BUSU VP University Affairs Blog

Final BUSAC Report - April 13th

2010-04-13T10:53:00.000-07:00

Here we go. My last BUSAC report ever, and my last BUSAC meeting ever. It’s been a long run, with 2 years as an executive preceded by 2 years on council. Thank you so much to all of the councillors, co-workers, fellow exec, BUSU staff and volunteers, and other contacts throughout the post-secondary world that I’ve made over the past 6 years at Brock. Hopefully the lessons I’ve learned, projects I’ve undertaken and lobbying I’ve done has been meaningful to you, and additionally hopeful is that I’ve communicated all the relevant information to the BUSU record through these reports, and my files and e-mails. (Hi future exec and council, congratulations on your election!) Please let my work serve as your reference, your guide, maybe a roadmap, or perhaps even a speedbump as student leaders continue to serve Brock and BUSU into its 40th year and beyond.

Sincerely,

Rob Lanteigne
BUSU’s 39th and 40th VP University Affairs

OUSA

On March 31st, OUSA hosted our annual Partners in Higher Education Dinner in Toronto. This marquee event attracts stakeholders from across our sector, including university presidents, faculty members, government officials, partner organizations, and of course, students. Minister Milloy was once again on hand to give remarks, as well as a keynote address from Dr. Joy Mighty and Dr. Julia Christensen Hughes. I had the honour at this event, of presenting an OUSA teaching award to Brock Professor Tim Murphy, who attended at the BUSU table. Overall, it was a fantastic event, and one that is aptly circled on many calendars for next year already as a shining example of how much reach OUSA has into our sector.

Following this, the next day OUSA held our last Steering Committee meeting of the year. Among what was mostly a meeting of debriefs, discussion and thoughts for next year’s committee, we are pleased to welcome Sam Andrey to the OUSA team as the new Director of Research and Policy Analysis.

I have been working hard on the now-finished OUSA Transition Package for the next VP Finance, as well as preparing the interim budget for next year. As a final project, we will soon be finalizing and signing OUSA’s insurance contract to bring some insurance security to our organization.

Provincial Announcement

As mentioned at BUSAC at the last meeting, but I thought I’d write it down anyway, we saw a provincial announcement a few days after the budget, on March 29th. Focused on postsecondary education, this announcement provides $81 million in student financial aid through a number of reforms to the OSAP and repayment systems. Five of these recommendations were lifted directly from OUSA’s submission in the fall, including the doubling of in-study earnings exemptions from $50 to $103 per week before OSAP claws back your loan, making the six-month period after graduation before loans need to be repaid a truly interest-free period, and tying the cost of textbooks and materials to education. Student loan maximums were also raised for the first time in four years, and Ontario has now signed on to the federal Repayment Assistance Plan, which will limit student loan repayments to a maximum of 20% of their income among other great factors.

We didn’t see everything we wanted, however. This announcement included the extension of the current tuition framework for two more years, meaning 5% increases per year on average, and continued deregulation of international student tuition. At the same time, the “debt cap” of OSOG is going up from $7000 to $7300. These are issues that we will continue to address, but both are better than the alternative could have been considering the provincial government’s massive deficit this year.

I went on CFBU that evening to discuss this announcement, and the rest of the provincial budget.

Teaching Awards

I’m pleased to say that BUSU has announced the winners of our first ever Student Awards for Teaching Excellence, the only student-driven teaching awards at Brock. Your winners for 2009-2010 are:

Brock University Student Award for Teaching Excellence – Tim Murphy
Applied Health Science, Student Award for Teaching Excellence – Mary Breunig
Business, Student Award for Teaching Excellence – Isabelle Giroux
Education, Student Award for Teaching Excellence – Ann-Marie DiBiase
Humanities, Student Award for Teaching Excellence – Astrid Heyer
Math and Science, Student Award for Teaching Excellence – Dot Miners
Social Science, Student Award for Teaching Excellence – Tim Murphy
Student Award for Teaching Assistants/Lab Demonstrators – Charmaine McKnight

Dean Searches

I have continued sitting in on student interview/discussion panels on two different Dean searches. Humanities has now wrapped up after four candidates have been interviewed. Education has one more candidate to come (on Monday, before this BUSAC meeting). Any students who have attended these sessions will be meeting to provide our thoughts to the overall search committee as they make a decision on who to offer the position to.

Endowments/Flat Fee

Some of you may recall last year’s ‘Financial Restrictions Policy’ which was passed by the Board. This policy limits what BUSU can do with any money collected from the ancillary fees on credits which are ‘flat fee’d”, basically any credit students are paying for, but not actually enrolled in.

This year, we were able to provide $25,000, matched by the government at a generous rate of over 2:1, towards an endowment to provide bursaries to students in the future. Taking advantage of this match, we have also converted $4500 of money from the Studentwise Health and Dental Plan Bursary into an endowment, to allow these investments to live in perpetuity.

The numbers were just released for Brock as a whole this year. Over $750,000 has been donated into new student award endowments, and has been matched by the government with at least $1 million more. Based on a pool of money available if other schools do not meet or exceed their targets, Brock could see nearly $2,600,000 in new endowments as a result of this year’s investments, enough to provide 155 - $500 new bursaries annually in perpetuity

CASA

CASA held a conference call two weeks ago to go over a few important pieces of business following the resignation of our ND, Arati Sharma. First, congratulations to our Chair, Tina Robichaud from Moncton, who will step in as the interim National Director until a new replacement is elected by General Assembly in June.

Secondly, it was confirmed that hiring should go ahead for the Member Relations Officer. Which means there are two jobs at CASA that are now open, visit www.casa-acae.com for information about both of these opportunities.

Alex Projects

Huge thank you to Alex, who has done an amazing job at Research and Policy this year. Without any jurisdiction whatsoever, I bestow on you the honourary title of ‘Coordinator’ which you’ve been seeking all year long.

Alex is wrapping up a number of ongoing projects at the moment, including one around minors, concentrations and streams with respect to placing information on student diplomas, information surrounding universities which are denoting XD, XF or other marks indicating course failures due to academic dishonesty, and country-wide surveys on topics such as assignment regulations, and student union facilities in preparation for any future BUSU expansion.

Kenmore Centre

Once again during this exam season, the Kenmore Centre will be open for 24-hour study space. Between Thursday April 15th and Wednesday April 28th, drop by any time of the day to get that studying done in this extra space. Entrance is at the back door facing Village Residence.

News from Across the Country

More CFS Defederation Referendums

Continuing from the last report, there are more CFS “continued membership” referendums being conducted around the country. As a recap, nearly a dozen associations submitted petitions to hold referendums this year. After the majority of them were delivered, some were stalled on technical reasons, some were rejected, CFS billed some schools for debts that had never been owed before, and then the CFS (illegally) changed its bylaws to apply some retroactively. Many student unions are holding referendums anyway; however the CFS has indicated that it will only recognize the results of two referendums this year according to its new bylaws. Lawyers across the country should probably be bracing for an influx of income fuelled by student fees on all sides.

At Calgary, the Graduate Students Association voted 81.6% to leave the federation, in a referendum that will not be recognized.

At Concordia, the Graduate Students Association voted 75.4% to leave the federation, in a referendum that will not be recognized. The undergraduate students voted 72% to leave, and this will be contested. The CSU was originally granted a ‘legitimate’ referendum by the CFS, but after being billed for $1,000,000 in back-fees, the CSU did not pay and held the referendum anyway. (At Concordia years and years ago, only two faculties ever held votes to join the CFS, while some others did not. The CFS recognized that only members of those faculties were dues-paying members in financial statements and meeting minutes, but have now decided retroactively to bill the CSU for all members throughout history).

The McGill Postgraduates have voted to leave the CFS with over 85% opposition to membership. This one may have been originally recognized (details are unclear), but deadlocks in the Referendum Oversight Committee process led CFS members to walk away from the process. The PGSS went ahead with the vote anyway, and it will not be recognized.

At the Alberta College of Art and Design, an officially recognized referendum took place 2 weeks ago, with the ‘Yes’ side winning by less than 10 votes. A recount may still be in the works, and challenges amid allegations that the CFS-side was handing out swag materials at polling booths. Aside from clear conflict of interest infractions, it’s unclear which set of rules this referendum operated under, but at Guelph (below), campaigning is expressly forbidden during polling days.

And we come to Guelph. After a petition was delivered by process-server instead of registered mail (and despite being a higher standard of proof), the CFS refused to recognize the petition. The Guelph CSA took the CFS to court to hold the referendum, and the judge made four important rulings:
1. Guelph organizers collected and delivered the petition properly
2. Counter-petitions to nullify signatures are invalid
3. A referendum was awarded, despite the new bylaws which are being retroactively applied elsewhere
4. Guelph CSA had a right to run the referendum according to its own process, not the restrictive rules imposed by the bylaws.
In good faith, the CSA decided to employ the majority of CFS rules including the Referendum Oversight Committee, but deviated to allow online voting, and a four-day voting period instead of two prescribed in the bylaws. Interestingly though, the ROC settled on a 20% quorum, much more than the 5% called for in the bylaws. With a flood of out-of-town campaigners coming on behalf of the CFS, Guelph has been abuzz in the past two weeks, much of the criticism stemming from the fact that most ‘Yes’ side campaigners were not Guelph students. The ‘No’ team ran a successful campaign to get students asking ‘Yes’ members to “show me your student card.”
Results were leaked to the Guelph newspaper on Saturday, and though not considered official yet, reports are 40% voter turnout (note: wow), and a whopping 73.5% NO vote in a contested referendum. Preliminary reports out of the Twitterverse from the pro-CFS side are that there might be a challenge to this result because the online vote was conducted through a channel controlled by the University administration, and “administrations are biased against the CFS.”

The University of Regina Students’ Union will be holding what we all presume to be an unrecognized vote on membership on April 13th and 14th. Students at Carleton and University of Victoria will be waiting until next year, however. Despite petitions that originally met the 10% signature threshold (the CFS is now disputing that fact at Victoria, despite a registrar’s verification. This must mean that the Federation is legitimizing the counter-petitions it circulated), the referendum processes have been stalled. Executives at both student unions are currently pro-CFS, with the petitions to defederate initiated from outside the student union inner-circle. Neither student union will be following the lead of other schools and holding a vote anyway.

UBC AMS stays with CASA

At the other end of student union politics, March 31st was to be the last day of membership in CASA for the Alma Matter Society at UBC, CASA’s largest member. After the incoming VP External attended CASA’s Lobby Conference, he presented a report to his council to make the case for extending membership for at least one more year. Council agreed, and the AMS remains a member of CASA until at least March 31st, 2011.

Queen’s AMS bans Sumo Suits

In a story hitting national and international headlines (akin to last year’s Carleton Shinerama debacle, and the UBC human rights complaint over tuition), the Alma Matter Society at Queen’s University is taking criticism for cancelling an event and banning sumo suits as “turning a racial identity into a costume...dehumaniz[ing] those who share that identity and fail[ing] to capture the deeply embedded histories of violent and subversive oppression that a group has faced.” Sumo suits are quasi-inflated costumes often used in carnival games, and in this case were to be used in a charity fundraiser. The majority of blog and media reaction has been negative, against the ban, criticizing Queen’s for being too politically correct to compensate for the stereotype of a typical Queen’s student (which I am not going to repeat in this report).

