Textbook and Technology Grant and the Distance Grants were both introduced recently as important financial sources for our students. The T&T Grants were available to every full-time student in Ontario, while the Distance Grants were available to anyone whose home was more than 80km away from the closest university. Both of these grants have now been turned into OSAP-only grants, meaning that if you don't qualify for financial assistance, you will not be receiving that money this year.
This is disappointing not only because fewer students are getting government assistance this year, but because more students and families are facing financial challenges in a recession environment. Of particular importance is that these two programs were the ONLY provincial grants which allowed students who are debt-adverse to access government funding. For those who do not want to head into debt to finance their education, the OSAP and grant system is woefully out of date and does not allow you to access grants unless you take out a loan. Myself, as well as our partners through the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance have made these concerns known to government, and continue to lobby the government on these issues.
The federal government, on the other hand, has turned on the spending taps with the infrastructure money that was promised in the 2009 budget. BUSU had lobbied for $1.5 million in money for infrastructure on Canadian campuses, and the government delivered with a full $2 billion. The federal Minister of Industry Tony Clement visited our campus a few weeks ago to announce $38 million in funding for the new Niagara Health and Bioscience Complex, which will attach to Plaza and J-Block, with construction starting in August. I had the chance to speak to the Minister at this announcement as well, with some thoughts about the upcoming copyright legislation that the federal government will be looking at.
The federal government has also introduced new legislation surrounding credit cards. For students who are likely entering contracts and credit cards for the first time, these new rules are beneficial. Your contracts must show and explain in clear language what your interest rate is, what your minimum payments are, and how long it would take you to pay off balances if you used only minimum balances. The companies are now also required to give you ample notice before increasing your interest rate, allowing you to find a provider that would better suit your needs. BUSU, along with our federal partners the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA), is also looking at how these new regulations affect your student loan repayments on a federal level, and will look for some tweaking to protect students from government debt.
On a municipal level, it seems that our region is finally getting some movement on municipal transit issues. After an announced GO train expansion into St. Catharines and Niagara Falls for the summer, with rush hour bus service being introduced in September, the region has now commissioned an independent consulting group to report on the state of inter-municipal transit (getting to and from Welland, for example) in the region. BUSU has been active with input in this process, and you are encouraged to submit your thoughts as well to a survey at http://www.niagararegion.ca/living/roads/inter-municipal-transit-survey.aspx.
In other aspects of the job, I have just been elected as the Vice President Finance within the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA), taking a leadership role in a very important year for post-secondary education in Ontario. Lianne and I are also currently at the CASA Policy and Strategy Conference in Calgary, discussing our research and lobby priorities with other student leaders across the country. O-Week planning is well underway, as well as a BUSU website revamp, new ideas for our food court and convenience stores on campus, and preparations for Smart Start later this month.
I wish I could update even more at this point for you, but I feel my summary has run too long already. Please contact me if you have any questions about what I have been up to, or want more information about the topics mentioned above.
Until next blog, here's the technologically-inadequate-but-slowly-learning Rob Lanteigne, signing out.
As your BUSU executive tries to bring the Students' Union into the new-media age, we will be developing a number of ways for you to stay informed about what we are doing on your behalf this year, and a number of methods for how to contact us with your ideas and concerns.
This blog will be one of the ways that you can keep in touch with my activities, as your Vice President University Affairs this year. You can also find me on Facebook under Rob Lanteigne, find the Brock University Students' Union facebook group, and you can follow me on twitter at @roblanteigne. Of course, you can always check the main BUSU website at www.busu.net, and use traditional e-mail at vpua@busu.net. My office is located on the second floor of the Students' Union building (above Isaacs), and you're always welcome to stop by.
I will be attempting to blog at least monthly, but hopefully more frequently, so you are aware of what I am doing on your behalf, as well as keeping track of what all levels of government are doing that you should be aware of.
This year started with a quick disappointment out of the gate, where the provincial government announced on May 1st that they were chopping two very important grants for our students. The Textbook and Technology Grant and the Distance Grants were both introduced recently as important financial sources for our students. The T&T Grants were available to every full-time student in Ontario, while the Distance Grants were available to anyone whose home was more than 80km away from the closest university. Both of these grants have now been turned into OSAP-only grants, meaning that if you don't qualify for financial assistance, you will not be receiving that money this year.
This is disappointing not only because fewer students are getting government assistance this year, but because more students and families are facing financial challenges in a recession environment. Of particular importance is that these two programs were the ONLY provincial grants which allowed students who are debt-adverse to access government funding. For those who do not want to head into debt to finance their education, the OSAP and grant system is woefully out of date and does not allow you to access grants unless you take out a loan. Myself, as well as our partners through the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance have made these concerns known to government, and continue to lobby the government on these issues.
The federal government, on the other hand, has turned on the spending taps with the infrastructure money that was promised in the 2009 budget. BUSU had lobbied for $1.5 million in money for infrastructure on Canadian campuses, and the government delivered with a full $2 billion. The federal Minister of Industry Tony Clement visited our campus a few weeks ago to announce $38 million in funding for the new Niagara Health and Bioscience Complex, which will attach to Plaza and J-Block, with construction starting in August. I had the chance to speak to the Minister at this announcement as well, with some thoughts about the upcoming copyright legislation that the federal government will be looking at.
The federal government has also introduced new legislation surrounding credit cards. For students who are likely entering contracts and credit cards for the first time, these new rules are beneficial. Your contracts must show and explain in clear language what your interest rate is, what your minimum payments are, and how long it would take you to pay off balances if you used only minimum balances. The companies are now also required to give you ample notice before increasing your interest rate, allowing you to find a provider that would better suit your needs. BUSU, along with our federal partners the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA), is also looking at how these new regulations affect your student loan repayments on a federal level, and will look for some tweaking to protect students from government debt.
On a municipal level, it seems that our region is finally getting some movement on municipal transit issues. After an announced GO train expansion into St. Catharines and Niagara Falls for the summer, with rush hour bus service being introduced in September, the region has now commissioned an independent consulting group to report on the state of inter-municipal transit (getting to and from Welland, for example) in the region. BUSU has been active with input in this process, and you are encouraged to submit your thoughts as well to a survey at http://www.niagararegion.ca/living/roads/inter-municipal-transit-survey.aspx.
In other aspects of the job, I have just been elected as the Vice President Finance within the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA), taking a leadership role in a very important year for post-secondary education in Ontario. Lianne and I are also currently at the CASA Policy and Strategy Conference in Calgary, discussing our research and lobby priorities with other student leaders across the country. O-Week planning is well underway, as well as a BUSU website revamp, new ideas for our food court and convenience stores on campus, and preparations for Smart Start later this month.
I wish I could update even more at this point for you, but I feel my summary has run too long already. Please contact me if you have any questions about what I have been up to, or want more information about the topics mentioned above.
Until next blog, here's the technologically-inadequate-but-slowly-learning Rob Lanteigne, signing out.
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