FNUC Funding Extended until the End of the Year

First Nations University of Canada in Saskatchewan has had its provincial money restored, and the federal government has chipped in $3 million to allow students to finish this academic year. Both levels of government had pulled funding last month over financial mismanagement by the Board, which has been warned multiple times over the last few years. The long-term fate of the university is still in question, though layoffs are imminent at the campus as up to 1/3 of the workforce is expected to lose jobs. Administrators are trying to pull the university out of a $300,000 per month deficit and prove the viability of the institution, for continued government funding.

UBC Grad Pub loses Liquor Licence

Koerner’s Pub, a 150-seat pub and restaurant operated by the UBC Graduate Students Society has lost its liquor licence indefinitely over a third infraction for serving underage patrons. In March, 4 underagers were found in the pub by RCMP on a routine inspection, with their fake ID’s confiscated. This follows two similar infractions, with a verbal warning given in 2008 and a written warning in 2009, each of those times when minors were found being served. The pub is operated by the GSS, but the licence has been held by the University. The establishment currently remains open as a restaurant only.

VPUA Job Tip of the Week

Tip #14 – Tell Others What You Do / Be Accountable

One of the principles I strongly believe in is openness and accountability. I understand that not every one of our student members is interested in what the VPUA does, but the need to be transparent and available still exists nonetheless. Students are the owners of this organization, and deserve to know what you are doing on a student salary, on their behalf.

With this in mind, I advise that you make yourself as open and transparent as possible. Never let anyone seriously accuse you of being inaccessible or elitist as a student leader. If you are doing your job the way you truly believe it should be done, you should WANT to let as many students as possible know what you’re up to on their behalf.

Write your reports on time. How can council hold you responsible if you don’t? Get a blog, and update your activities and reports for the public there as well. I used BlogSpot, and then imported all my blogs onto my Facebook page for further notification to friends. In addition to this, after council has received them, I also made sure to send weekly reports to the Brock Press and the Hamilton Campus Liaison Councils. When the blogs get posted, twitter them to the world. Get on the air with CFBU frequently, they love content, and it’s another medium to tell students what you’re doing. I’ve interacted a lot with Brock TV this year, but not in an information-distribution sense. Find out if it’s possible to get a regular segment, or how Brock TV can help you get information out as well.

It’s not enough just to HAVE a facebook page, twitter account, blog, and BUSU website. If you commit to them, use them all year long. Tell the media what you’re doing, let them report and criticize or praise you. Get your issues out there, gather student feedback. Use that to further your work, and to make the work of this organization more important and relevant for the students that we serve. Remember, you have 16,000 bosses who elected you, and pay your salary. Make sure you give them frequent reminders why you were the right choice for the job. And heck, make those reports interesting enough to read. I threw in news from across the country, job tips like this, and weekly lyrics. And I know it attracts more readers just to scan those sections. Maybe, just maybe, they’ll pause at the top of the page and read about the job you do as well.

Closing Lyrics of the BUSAC

“Closing time, time for you to go out, go out into the world
Closing time, turn all of the lights on over every boy and every girl
Closing time, one last call for alcohol, so finish your whisky or beer
Closing time, you don’t have to go come but you can’t stay here
...
Closing time, time for you to go out to the places you will be from
Closing time, this room won’t be open till your brothers or your sisters come
So gather up your jackets, move it to the exits, I hope you have found a friend
Closing time, every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end”

- Semisonic

Students claim victory in provincial student aid announcement

2010-03-29T08:51:00.000-07:00

Acting directly on the recommendations of the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA), the McGuinty government today announced an $81 million package of improvements to Ontario’s system of student financial aid that will increase the accessibility of higher education for those with the greatest need. The reforms touch on all aspects of the financial aid system, from fixing the need assessment formula, to increasing the amount of aid available, to enhancing the loan repayment process.

“These improvements represent a huge step forward for students in a time of fiscal restraint,” noted Rob Lanteigne, Vice President University Affairs for the Brock University Students’ Union, and Vice President Finance of OUSA. “Nearly 200,000 students relying on government aid will be receiving more of the support they require to finance their education, and build the knowledge economy of tomorrow for Ontario.”

In October, the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance presented a submission to the provincial government requesting a number of specific improvements to the financial aid system. This was followed up with pre-budget presentations, including one conducted by BUSU. Today’s announcement incorporates five of our key recommendations, including:
· Doubling the in-study income exemption, allowing students to earn $103 per week before OSAP awards become affected, up from $50 per week, and tying this increase to the rate of inflation
· Implementing a true interest-free grace period of six months after graduation before repayment of loans begins
· Increasing weekly loan limits to $150 per week, up from $140, and the first increase in four years
· Increasing the textbook, supply and equipment allowance to annual inflation
· Providing more support for students in difficulty with loan repayment by joining the more generous federal Repayment Assistance Program

Additional funding improvements reflect current OUSA policy recommendations, including the introduction of a part-time student grant, and doubling the vehicle exemption for married students, and students with dependents. The government also introduced 1000 new graduate scholarships, a topic falling outside the mandate of an undergraduate organization, but highly welcomed.

“Students appreciate that the government is addressing our concerns with financial assistance, and working with students to find solutions,” added Lianne Bradley, BUSU President. “Students will have access to a simpler aid process, reaching more students than before, and spanning into significant reforms post-graduation into their repayment process.”

Additionally, the government has announced a two-year continuation of the current tuition framework, which caps average tuition increases at five percent annually across institutions. Portions of this increase must be set aside for further financial aid for the neediest students.

“The continued regulation of tuition fees is promising and brings predictability to a student’s financial future,” commented Lanteigne. “However, Ontario students continue to pay the highest tuition levels in the country, and we look forward to continued dialogue with the provinces and the universities on ensuring a fair cost-sharing model.

Lanteigne, BUSU’s Vice President University Affairs, will be available for comment by e-mail at vpua@busu.net or by phone at 905-688-5550 x. 4198. For a copy of the OUSA submission Ontario: A Province of Knowledge, please visit www.ousa.ca.

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BUSU is a not-for-profit organization representing and working to improve the post-secondary education experience of students at Brock University.
For more information, please contact BUSU Vice President University Affairs, Rob Lanteigne, at 905 688-5550, or by e-mail at vpua@busu.net.

Council Report March 30

2010-03-29T06:54:00.000-07:00

We’re in the home stretch. After you read this report, I’ll have a month left in office, and only one council report left. Eat it up, you know you’ll miss my words of wisdom when I’ve moved on...

OUSA

Last weekend, I attended the OUSA General Assembly in London along with 5 other BUSU delegates. I’m sad to say this is my last official conference as a BUSU executive, and it’s hard to let good times go by.

At the conference, we were addressed by current Attorney-General of Ontario, and former TCU Minister, Chris Bentley, as well as MPP Yasir Naqvi. Friday and Saturday were full of presentations and policy discussions, followed by the plenary session on Sunday. OSUA passed research papers on E-Learning and Alternate Cost Recovery Models, as well as a policy statement on Differentiation, and full papers on Students with Disabilities (co-written by Lianne), Student Success, and System Vision. The OUSA Long-Term Plan was also approved.

Wow, when you write it out, you can actually fit that all into a paragraph! Let me tell you, there were hundreds of pages of readings, and some fantastic debate, amendments and insight into all the business passed. Thank you to all the delegates, especially the Brock ones, for allowing OUSA the most prepared and smoothest conference I’ve seen in two years!

Provincial Budget

On March 25th, the provincial government introduced their budget. It was one which leaves significant gaps and unanswered questions: the tuition framework was not discussed, no was student aid, ongoing university funding, or any other elements of the anticipated ‘Reaching Higher 2’. (This report is being written on Friday morning for the BUSAC deadline). Indications are the Ministry will be speaking with stakeholders on Friday and Monday to outline the timelines from here forward, including possible extensions of the current tuition policy, and a timeline for when the ‘full’ RH2 will be rolled out to bring 4-5 years of predictability to the sector.

What the budget did contain was $310 million to fund 20,000 new spaces in both college and universities. This amount of money is significant and positive; more than enough money to fully-fund enrolment, while providing room for operating budgets to improve quality as well. How much of this money and which spaces will flow to Brock are still to be determined.

The budget also outlined a plan to increase international student enrolment by 50% in the province. This in itself is not a bad thing, however international student tuition remains the only type of tuition deregulated in the province. We are hopeful that the tuition framework will address something about not using international students as a revenue source to supplement operating budgets; Ontario needs to be a jurisdiction attracting the brightest international students, not the richest ones.

Finally, the budget did not mention anything regarding the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts. No new infrastructure funding was announced, but it was signalled that existing infrastructure ‘pots’ might be opened to applications from the post-secondary sector. No specific projects were announced either, so we did not ‘lose out’ to anybody, but the time is certainly ticking on this project, and I know Brock officials are already hard at work preparing whatever applications are necessary to get this building into the air.

Dean Searches

Two weeks ago, the first two candidates for the Humanities Dean were brought through Brock. Two more are to come in the next few weeks, followed by four candidates for the Education Dean. I have been/will be meeting with all of them in a student consultation session on their visit days, and then providing confidential thoughts to the search committees.

That being said, Brock is nearly ready to announce the new Dean of Business. Senate was privy to the decision in an in-camera session, and it will be announced shortly.

Senate Business

At Senate last week (and all the committees work that came before), it has finally been approved to make the changes to co-op that have been highlighted in some of the budgetary remarks. Without students doing any extra work, the back-end of co-op has been switched around to gain BIU funding for the university, while allowing most of the student co-op fee to be counted as tuition, and thus eligible for OSAP funding and tuition tax credits.

Though I continue to vote against seminar cuts due to budgetary constraints both at the committee and full senate level, once again another program has seen seminar cuts for no productive reason. Tourism and the Environment joins the list of departments which have been forced to make cuts to their small group learning only for budget reasons.

In upcoming Senate business, I am compiling information and doing some quick research (along with Alex Kidd) into the topic of placing a student’s minor onto their diploma. Students have worked hard for their qualifications, and it would be nice for them to receive the recognition for the additional components they have been able to complete other than their major. If you have any thoughts on this topic, please send them to me.

Transition

I have continued to prepare Daud for what he will be facing next year, we have been spending transition time learning the office, and he’s been asking questions about most facets of the job. I’ve given him a USB key with about 25-30 key documents to give him the background knowledge on many of the major projects and initiatives, and we’ve still got another month to go and learn.

Brock Outdoors Referendum

As most of you know, I was also on the NO team for the recent Brock Outdoors referendum, and was the face of the team in both debates. I also spent significant time in the hallways over the past few weeks. After 4 full campaigning sessions in the last three years, I’ve seen enough of Academic South and backboards to last me a lifetime. I’m happy to say that at Isaacs on Thursday, it was announced that 69.5% of you voted NO to Brock Outdoors! As far as I’m able to find through our documentation, this is the first time a NO campaign (reaching quorum) has won a referendum in BUSU in 19 years. Congratulations to everyone who helped out!

News from Across the Country

Wow, what quantity this week! After a quiet month during many school election times, there are dozens of high-hitting stories for this report. Here’s a selection:

Manitoba Government / Budget

Manitoba tabled their provincial budget last week, offering up two major goodies for post-secondary education. Public universities and colleges received a 4.5% increase to their operating grants, invest in Early Outreach, and allow students to access part of their tuition tax rebates while they are still enrolled in school.
http://news.gov.mb.ca/news/index.html?archive=2010-03-01&item=8025

Universite de Moncton Student Union (FEECUM)

It’s the end of the line for the campus bar at Moncton, as the student-union run pub, Osmose, is closing on March 31st. The bar has lost $120,000 over the last two years, and the plug is being pulled for financial reasons.
http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/search/article/989702

York University and York Federation of Students

The President of York University has asked the York Ombudsperson (university-staffed) to investigate the process and results of the recent elections for the YFS. York is one of the student unions frequently criticized for unfair insider control over the election process, including multiple conflicts of interest within the CRO and appeals mechanisms. Such criticisms are usually noted by an “insider” slate appearing favoured over a “change” slate. This year, multiple members of the 21-person slate “New York” were disqualified, some for reasons that included handing out copies of the student newspaper.

The results of this review may have broader implications beyond just York. It will investigate the fiduciary duty which Universities may/may not have over the conduct of the autonomous student unions which operate on their campuses, and the duty held by the university when it collects money (through tuition at registration) on behalf of student unions.
http://www.yorku.ca/yfile/archive/index.asp?Article=14523
http://www.joeycoleman.ca/2010/03/21/york-university-president-requests-review-of-student-union-election/

Ryerson University

Over to Ryerson, with some background. A student who was charged with academic misconduct a few years ago for starting a facebook group which encouraged students to share answers to graded course work. The department called for him to be expelled at the time; his punishment was eventually settled as a mark of 0 on that assignment, plus a requirement to attend an academic integrity meeting. This student is back, now suing Ryerson through a $10 million class-action lawsuit for denying students the right to legal representation in preliminary academic discipline hearings.
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/782045--ryerson-faces-10m-class-action-lawsuit?bn=1#article

Other Student Election Dysfunction

Check out the blog post by David Foster, an avid watcher of campus politics at University of Victoria, for a compilation of election “situations” at UBC, Ottawa, Carleton, York, Toronto, Ryerson, Simon Fraser, St. Mary’s, and his own at Victoria.
http://eyeontheuvss.blogspot.com/2010/03/electoral-dysfunction-national.html

CFS Defederation Referendums

Two referendums were held last week for student associations to leave the CFS and related provincial components...and it is once again likely that both of them will end up in court.

The University of Calgary Graduate Students voted, with 15.6% turnout, 81.6% in favour of leaving the Federation. The Concordia Student Union voted 72% in favour of leaving the Federation. Neither of them was considered an official referendum by the CFS, and no CFS campaigners (usually including national office staff, and other student leaders brought in from across the country) were present.

At Calgary, the petition process was initiated last year, but a response was only received from CFS National my March or April, stating that the GSA owed them money. This year, the GSA began the petition process again, but was not one of the two schools awarded a referendum after the passage of “Motion Six” at the CFS AGM (google it, or read previous reports). The GSA went ahead with this referendum anyway, and with over 80% support, this will likely end up in a legal battle over the legality of Motion 6 and the retroactive application of rules.

At Concordia, the CSU was actually granted one of the two “legitimate” referendums in the spring (along with ACAD in Alberta, to be held later). However, the CSU was then served with a notice from the CFS claiming over $1,000,000 in back-dues before their referendum could be held. Neither the CSU internal process, nor the CFS financial statements, have ever indicated any unpaid balance. Student leaders at Concordia dispute the fact that money is owed, and the CSU went ahead with this referendum without official compliance of the CFS. It will likely also end up in a legal battle, over the same issues.

VPUA Job Tip of the Week

Tip #13 – You’re the Team Captain

As a VPUA, you’re often leading delegations to conferences. At the very least, the President will be by your side at most events. For events like OUSA, you may be in charge of a delegation of 6 people. And as the resident expert (supposedly) of what’s all happening, this means you’re the Team Captain and in charge of others.

The little details all tend to add up: like directions, hotel reservations, meal plans, breaks, faith requirements, finding buildings, introductions, what-to-bring, social activities, and of course, making sure everyone has read the mountains of pre-readings that go into every conference.

It’s a job in itself, and this means you need to be prepared. You can’t start planning for a conference the day before, or hope that you can get the pre-readings done on the drive. Most likely, you’re the driver. And you’re probably going to have your delegates pepper you with questions about the readings on the way. (Either that, or you have to hound them to get the material read so that Brock has something educated to say and makes their presence actually worthwhile).

Keep lists and folders in your office. Lists of things you need to bring on every conference. Checklists of all the details and things to bring (remember that Ethernet cord for your hotel room, powerbar for the meeting room, and your swim/workout clothing for the hotel fitness area). Folders for every type of confirmation, including vehicle rental/airline, registration, hotel, and meals. Keep a location for all receipts.

Staying organized is the only way to stay sane. That’s applicable at all times of the year, but especially true when you’ve got 5 other people pulling you in different directions, and whom you’re responsible for when away from BUSU.

Closing Lyric of the BUSAC

“It’s time to trust my instincts
Close my eyes and leap
It’s time to try defying gravity
I think I’ll try defying gravity
Kiss me goodbye, I’m defying gravity
And you won’t bring me down
I’m through accepting limits
‘cause someone says they’re so
Some things I cannot change
But till I try, I’ll never know”
Wicked, via Glee

Provincial Budget Press Release

2010-03-25T15:59:00.000-07:00

Press Release: Brock Students welcome investments, yet critical unanswered questions remain

Today, Finance Minister Dwight Duncan announced the provincial budget,
including the significant investment of 20,000 new spaces in Ontario’s universities and colleges, at a cost of $310 million. Facing record deficits, this strategic investment in Ontario’s future is the right choice for provincial government. As 70% of all new jobs will require some form of post-secondary education, this is a step in the right direction.

“The government has demonstrated once again that it values the contributions of higher education towards Ontario’s social and economic future,” said Lianne Bradley, President of the Brock University Students’ Union (BUSU). “While students appreciate this investment, a number of critical questions have been left unanswered.”

The 2010 Budget contains no information on the issues of tuition fees, financial aid, or the fate of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts. Ontario’s tuition fees are currently the highest in Canada, and are rising at 5% per year, more than double the rate of inflation. The recession has driven youth unemployment to record levels, and students with the greatest need have been the hardest hit.
“Nearly a third of students receiving assistance from the government are receiving the maximum loan amount,” stated Rob Lanteigne, BUSU Vice President University Affairs. “This indicates a high demand, and significant need for many students which goes beyond what the provincial government currently offers. We are hopeful that the government will respond to our calls to improve the Ontario Student Assistance Program, and to cap tuition increases at no greater than the rate of inflation.”

A gaping omission in the budget for Brock students is the vague wording surrounding infrastructure funding. Brock University and BUSU have been pushing for a $26 million contribution for the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts in downtown St. Catharines, in partnership with the Niagara Centre for the Arts. Funding for this project has not yet been announced, yet the budget simply references ongoing infrastructure for universities without specifying new money. The time deadlines surrounding the joint build are fast approaching, and we still have no indication if additional money will be flowing to Brock for this purpose.

The government has also announced plans to increase international student enrollment by 50 per cent over five years. These students add greatly to the learning environment, providing an increased diversity of ideas, experiences and opinions. However, international students at the undergraduate level continue to pay exorbitant and unregulated tuition fees that far outstrip the actual cost of their education.

“Students support further internationalization but are concerned that many barriers to access are not being addressed,” said Lanteigne. “Ontario should be attracting the best minds, not just the richest.”

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BUSU is a not-for-profit organization representing and working to improve the post-secondary education experience of students at Brock University.

For more information, please contact BUSU Vice President University Affairs, Rob Lanteigne, at 905 688-5550 x.4198, or by e-mail at vpua@busu.net

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

CASA appears on CPAC

2010-03-16T13:49:00.000-07:00

Ok, ok, too many acronyms.

Last week, the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations met in Ottawa for our annual Lobby Conference. As BUSU is a member of CASA, we sent four delegates to the conference to meet with MPs, Senators and bureaurcrats, including multiple cabinet ministers and a meeting with the Prime Minister for yours truly.

CPAC, the Cable Public Affairs Channel, followed some of our delegates around for the week, to give you the chance to see what we do on your behalf. Check out the first 9 minutes of this video http://www.cpac.ca/forms/index.asp?dsp=template&act=view3&pagetype=vod&lang=e&clipID=3727 to see what kind of work CASA and BUSU do on your behalf when we're at these conferences.

Though we weren't followed around directly, look for cameo appearances from myself, Lianne Bradley, Daud Grewal and Sohail Ahmed throughout the 9-minute segment.

As always, if you have any questions about our lobbying activities, don't hesitate to ask!

BUSAC Report - March 16, 2010

2010-03-15T12:52:00.000-07:00

This is once again a fairly short (topically, anyway) BUSAC report. The CASA Lobby Conference takes up an entire week of time, during which it’s difficult to conduct other business via e-mail. That, and I’ve had only 2 in-office days since the last report.

OUSA/Food for Thought

Last week, OUSA launched our newest campaign, called “Food for Thought”. The OSAP system expects that students can live off of a food budget of $7.50 per day, so OUSA has set out to test this theory with 5 students who are looking to eat on this budget for three weeks, amidst their school and part-time jobs. They are blogging and vlogging their experiences at www.ousa.ca, and examining how this may differ from their normal lifestyle, how healthy they are eating, and other reactions.

Brock’s very own Rachel Crane has volunteered to help us out, and she has been amazing thus far! Her opening video and first week of blogs are amazing, and she has been featured in numerous media sources, including the radio, and the FRONT PAGE of the Toronto Star on the first campaign day! Congratulations Rach, and good luck the rest of the way!

There was also an OUSA Steering Committee meeting on March 3rd, which consisted mainly of preparation for this weekend’s upcoming General Assembly, and the Partners in Higher Education Dinner coming up at the end of this month.

I also spent some time doing the final mid-year update of the OUSA budget for presentation to General Assembly. My last work in that area will be wrapping up the year and preparing the preliminary budget for next year.

Federal Budget

On March 4th, the federal government introduced their budget. It was one of great restraint, with some spending cuts in many departments. Post-secondary education was untouched from the cuts, which is a positive, and did see a few small investments. However, it is my opinion that these are piecework and not incredibly useful additions, we could have used them in other areas instead, including financial aid or sector research.

The government gave the Tri-Council funding agencies $32 million for research, and another $8 million for the indirect costs of research. It is the latter which is important to us, as for every dollar invested in research, it’s estimated that an extra 40 cents is used for “indirect costs”, such as staffing, upgrading labs and equipment, and reporting. These are costs which are usually borne from university operating budgets when research funding is awarded, which takes away from other areas of funding. This new budget contributed 25% of the new research funding, putting further strains on operating budgets, and far less than the over $200 million that Canada needs just to get our indirect costs where they need to be.

$20 million was given to the Pathways in Education program, an early outreach initiative which began in Toronto’s Regent Park and has expanded to other locations. These homegrown projects are vital for these students, but a cookie-cutter program such as Pathways does not have the same success in its Kitchener location, for example, as it does in Toronto. This money could have been better directed into grants for existing programs.

$30 million was directed into a program which provides incentives for employers to hire recent post-secondary graduates (as opposed to older workers), but no relief was provided to current students. Finally, money was given to aboriginal education needs in the primary and secondary school levels, but nothing at the post-secondary level, contrary to CASA’s main ask for increased funding for the Post Secondary Student Support Program (PSSSP).

Transition

I have continued to write sections, and deliver them as fast as I write them, to Daud as part of his new transition into this job. Over 30 pages have been written thus far, and I next need to compile some more information as well as gather relevant documents, reports and work into an easy-to-find format.

CASA Lobby Conference

CASA took up a week of my time, as we held our Lobby Conference as well as the closing meetings of our year.

For the Lobby Conference portion of the week, we lobbied on six main topics:
- An independent, effective and accountable transfer to the provinces
- Reform of the Canada Student Loans program
- Lowering the interest rate on student loans
- Stronger support for First Nations education
- Redistribution of Graduate Scholarships
- Support for Learning Information

I had the opportunity to attend 10 meetings, plus our reception “Homecoming on the Hill”. Included in these meetings were the “Brock MPs” Rick Dykstra and Malcolm Allen, as well as the assistant to Rob Nicholson. I was in two meetings focusing on the topic of copyright reform, similar to our specialized focus last year. These meetings were with members on relevant committees and bureaucrats in the ministries of Industry, and Heritage. The message in these meetings focused on the prior topics of fair dealing, digital locks and format-shifting, and record-keeping and destruction, but also took on the new topics of Crown Copyright and storage levies. We also made a hard push for the elimination of parallel importation laws on textbooks, which is also in the domain of these two ministries.

If you’d like information about any of these lobbying activities, please be sure to ask.

Oh, right, I almost forgot. I was in a meeting with the Prime Minister. And it was extended a little longer upon his request to hold our lobby document during the photo. CASA continues to receive meetings with all party leaders, and over the past two years, Brock representatives have met with both Mr. Harper, and Mr. Ignatieff, the leader of the Opposition. No big deal.

For the business-portion of the conference, CASA welcomed new members from Mount Allison University, and passed the following policies:
- Part time student access
- Accessible quality child care
- National Teaching Award
- International Student Visas
- International Branch Campuses **written by me
- Post Secondary Student Support Program
- Tri-Agency Student Representation
- And the beginnings of a continued Pan-Canadian Accord
Along with procedures for our policy renewal process

At closing plenary, I learned a valuable lesson. No BUSAC meeting can ever compare to the marathon 17.5 hour plenary session we experienced last Thursday. With the final approximately 5 hours in-camera, it was a session very heavy on some incredibly serious discussions.

What I can divulge from the ex-camera sessions, is the appointment of auditors and approval of the CASA budget. We ratified the conference structure of transition conferences continuing to be held in May. In response to an “open letter” published on the internet by unsigned authors (but some indication of where it originated), CASA adopted motions to work towards a new structure of federalism within the student movement, and to enter into discussions with various provincial groups about a structure where provincial organizations would be the members of CASA, instead of individual student unions.

CASA also ratified a brand new constitution, bylaws and operating procedures, and we are 95% of the way to ending some of the turmoil of being unsure as to which constitution and procedures are the valid ones. The remaining 5% is to have all of our councils ratify the constitution as well, as required by our old (prior to 2007) constitution. You see this attached in today’s agenda.

A few other motions were also passed, and if you’re curious as to the full account of the 17 hour meeting, please come visit so I can explain to you in excruciating detail.

News from Across the Country

It’s been a relatively quiet few weeks in student news, and I haven’t had the time to dig for any major stories or scandals. Many schools are in the midst of their election process (including UBC still dealing with online voting fraud), which typically prevents any outrageous actions from student leaders outside of the campaign trail.

Funding for First Nations University has been cut. McGill MBA tuition is jumping nearly 1000%. Alberta has decided to send the university requests for higher tuition limits back because their original proposals were too high. Just your average week in PSE land. Perhaps this section will feature some new juicy stories at the next meeting.

VPUA Job Tip of the Week

Tip #12 – 90% of the work happens outside of the meeting

You may have heard this tip before in different circumstances. It’s as applicable to student politics as it is to politics politics, as it is to the business world. When strong opinions are colliding in meetings, such as BUSAC, CASA, OUSA or other areas, it’s crucial to swing support your way to make sure you have at least some idea of where your ideas stand before you even hit the meeting room. There are few, if ever, times where you want to head into a meeting with an idea that you haven’t battle-tested on others for weaknesses or flaws.

In very contentious situations, you may need a little old fashioned negotiation and compromise with issues that are coming from directly opposing viewpoints. You need to understand the issues, ideas and principles, and where people lie on those, not just the motions themselves.

What does that mean? As Daud and Sohail found out this week, going on conference means I’m always on duty 24/7. Every dinner, every tour, every hot tub session, every casual walk are all relevant and important. If you’re not working, someone else is probably working you. Even your naps and bedtimes must be carefully managed, to ensure that you’re not missing out on something that you should be at. Remember, you’re not the only one who knows this tip. Everyone else is playing the game too.

Closing Lyric of the BUSAC

“If I had $1,000,000
We wouldn’t have to eat Kraft Dinner
But we still would eat Kraft Dinner
Of course we would, we’d just eat more”

- Barenaked Ladies

BUSAC Report - March 2, 2010

2010-03-01T10:31:00.000-08:00

This is a much-shortened report for this meeting, I have only had 3 working days since the last BUSAC meeting due to Reading Week and my vacation to the Olympics

Budget Town Hall

Sohail and I attended the first Brock budget Town Hall on February 17th led by Dr. Lightstone. With the actual numbers in from last year (5.7% or $8.3 million in cuts or increased revenues) and assumptions moving forward that have not yet changed, the University is looking at another 2% budget exercise this year. This number is down from a proposed 5% largely due to the success of the BOOST program, in which increased retention of existing students saved the university about $3.1 million in budget cuts.

After a 2% target this year, the lines between expenses and revenues will stop diverging and begin converging, but we will still be in a $10 million deficit position, so budget cuts in future years may not be out of the question. A generous governmental policy on Reaching Higher 2 will go a long way, and both myself and the University are eagerly anticipating the budget later this month.

Teaching Awards

This is the last week to submit nominations for the first-ever student-driven teaching awards at Brock. There are still some faculties which have no nominations at all, so please YOU, yes YOU nominate your favourite lecturer and TA THIS WEEK!
http://www.busu.net/get-involved/teachingaward

Upcoming Referendum – Recreation Services

At the last BUSAC, you modified the Memorandum of Understanding for this referendum. I communicated this to the University, and they have accepted this change. Please ask during this report section if you’d like to see the exact wording of the new clause.

Welland Rental Bylaw

The City of Welland is looking at developing a rental properties bylaw which would apply city-wide, not specifically targeted towards student areas. I have not been able to get my hands on a copy of this yet, nor are the public meeting times and locations publicized yet. However, newspaper stories state that this bylaw could cap the number of renters in any dwelling to a maximum of four people. This is a concern, and I have been in communications with Jacquelynn from NCSAC. We will be working together to share information as this proposal moves forward through public meetings and council.

Senate Business

I have placed on the agenda for an upcoming Undergraduate Program Committee meeting the topic of listing minors on a Brock diploma. Currently, only the major is listed, along with any honours or first-class standing, but minors and concentrations are not listed. For students who have worked hard for these accomplishments, their diploma, which will often hang in their office on display for clients and co-workers, should provide full information about their academic achievements.

OUSA Food for Thought

Beginning this week, OUSA is beginning a new campaign called ‘Food for Thought’. We have a team of bloggers and vloggers from OUSA campuses, including our very own Rachel Crane, who will be spending a month eating only on $2.50 per meal all month, the amount that OSAP assesses your need, and then vlogging and blogging about any challenges with finding prepared meals for that price, nutritional content, and other experiences. You can find more information about this on the OUSA website shortly, and it will be picked up by some major newspapers as well.

News from Across the Country

Guelph, Western, and the CFS

Petitions collected early in the fall 2009 are not being recognized by CFS-Ontario for the undergraduate students at Guelph, and the graduate students at Western. Both petitions received the requisite number of signatures, and have been confirmed by the university registrars as meeting the requirements. However, both petitions are being rejected for not confirming to the strict letter of CFS bylaws. The organization claims that petitions must be delivered by registered mail. Both of these were delivered by process server, a public employee sworn under oath to have delivered the materials directly to the door at 4:27pm on September 29th. This is legally a higher standard of proof than registered mail, yet CFS-Ontario refuses to recognize the receipt.

York University

As reported in the Toronto Star and the National Post, MPPs in Ontario unanimously decried the name of “Israeli Apartheid Week”, on campus at York University and in 35 cities around the world. This is the sixth annual week for such an event, which is used to criticize the Israeli government on a number of issues. However, this event receives priority treatment when compared to other groups on campus. The group ‘Christians United for Israel” was trying to hold an event in advance of this week, and were told that their event must pay for all security and policing costs, hand in summaries of all speeches and list all attendees, without allowing for any advertising of the event. These are all conditions that the anti-Israel group does not have to meet.

The logic: a pro-Israel event attracts anti-Israel radical counter-protestors, and the pro-Israel group should have to pay to prepare for this. But, since anti-Israel rallies don’t attract violent counter-protests, they are clear to proceed.

Sometimes, all I can do is just shake my head.

St. Thomas University Students’ Union

Student union elections are in full swing across the country. Last week, the Presidential race at STUSU landed in a dead-tie. Melissa Basterache and current Vice President Education, Ella Henry, finished with the same number of votes after a 24.8% turnout. A run-off vote will be held later to determine the winner.

VPUA Job Tip of the Week

Tip #11 – Take time off; trust your staff and co-workers

This job is hard. Make no mistake, there are long hours, never-ending projects, and situations that will always crop up. One of the jobs the VPUA usually takes on is media monitoring and management. Last week, a situation arose after a St. Catharines Standard article detailed the assault of a local family, and suspected unnamed Brock students as the culprit. When the story hit the papers, both Brock and BUSU responded with press releases.

That task has usually fallen to me over the last two years, but I was on vacation over Reading Week, which brings me to two important tips. One, take your vacations. You need them, you deserve them, it allows you to refresh and recharge. Nonstop work forces you to miss some of the other exciting aspects of travel, relaxation and being young before you head into a (possibly) lifelong career with more stringent vacation policies. When you want to book a vacation, do so, because you’ll regret not taking it. But most importantly, point 2, BUSU will be fine without you. Trust your staff and fellow executive to handle these events in your absence. The remaining executive, along with Chris and Nazir took care of the details surrounding the press release.

If something needs to happen, it will get done because BUSU is a giant team environment. So take that time off, you deserve it, and someone else will have your back.

Closing Lyric of the BUSAC

“I believe in the power that comes
From a world brought together as one”

- CTV and Nikki Yanofsky

OUSA Blog: University Budgets: Crisis or Opportunity?

2010-02-18T13:06:00.000-08:00

This has been a whirlwind month of February at Brock University. Like comparable tropical spring break destinations in the southern United States, we too are now covered in a blanket of snow, disappointing the sun-tanners who have been flocking to OUSA’s premiere vacation destination.

Our BUSU elections finished up last week, and I’m proud to welcome OUSA’s newest Steering Committee member, Daud Grewal, to the team. Daud has been a General Assembly delegate over two different years, and brings great energy and enthusiasm to the position.

One of the issues and the he and I will jointly be navigating as my term comes to a close is the issue of University budgets. As regular readers of this blog, or those in-tune with the sector will know, each of our member institutions are going through a budgetary crunch as the institutions try to balance their budgets over a multi-year period. While enrolment continues to rise at Brock and most campuses across Ontario, and tuition has been rising by more than double the rate of inflation, the high costs continue to create budgeting difficulties. Combine this with pension shortfalls, the economic downturn hitting endowments, a provincial government in significant deficit, and the uncertainty coming with the end of the Reaching Higher investment, university administrators are looking for ways to deal with this situation. Last year, Brock’s budget target was closing the gap by 5%, and we ended up coming in at 5.7% through the efforts of all units across the university.

I’ve been careful thus far not to use the word “budget cuts,” even though that’s what most minds would automatically wander to. At Brock, we are in the midst of “budget exercises” looking at not only cuts, but what additional areas of “revenue enhancements” are also possible. Again, many student minds would automatically be alarmed at this prospect, imagining skyrocketing tuition, higher residence prices and greater parking fees. There are, of course, only two major sources of revenue to universities: students and government. If the government is turning off the taps, the burden would naturally fall on the students. However, some of the greatest ideas often come out of tumultuous times. Years ago, at the University of Waterloo, the idea of co-op was borne out of a crunch for space, and not enough faculty to teach all the students. Co-op education has since been emulated worldwide, and is a model for an integrated educational experience.

Last year at Brock, a new program was conceived. Called BOOST (Brock, Offering Opportunities for Successful Turnaround), this program is aimed at students who would otherwise be on academic suspension after their second year of university due to poor performance. This cohort of students, at Brock and elsewhere, is traditionally at the greatest risk of dropping out, as they are not allowed to enrol in courses during their suspension year. BOOST has retained these students on campus, offering a series of workshops, personal development, time-management and other activities, as well as academic rigor. While enrolled in BOOST, students otherwise on suspension are allowed to enrol in a reduced course load.

Is this a great idea? Of course it is! Students-at-risk are being given the help and support they need. Retention rates will increase, and more students will receive the benefit of a university degree.

Does this help out the budget? It does that too. It’s far cheaper to retain existing students than to attract new ones. These students are now taking courses, instead of spending a year away. Brock receives their tuition, the related government BIUs. This one program, one program alone, has prevented $3.1 million in budget cuts. Next year’s “budget exercise” now has a target of 2%, instead of a projected 5%, because of innovative ideas like this. Borne out of budgetary crisis, but amazing results in the right direction, and for the proper reasons.

So as Daud and I motor through my last 2 months in office, I’d love to hear from you. Do you have creative ideas that can improve the educational experience for our students, which also might happen to cost less or attract/retain more students? My door is open, and universities across the province are listening closely.

Rob Lanteigne
VP University Affairs
Brock University Students’ Union

BUSAC Report for February 16th

2010-02-13T13:00:00.000-08:00

Dear Council, please consider this report in conjunction with the report dated February 2nd, which was released as if a meeting were to take place at that time. It did not, so you will be approving a double-report at this meeting.

Fee Replacement Referendum

As many of you were well aware, I was tasked by BUSAC with running the Yes side of the Fee Replacement Referendum, and spent a very significant amount of time in the halls, and running that campaign during the election period. I am incredibly happy to say that this referendum passed, winning by 505 votes.

Thank you to everyone who helped out, and thank you to all candidates in all races. The winners have received and will continue to receive their congratulations. I want to give a special thank you to those candidates who ran and were unsuccessful. It takes a lot of courage, effort and desire to put your name forward in the public eye and deal with the scrutiny of a campaign process. You all brought ideas forward which will be used next year, and in years to come, to strengthen this organization, despite the fact that you may not be the one to implement them. For those of you who are remaining at Brock next year, I hope you still have the desire to remain involved through council and volunteer/staff efforts. For those of you who are moving on to bigger and better things, please don’t let this process sour your mood, efforts, and time you have spent here your last few years. We have all benefitted from your efforts and ideas, not just in the past two weeks, but from all you have done while you were here.

Senate & Humanities Language Credit Requirements

At the February 10th meeting, Senate voted to remove the faculty-wide requirement from Humanities students to complete a second-language credit. A second vote made this repeal a retroactive one to all students currently at Brock. Individual programs within the Humanities will now determine (some have done so already), what will take the place of that credit in their programs. Some departments will continue to require a language, and may be even more specific about which one to take, while some will replace it with a different required credit, and some will make it an elective. Please visit the main page of www.busu.net for the note to Humanities students which I posted within an hour of the vote for any more information you need.

Upcoming Referendum – Recreation Services

During these two weeks, I met with Karen McAllister-Kenny from Recreation Services to finalize the details for an upcoming referendum which is on the agenda for today’s meeting. Students currently pay $2.00 per credit for the Recreation Facilities Fee, but this fee is set to expire at the end of the summer term. This referendum seeks to renew this ancillary fee, and if it passes, will provide a guarantee that all students will receive the free access to the facilities (gyms, pool, courts, etc) which we do now, in perpetuity, and will initiate a process of collaboration between BUSU and Recreation Services to provide and/or repair gym equipment on the Hamilton Campus annually.

Brock TV

With Sohail on leave, I filled his seat on the Independent Student Filmmaker Designation Committee (ISFDC) which is mandated under the Brock TV referendum of last year. The first student has applied to be an Independent Student Filmmaker, and receive a portion of the 10% set-aside. This committee, which also included Sameer, laid out the parameters and logistics of how an ISF is designated and how the application process will work. We have reviewed the first application as well, and bring it to BUSAC at this meeting for approval as required by last year’s Memorandum of Understanding.

CASA

The International Branch Campuses policy has been finalized for translation to send to the CASA plenary in March. I was the Chair of the committee working on that policy, and have also spent some time commenting and contributing to the upcoming Childcare, Part Time Students, and Teaching Award policies.

I have also sent in my final comments on behalf of BUSU with respect to the proposed new CASA operating bylaws and new Board structure.

OUSA

On Friday the 12th, I attended an OUSA Steering Committee meeting in Toronto. Following the meeting, myself, Alexi, Dan and Justin travelled to the MTCU Offices for a meeting with four senior bureaucrats about the Multi-Year Accountability Agreement process. These are bilateral agreements between universities and the government regarding planning and quality targets. OUSA has proposed a new vision for how these operate alongside institutional planning, with an expanded role for student consultation and allowing universities to establish their own differentiation focuses in areas of strength to them.

Signing Authority + other responsibilities

During the leave of absences, I sat on the Club Policy Committee and approved two funding requests and a club ratification. I was also a BUSU signing officer for these two weeks, taking up some additional time. The Board of Directors did not need to meet in the past two weeks while I was a temporary Director.

School of Fine and Performing Arts

Last week, I finalized and sent off letters in support of the Marilyn I Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts to various government officials, including Dr. Lightstone, all local MPPs, and the Ministers of Training, Colleges and Universities, and Energy and Infrastructure, as well as the Premier. All indications are that there will be no new funding announcements until the provincial budget is delivered in late March, however. (This is very typical of most governmental cycles, they don’t announce new funding or money for about 60-days before a budget is delivered).

News from Across the Country

College Faculty

In a vote last week, college faculty members voted narrowly 51%-49% in favour of the latest contract offer from Colleges Ontario. However, due to the small margin, there are enough outstanding mail-in ballots that an official determination cannot be made. Once those mail-ins are counted, college students will finally know whether their year will be in jeopardy or not.

SFUO at University of Ottawa

In a very bizarre incident on February 5th, the President of the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa, Seamus Wolfe, was arrested by Ottawa Police.

The incident starts with background: student Marc Kelly had been barred from the university and deregistered from classes by the university for prior incidents on campus. He was also issued an order not to trespass on U of O property. Kelly entered campus and went to an SFUO-leased space, the Academic Appeals Office, to file his academic appeal to be reinstated to the university. The police arrived, and were ready to arrest him when SFUO intervened and claimed they were the legal occupiers of the office. Police asked Wolfe to obtain a copy of the lease for proof, however when he was gone obtaining this, they moved in any way to arrest Kelly.

Wolfe returned after the arrest, and angrily but peacefully demanded to know why the arrest took place while he was away obtaining the lease. At first, the officer refused to respond, but soon began answering angry questions with short responses. When Wolfe swore at the officer, he was arrested. The cameraman following the exchange was also threatened with arrest. View two videos of this incident at http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/2010/02/05/video-student-president-arrested/

Alberta Budget

In Alberta, the budget came out last week, including a 6% cut to post-secondary funding. Grants and scholarships were cut by nearly 40%, and students lost their provincial debt-ceiling, which used to stand at $28,560 for a four –year program. That cap was similar to the Ontario OSOG program, which in rough numbers for the traditional four-year undergraduate student caps debt at $28,000.

Students in Alberta may also be facing huge tuition hikes. While tuition is legally allowed to rise by 1.5% annually, the government is opening the door for one-time “market modifiers” to hike tuition levels in high-cost professional programs. At Calgary, courses in Business, Engineering, Law and Medicine could be facing hikes over 45% for next year.

VPUA Job Tip of the Week

Tip #10 – Statistics Canada and News Releases

Believe it or not, sometimes it is possible to see into the future. Or at least know what stories are going to be big news when, and on which day. A big part of your job is media monitoring, and getting the name of BUSU and the opinion of students into press coverage. On campus, local, provincial, national, whatever you can get.

How do you find out? A lot of media coverage circles data that is released by Statistics Canada. StatsCan doesn’t just throw out reports randomly however, they have a cycle of indicators and reports, and their website gives you a heads up on which days individual reports come out http://www.statcan.gc.ca/release-diffusion/2010-eng.htm. Most organizations, including CASA, OUSA, and (if you choose) BUSU, have their media releases and talking points written and prepared in advance of the data. You will often know the tone of the report, and student messaging is fairly consistent on key issues; they don’t often change from year to year or month to month. As soon as it’s posted, you plug in the numbers, and send. If you’re one of the first few out of the gate, you’re sure to hear a reporter on the phone within a few hours for your comment on the story.

Another way to know what’s coming up, or coming out, is monitoring the Canada News Wire (www.cnw.ca). This can also be followed via Twitter and RSS, other tips from my past. Basically, organizations who have a real important message, including governments, won’t just e-mail their stories directly to local media (like BUSU will), they’ll pay to post them on a national newswire for maximum coverage. OUSA and CASA, CFS and government will all use this medium for the most important releases. Often, organizations may also pre-release CNW, or post a newswire about an impending announcement or press conference to have media and other organizations perk their ears up about “tomorrow’s news”. By checking the newswire regularly, you’ll often know things before they happen, and can prepare BUSU for whatever response may be necessary.

Closing Lyric of the BUSAC

(Olympic Themed....I’ll be in Vancouver during Reading week!)

“I know this place is where I am
No other place is better than
No matter where I go I am
Proud to be Canadian
I love this country where I am
This land is where I make my stand
No other heart is truer than
The one we call Canadian
I am, you know I am
I am Canadian”
- Old Molson Canadian commercial

Report for the BUSAC Meeting that shall not take place

2010-01-29T19:30:00.000-08:00

Ok, so there actually is no BUSAC on February 2nd anymore due to the number of candidates running in the Executive elections. But I get lonely if I don’t write a report every two weeks, so here’s a rundown of my activities for your consideration.

Pre-Budget Consultations

On Monday January 25th, I had the opportunity to present to the provincial Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs, as they were doing their pre-budget consultations in Niagara Falls. This was a very exclusive opportunity: only 8 days of consultations are taking place across the entire province, which means a maximum of 200 organizations presenting their budget recommendations in person. I’m honoured that the committee chose BUSU, and it should also be noted that the student unions at Western (the USC), and at Queens (the AMS), as well as OUSA, all received invitations to present. It shows the dedication and priority that the government will be placing on education moving forward.

In a 10 minute presentation followed by 5 minutes of questioning, I was able to speak on two main themes: financial aid including OSAP reform, and support for the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, which needs a further $26.1 million in funding for the downtown location, or it places the entire project in collaboration with the Niagara Centre for the Arts in jeopardy. Following the presentation, I also received questions about university-college credit transfer, and MPP Levac tracked me down in the hallways afterwards when questioning time ran out.

This was a big preparation process for this submission in a short time, and I’m very pleased with the reception and the results I hope we can expect in the March budget.

OCUFA Conference

On Friday the 22nd and Saturday the 23rd, I was in Toronto for a conference hosted by the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations – the equivalent of OUSA for faculty unions across the province. The theme was “Financing Higher Education in the Current Economic Climate”, and it brought forward many prominent speakers and panellists, including professors, former University presidents, former Deputy Ministers in government, and other education stakeholders. I attended, along with Dan, Alexi and Paul from OUSA. There was very valuable insight, discussion, and new statistics to learn. Some very compelling arguments were made that there are many things we might be able to fix and do by reorganizing our own spending, and how long term planning combined with uncertain government funding can be made manageable.

Many of the slides and presentations are available at http://www.ocufa.on.ca/conferences.conf2010.gk

Blue Chair

Blue Chair week took place from the 18th to the 22nd as noted. By the end of the week, we had over 2000 signatures on the petition to reform OSAP, had given out over 300 cans of food and over 1000 fortune cookies, and collected around 30 video testimonials about experiences with OSAP. Those will be forwarded on to OUSA for editing and meshing, while we can use the rest of it for our lobby efforts here based at BUSU.

24-hour Space

I had some follow-up discussions with Kim Meade and Steven Pillar following our pilot project from December. I am very pleased to say that once again we have permission to use the Kenmore Centre as 24-hour space during the April exam period.

Further to that, however, here’s the best news. Next year, the Kenmore Centre will be available ALL YEAR LONG as an overnight study space. Between 11pm and 7am it will be dedicated every night for open study. Unfortunately, it will not be 24-hours, even during exams next year, but with other existing space on campus during the other hours, this fills the unmet need that we have, and have asked for this whole year.

I will continue to implement and monitor a comment box to gather feedback this spring, so we can improve the space for the fall, adding things like vending machines, addressing issues of parking, and other improvements that could be made. Shout out to Alex Kidd for his excellent work getting the ball rolling on this initiative.

Go Transit Rail Plan

On Wednesday the 27th, I attended a public information session about GO expansion into the Niagara Region. This is the early stages of a multi-phase project about having commuter train service to the region by 2016. There are some very exciting options from a Brock student perspective, including a possible hub at Glendale Avenue. Importantly though, for Hamilton students, or those who commute between the St. Catharines and Hamilton campuses, is a proposed new stop just 6km from that campus. With hubs better integrated with municipal transit options by that time, it should be possible to take public transit, campus-to-campus, in under 2 hours if both stations are built and frequencies are timed right.

If you go to the BUSU website and click one of the recent news stories on this topic, you will be able to find the study, which is still open and available for public comment.

Inter-Municipal Transit

On Thursday the 28th, I attended a Regional Council committee of the whole meeting, dedicated to the issue of inter-municipal transit.

I’m going to back up a step to deliver some background. Under Ontario law, the lowest-tier municipalities have jurisdiction over transit operations. Within Niagara, currently St. Catharines, Welland and Niagara Falls are the major transit operators. Port Colborne, Fort Erie and Thorold contract their services from the “big three”.

To give the Regional Council the ability to legislate or influence public transit in any way, what’s needed is known as the “triple majority”
Regional council must pass a motion
A majority (7/12) of the lower-tier municipalities must vote in favour
The municipalities voting in favour must comprise at least 50% of Niagara’s population
This triple-majority happened a few years ago, and the Region now operates to specialized transit business. The most the Region could currently do with respect to regional transit is to give unconditional grants. As soon as any condition, even as bare-bones as saying “run buses between our cities” is attached to the grant, that stretches beyond current regional powers.

At this meeting, it was expected that council would take the first step and endorse a city staff recommendation to vote on the first part of the triple majority. Instead, they voted to proceed with phase 2 of the study for more information before asking the municipalities, but put clear timelines: the study must be done by May, and councils must vote on the Triple Majority by July. The 40-year fight to do something about transit will come to a vote this summer!, although unfortunately after my tenure as a student representative is over.

CASA Policy

I am the working group chair for an upcoming policy on International Branch Campuses – basically when Canadian universities or colleges set up a campus in a foreign country under the same name, as many universities are now doing or planning. After a few conference calls with committee members, I wrote the first draft of the policy and have posted it on the CASA Basecamp software for other members to review. Policies are due in two weeks to be submitted for translation and proper notice before the next CASA conference in March. Please contact me if you’ve got any interest or suggestions for this one.

OUSA

Beyond joint assistance with all of our pre-budget submissions, and attending the OCUFA conference with some fine OUSA folk, there hasn’t been much on the OUSA front the past few weeks. Blue Chair is wound down and everyone is in prebudget mode for the most part. Except for Alvin, who got married and decided that his honeymoon was more important than coming into work. Congratulations to Alvin and Rebecca!

Other Meetings

In addition to the above, I’ve also had meetings with:
The Alumni Association
Brock Government Relations
Senate
Senate committees (2)
Kim Meade (2)
Steven Pillar (2)
Dr. Lightstone
Karen McAllister-Kenny
The All Candidates Meeting
Club Policy Committee
Attended an IMSEEJ meeting
University Sustainability Committee
And drop-in meetings with candidates who were looking for some pre-election guidance with various topics.
It was certainly a very busy two weeks, and not likely to get any easier, because...

Election Prep

As you know, I’m running the Yes side of the Fees Replacement Referendum. Most of the prep is in place and done, and watch out for the referendum as the Elections hit you full force at 9am Monday morning.

News from Across the Country

“Your Student Association”

Your-SA is the name of the students’ union that jointly represents students at Durham College, UOIT, and Trent in Oshawa. Last week, their council voted to join the College Student Alliance (CSA) provincial lobby group on behalf of their college students. Congratulations to them!

Alma Matter Society at UBC

Latest fun facts from UBC surround their recent elections. This year, executive elections represent the end of one term and the beginning of the next (no transition process for the President and VP External, as council voted to change the start times of the next term so current the current President and VP External would not be in power during the Vancouver Olympics – see previous reports mentioning the United Nations complaint), their names were on a referendum ballot for impeachment anyway. President Blake Frederick was impeached by a 76% vote, and failed to win his seat on ANY of Senate, Board of Governors, or [the newspaper] Board. The impeachment motion for Tim Chu failed to reach quorum, however his bid for re-election failed resoundingly.

During the same election was a vote on the question of an “Engagement Levy”. This would be a $5 fee charged to students, and only refunded if a student voted in the AMS Executive Elections. Any money not returned would be used for activities of engagement on campus, which was vaguely non-specified. Fortunately for UBC students, this referendum also failed to reach quorum. There’s a lot of irony in that statement.

University of Ottawa/Carleton University

City Council in Ottawa voted in favour of establishing a U-Pass for the two Ottawa schools. Cost will be $145 per term, if passed by referendum on either one of the two campuses.

Kwantlen University-College/CFS-BC

Kwantlen is a member of CFS-BC, and, like my job within OUSA, appoints a representative to sit on their provincial body’s board of directors. In February 2009, their Director of External Affairs, Derek Robertson, was re-elected to his position within the KSA. CFS-BC refused to recognize Robertson as a director on their Board, citing that he campaigned against the CFS during a failed referendum in 2008. Robertson and the KSA sued the CFS to argue for representation of their elected member on a board which their members pay dues to, and otherwise would have no representation.

The Supreme Court ruled last week that Robertson has a right to be on the CFS-BC Board, and that nothing in the BC Society Act of the CFS Bylaws can prevent them from ratifying the choice of a member school. Ironically, after the passage of ‘Motion Six’ at the AGM last month, the CFS is now entrenching dissenting members on their provincial boards all-across the country, thanks to this precedent-setting ruling in BC.

VPUA Job Tip of the Week

Tip #9 – Saints win by 4.

Kidding. Actual tip: University Affairs Magazine

This magazine is free to institutions, student unions, groups, and others in the post-secondary world in Canada (and I’ve made sure BUSU’s subscription of two copies per month comes regularly). It’s funded by the job posting ads in the back of the magazine which contain most of the faculty, dean and senior administration hiring efforts in the country, this is one of the most read publications across the sector each week.

Fortunately, you can get in on the fun without a subscription at www.universityaffairs.ca for their full monthly magazine content. But what makes it even more fun and useful, is the additional sections. News, media scans, opinion columns, discussing all the topics that become relevant week in-week out in this job. Reading it regularly keeps you on top of all the contextual information that must always swirl in your head as you evaluate the current state of education in Canada. For especially thought-provoking or timely reads, make sure you check out “Margin Notes”, a blog by deputy editor Leo Charbonneau. His thoughts, or the articles he points to through twitter, are certainly always worthy of a read.

Closing Lyric of the BUSAC

“Say the right things when electioneering
I trust I can rely on your vote”
- Radiohead

VPUA Report for BUSAC, January 19, 2010

2010-01-15T06:28:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the first report of 2010!

CASA

Things are mostly quiet on the CASA front right now. There are a few regular meetings of the Policy Committee and the sub-committee on International Branch Campuses, which I chair, but there has not been too much activity to report about the organization from during the holiday period.

At the federal level, however, the government has decided to cut funding to the Canadian Council on Learning (CCL). This, along with the loss of the Canadian Policy Research Networks (CPRN), and the end of the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation, means that there are no more independent non-profit research bodies left in the higher education sector in Canada. Certainly, some research will continue to be done by StatsCan, by CASA and the partnership, the CFS, and private firms such as EPI, but this is a huge blow the PSE sector. Only research into our own system, methods and performances will allow us to improve as a nation and develop a stronger and better education sectors in an increasingly competitive world.

OUSA

Steering Committee met on January 8th in Toronto for our regular monthly meeting. OUSA is developing a pledge on teaching quality, which we hope can be adopted by individual universities, providing a commitment to the protection and growth of quality in these times of budget cuts. I have also put forth BUSU’s name for the pre-budget consultations when the committee travels to Niagara Falls, and other OUSA schools have done the same in their local areas, with the Home Office hoping for one of the Toronto meetings.

The organization is on track for 4 policies for General Assembly this spring, along with two policy updates. I have not been tasked with any of these this semester, but will be helping with supporting research on many of the topics. OUSA does now, however have a full set of operating, financial, and HR policies.

More can be found in the section about Blue Chair in this report.

Academic Issues

I have been working on two main academic issues since the last BUSAC. The first is the Brock Travel Policy, which I may have mentioned in previous reports. This is something that the university is developing for all trips which involve students who travel for any academic purposes, and faculty/staff who travel for job-related functions. This is not a policy which BUSU would be subject to, however it involves a significant number of students who would be on co-ops, internships, conferences, even field trips. I have shared my thoughts on this draft with the appropriate departments, and I believe that versions will be coming to senate soon.

The second issue I have been working on is with respect to “pop assignments.” I would classify these as being one where the professor has the ability to walk in at the start of class one day, and assign a paper/project that is due within 48 hours. A restriction on the ability to assign these would not prevent take-home exams, or anything else where a due date is known well in advance and presented in the syllabus, but is simply intended to protect students from surprise assignments when they may be scheduled to work, babysit, or have other commitments one evening and have no reasonable chance of finishing an assignment. Alex has been doing some work for me regarding how other universities treat this issue, and I am currently awaiting response from the committee of Deans about where progress will go next.

24-hour space/Student Lounge Space

The 24-hour space in the Kenmore Centre during exams was a huge success. The number of people self-reporting their attendance in the ballot box became so overwhelming that I had to stop tracking all users, to focus only on those who used the space overnight. Our total count of self-reported overnight users was 99 people during exams, with an expectation that more people used it but did not bother to report. This bodes very well for the argument that many people would use such a space if it were offered consistently, and I will be working with the university for more permanent solutions.

One of those solutions may be the creation of a brand new student lounge which could become 24 hours once it is renovated. I don’t want to identify the space yet in case it does not work out, but there is a department that is moving elsewhere in the university and vacating space near the middle of campus, in an area which we believe could be reasonably converted into a secure location. I have been asked for, and delivered, a formal proposal to turn this area into a student lounge, and am awaiting responses from the administration about how we can proceed.

Executive Retreat

Chris, Nazir and the executive took 5 days to get away from the distractions of St. Catharines and have a planning retreat moving forward for the second semester. Much of our work focused on the upcoming (now passed) Frost Week, as well as the BUSU budget, divisional budgets, HR and staffing through the second semester, transitions, longer-term directions moving forward from BUSU, and a sort of stop-and-reset for the year to refresh us for the new term.

Blue Chair Campaign
So, why are there some blue chairs around the campus, you ask? Well, this is the third year of OUSA’s Blue Chair campaign. The empty blue chair represents the potential of a student who is qualified to attend university, but cannot attend due to barriers placed in their way, or not removed from their way. The different OUSA member schools then take this theme and use it on their own campuses to promote what OUSA does, and some aspect of our lobbying agenda.

This year at Brock, we are focusing on OSAP, and a number of problems with that program. Beginning with how it doesn’t fully fund what it assesses a student’s need to be, frozen loan maximums for the last four years, overestimating parental contributions, insufficient part-time job and personal savings exemptions, underestimating food and textbooks and more, there are a number of issues which OUSA has presented to the government in our submission for the next multi-year plan for how to fix the OSAP program. We are asking for students to sign our petition to the government to fix the OSAP program, as well as recording your thoughts on video for combination and presentation with the other OUSA member schools.

Make sure you stop by the OUSA displays in the hallway to sign the petition, grab a fortune cookie, and if you’re lucky enough, you might even find free food around the school and win other great prizes.

Other

There have been a number of other activities I’ve spent time on, most of them revolve around preparation and planning. Frost Week and Blue Chair week both took up significant time for me. I’ve begun writing my transition manual for the next VPUA, and of course preparing as I run the ‘Yes’ side in the Fees Replacement Referendum.

I also held one lobby-ish meeting. One of the upcoming federal election candidates for the next election approached me to discuss their party’s ideas for post-secondary education, and I prepared a four-page document for them about their party’s previous election platform, CASA’s current priorities, and some other BUSU issues. Of course, with parliament currently prorogued until March, we will not see an election until exams at the earliest, but all parties are preparing their platforms for what may happen after the throne speech and budget.

News from Across the Country

College Professors in Ontario

The college professors held a vote last Wednesday on whether to give their union a strike mandate. Across the province, about 57% of them voted in favour of giving that strike mandate. This does not necessarily mean a strike will be forthcoming, as this gives their union a little more bargaining leverage, but it is now possible. At least five days notice must be given, and the union has indicated that nothing will happen until at least February, but we may see a large strike in the college system at one of the worst times – when a very large number of people have recently been laid off and are returning to school on government-supported job retraining.

University of Alberta Students’ Union

The President of UASU has resigned his job for personal reasons. This leaves the other four executives scrambling to fill the work of five people for the rest of the year.

University of Victoria Student Society/Camosun College Student Society/ Alma Matter Society at UBC

Over in British Columbia, the CCSS recently sent aside $3000 to petition on behalf of the CFS during the upcoming referendum on the campus of University of Victoria, about whether UVSS should remain members of CFS. The petition to defederate was not driven from within the current UVSS executive but by other organized students on campus. The CCSS claims that the student unions have a sibling-like relationship, and remaining with the CFS is in the best interest of both unions. A UVSS motion to “enact a policy of disapproval towards external financial interference” and “respectfully requesting [the CCSS] to end all financial allocations to the campaign” was ultimately defeated by the council, following debate where the tone was that student unions should not be in the position of telling other student unions what to do.

Ironically, at the exact same meeting, the very same UVSS council voted to send a letter to the AMS at UBC asking them to re-submit their human rights complaint to the United Nations (I mentioned this story in my last report). Don’t like telling other student unions what to do?.....you be the judge.

VPUA Job Tip of the Week

Tip #8 – Make a difference where you can, when you can. (It’s a long one)

So, we’re now into election season. The next BUSAC meeting following this one will be during the election period, so I’m carefully timing this “job tip”. This job tip is inspired by one of my Candidate’s Cafe slides, and this “tip” straddles that fuzzy grey line between my experiences, and my hopes for future candidates. But because nobody can release a platform yet, I’m ruling this tip as “fair game” as a result of what I truly believe about how this position operates, and it’s something I think is applicable to candidates in all positions.

There are a number of very overt and obvious student wishes. We’d like to see lower tuition, more grants, better university funding, smaller classes, buses every 5 minutes, and more. Heck, I would love a monorail direct to downtown, a direct phone line to the Premier, and a bridge over Lake Ontario to cut the commuting time for our GTA students. And if you asked 1000 students, 90% or more would agree with every single one of these things. But we don’t live in a perfect world with unlimited funding, and zero consequences. If you make these things the centerpieces of your platform, you won’t be able to deliver on them.

Let me explain. Because they’re so overt and obvious, student leaders across this country have been talking about them and asking various levels of government about them for years (well, maybe not my monorail, bridge or phone line. But the others for sure). That’s over 120 student unions. Over 500 student leaders. Every single year. For at least the past two decades. That’s 10,000 people. Please do not try and convince your electorate that you have some magic power, special skill, or power of persuasion that 10,000 leaders before you did not have. You cannot “try harder”, “work longer”, or “do better” than 10,000 people before you in achieving these objectives. Very smart people have come before you, very smart people will come after you. If the time and stars align, we may partially achieve some of those things, but I guarantee that you alone do not have any brand-new-never-before-heard idea that will solve every problem in education. Especially because most, if not all, of these issues require bags of money that governments simply don’t have. I’m not saying don’t try for these things, and if you have the opportunity, please do. But don’t make “lower tuition” the centerpiece of your election campaign when it’s something that you truly cannot deliver.

Instead, please focus on the ideas that you can accomplish. If you’ve identified methods that could be improved. If you’ve identified needs and gaps that can be filled. Structural deficiencies, holes to patch, resources to give, efficiencies to find. You’re more likely to be able to solve “problems” within the university, than within “the system”, but don’t let that stop you from dreaming. Tell your constituents what you plan to lobby for, but don’t stick to the same old ideas that anybody could think of with 5 minutes of brainstorming. Use that creative thinking to come up with solutions to the problems our student face on a regular basis.

If you have solutions that involve money, provide full solutions. When you’re trying to convince people to do something, it’s a lot easier if you can show full benefits, potential for monetary savings, and impacts. When I walk into lobby meetings, especially this year, the first question I always get is “where should this money come from”. Know how you want to answer that question, and why your project is better than the one you’re finding the money with. Our university is in debt. Our province is in debt. Our country is in debt. Nobody has rolls of cash to throw at you, but there are ways you can make a difference. To point to just one that was tackled this year and is ongoing – 24 hour space. It had an extremely minimal cost, yet makes a huge difference for someone who needs quiet space on campus during exams.

The job is hard, convincing people is harder. But if you want this job, be prepared to work with others. Contrary to what many believe, there are very few people who set out to “screw students”. People work in universities because they believe in the power of them, including making and moulding better students. If given the right motivation and rationales, you can accomplish a whole lot.

But I promise you. If you come into this job and spend your first five months talking about nothing but lower tuition, you’ll get a pat on the head from every politician and every administrator, and they’ll just wait. Their term lasts longer than yours does. They’ll implement their own plan anyway, and just wait for the next VPUA to come along and give them real, achievable solutions. So make yours count, for the benefit of the students at Brock.

Closing Lyric of the BUSAC

“There’s something good
Waiting down this road
I’m picking up
Whatever is mine”
- Tom Petty

Council Report - December 8

2009-12-08T07:51:00.000-08:00

Hello Council,
Good luck on your exams, save travels back home or on holiday vacations, and may you get to spend this special season with your families, friends and loved ones.

Municipal Housing

I attended a meeting of the Thorold Town and Gown committee. Only routine matters took place and it was a short meeting, the increased policing effort between Brock and the Niagara Regional Police seems to have the intended effect of lowering the number of instances of problems in the area.

A few weeks ago, St. Catharines has passed a new housing bylaw which eliminates any references to certain types of housing, namely, boarding houses, rooming houses and lodging houses. The intent of this bylaw was to make it easier for fire and safety inspections to happen within rental properties, without legitimizing the conversion of some properties from single family homes to rental properties. The City of Thorold may be looking at similar action in the future.

Lastly, the Supreme Court of Canada rejected the final appeal of the Oshawa zoning bylaw. This incredibly controversial city bylaw targeted certain neighbourhoods within a short walk of UOIT and Durham College, and placed severe restrictions on the area, including limiting the number of beds, parking spaces, requiring landlord permits, and more. It was challenged for unconstitutionality all the way through the court system. By rejecting this appeal, the SCC has basically reinforced the right of municipalities to set their own zoning standards as the city sees fit. This makes every future zoning decision so important, as the “unconstitutional” argument is not likely to hold weight anymore.

Senate

I have about 300 pages of course change requests to sift through, the same amount of work as usual each year for the Undergraduate Program Committee as each department submits their requests for next year. Keeping in mind the Brock 2014 plan and the potential phase out of 3-year degrees, I will be keeping a close eye on this process with every subcommittee.

The Governance Committee, as well as many others, continue to make recommendations about the academic review process which Brock gets to develop to our own needs, but must be submitted to the province by mid-March.

Referendums

I have been corresponding with the university about the various referendums which may be coming forward in February this year. Chris Green and I have a meeting on Monday Dec 7th about this matter. The report is written before that date, so I will be updating council verbally about the outcome.

OUSA

Last week was OUSA’s Lobby Conference, my most favourite time of the year. Lianne and I travelled to Toronto for four days, three of which were jam-packed with intense lobbying. OUSA had over 70 meetings scheduled for this week, and 16 delegates in 4 teams to do it.

The week took a rough and interesting start, as the PC Party staged a “final stand” protest against the impending HST legislation, grinding the operations of Queen’s Park to a halt. Two members were kicked out for the session (could be as short as a few months, as long as two years), but refused to leave the Legislature, disrupting any business that could be conducted. As a result, votes were delayed and rescheduled, and MPPs were called to emergency House Duty at other unscheduled times. This messed up greatly our perfectly crafted schedules, but it worked out OK. The week was a resounding success with our messages about Student Financial Assistance, Tuition, and Student Success.

I was the lead of a lobby team (Ringo) including delegates from Mac, Waterloo and Laurier, and over the course of the week I was able to meet with:
MPP Dunlop
Minister Bradley
Minister Matthews
A staffer for MPP Berardinetti
6 key policy staff members from MTCU
Minister Broten
MPP Jeffrey
Minister Gravelle
MPP Sandals
MPP Orazietti
MPP Mitchell
Minister Bartolucci
Minister McMeekin
As well as crossing paths and having side conversation with many others. Five other meetings were either deferred or cancelled due to the shenanigans in the House.
OUSA was, as a whole, able to meet with about ¾ of the cabinet, including Minister Milloy from MTCU. The response to our message was fantastic, and we look forward to seeing the policy and political outcomes as a result of this conference.

CASA

There was a meeting of the policy chairs held to divvy up tasks and update committee membership for the next policy cycle before the March conference. I will be chairing the International Branch Campuses group, and have begun to conduct some research on this topic already. I will also be participating in the Early Outreach policy group, and continuing with the Childcare group.

I also participating in helping clean up/correct some of the meeting minutes from the AGM a few weeks ago.

On Tuesday, two hours before the BUSAC meeting, there will be a conference call to finally vote for once and for final, on the new CASA voting structure. Be sure to ask me the outcome during the meeting if you wish.

Student News from Across the Country

This may become a routine section, we’ll see what other interesting news there is to report. This is something I keep tabs on all the time, but rarely do we see a two-week stretch like this one. But to keep you updated on the goings-on of the past two weeks:

Alma Matter Society at the University of British Columbia

President Blake Frederick and VP External Affairs Tim Chu submitted a formal Human Rights complaint to the United Nations about tuition rates in British Columbia making university inaccessible, supposedly violating some treaty that Canada has signed. The reaction on the UBC campus was swift and harsh: this action was not endorsed by council and cost at least $3000 in legal fees, maybe more. The reputation of UBC is at stake as well, according to many. The AMS council had an emergency meeting (which Frederick and Chu skipped), with unanimous resolutions to withdraw the UN complaint, and to request the resignations of both Frederick and Chu. They have refused to do so, and thrown two of their other executives “under the bus.” A formal impeachment meeting is scheduled for this weekend.

Dalhousie Students’ Union

The past few weeks have been considering whether to impeach their VP Internal, Mark Hobbs around issues of job performance. A meeting was scheduled for last week. After council deliberated, the motion to impeach failed: 13 in favour, 14 against, 5 abstensions: needed 2/3 to pass.

Canadian Federation of Students

Probably the most contentious part of the past two weeks, held their AGM in Gatineau. The ‘reform package’ of over 30 motions including policies on media openness, posting minutes online, random selection of judicial boards, the notification of all legal proceedings, separate budgets for the CFS-Services division, and cessation of legal action against members who have recently held referendums to leave, among others, was put forward by a number of Quebec schools. The ‘anti-reform’ motion, referred to ominously by its number ‘Motion Six’, was put forth by Carleton to make it tougher to leave the Federation. This motion would double the number of signatures needed to initiate a referendum (from 10% of the student body to 20%), lengthen the minimum waiting period between referendums about the CFS (from two years to five years), and limit the number of referendums that could be held in any years to four (there are no number restrictions currently, and at least 13 schools have submitted petitions to hold referendums this year.) The current window of up to 6-months notice required is already criticized as too short, with petitions required to be submitted before October 15th if a vote is to be held in the same academic year. It was a motion clearly acknowledged by both sides to lock in members and prevent attempts to leave the organization. No parallel motion was introduced about the process to join the CFS.

At the meeting, Quebec delegates were reportedly bullied and harassed, and some schools were asked to sign legal documents making them responsible for ‘any ramifications’ if their motions passed. Kwantlen, a school in the reformist movement, had their hotel rooms cancelled. Journalists who were part of delegations were forced to stop reporting on the conference. Only one CUP journalist was allowed inside, but was barred from interviewing anybody, or publishing any stories, until the conference finished. Willful confusion was created, with fake twitter accounts about CFS Quebec delegation, McGill graduate students, and even CASA were created to cause confusion for anyone following the proceedings.

In the highly contentions (and well-followed via Twitter) plenary session, all but two of the reformist motions failed. The ones that did pass were amended: one to put a list of all boycotts online, and one to make the minutes of opening and closing plenary available to members on request, though not on a public website. A motion to collaborate with CASA on issues of mutual agreement failed resoundingly. During the intense debate time for ‘Motion Six’, the fire alarm was pulled, and the meeting chair refused to recognize the allotted end time for the meeting once delegates returned. In a bylaw amendment that required 2/3 support, the motion received 44 votes in favour, 19 against, with 6 abstentions. The chair ruled it as carried, but the reformist movement protested: the CFS bylaws state that “2/3 present” must vote in favour, not “2/3 present and voting”. With 69 schools in the room, 46 would have been 2/3. The CFS officially claims this to be carried, but (even more) legal challenges may be pending, putting the official outcome of this vote into the unknown category right now.

VPUA Job Tip of the Week

Tip #7 – Globecampus.ca

We’re back to information sources this time around. Globecampus.ca/blogs is the rival compliment to the Macleans on Campus blogging team. So rival in fact, that a mother-daughter team in the Dobson-Mitchell family blogs against their son-brother Scott Dobson-Mitchell who writes for Macleans. Globe also features Joey Coleman, a former McMaster and current U Manitoba student who used to write for Macleans, and a few other student bloggers. This site isn’t as easy to navigate with a comments section that doesn’t work so well, and no central gathering page to see which blogs have been updated recently. But to find out about more goings-on across the country, you’d be hard-pressed to exclude Joey Coleman from the top-5 known names in PSE reporting. His often controversial topics can attract upwards of 60 comments, and is some fascinating reading (again: remember the reporting biases) for anyone getting a handle on some of these issues.

Closing Lyric of the BUSAC

“You make me smile like the sun
Fall out of bed
Sing like a bird
Dizzy in my head
Spin like a record
Crazy on a Sunday night”
- Uncle Kracker

Council Report - November 24th

2009-11-23T12:55:00.000-08:00

Hello esteemed council, this inter-provincial report has been delivered from the friendly confines of Halifax, Nova Scotia, among esteemed student leaders from across the country. Spending just 3 days in the office since the last meeting, and 5 days in Halifax, my past two weeks have been dominated by CASA conference-related activities.

Upcoming Referendum(s)

In light of the passed motions at the previous council surrounding the ‘Fee Replacement Referendum’, myself and Sohail sat down with the CRO and DROs to give them the information about the referendum which they will need to run the impartial information campaign.

As per the Omnibus agreement between BUSU and the University, I also delivered the notice necessary about the referendums which we know will be upcoming for the rest of the year.

I also had a chance to meet briefly with Ken from Brock Outdoors, and we are developing a stronger referendum question and memorandum of understanding before he begins the petition process to have this club funding referendum come forward.

24-hour space

I received official notice from the University that we will have access to the Kenmore Centre to use as 24-hour study space during the upcoming exam period, as a trial run to future 24-hour spaces available on campus. I am continuing to work out the final details with Campus Security, and full information will be posted and advertised shortly. I encourage everyone to ensure that their constituents know about this new option, and that it be used frequently to ensure that this trial period is a success.

Academic Affairs Committee

The Academic Affairs Committee held a Town Hall/Open Forum to discuss any issues of concern that students had about university policy. No previously unknown issues were raised at this meeting, attended by 5 people over an hour and a half. The committee will continue to work and prioritize the previously identified concerns over the rest of the year.

The AAC also met to discuss student-selected Teaching Awards on campus, and we have a framework ready to go that has been approved. The formal drafting and creation of the form is the only step left to go before this initiative begins to be promoted and ready to accept submissions. We will have a submission based teaching award for Lecturers (6 winners – one per faculty including an overall Brock winner), and one individual Teaching Assistant/Lab Assistant.

Senate

One of the Senate committees I sit on, the Undergraduate Student Affairs committee, discussed at the last meeting the ideas surrounding a formal grade for academic dishonesty cases. Some universities have moved to a system where a grade of ‘XD’, ‘XF’ or something similar, are used on transcripts to denote that a student has failed because they have been caught in an academic dishonesty situation. The committee decided at this time not to recommend any action to Senate, that our current procedures at Brock are enough of an education and a deterrent to prevent dishonest behaviour. This issue may be revisited in a few years with more information.

Referendums

There will be a presentation at this meeting to propose a referendum to be held at the same time as the Executive elections in February, to take $5 in existing ancillary fees and redistribute them for next year into a Clubs Levy, Green Levy, and an increase to the BUSU operating budget. There have been two executive meetings exclusively for this topic this past week, and I took the responsibility of writing the first draft of the Memorandum of Understanding.

Canadian Student Survey

The final e-mail about this survey has gone out to students, but the link is still live and active until the end of this week. Over 2000 students at Brock have taken the survey already, second (in numbers) in the country to only University of Alberta, and University of Western Ontario. Percentage-wise of the student body, Brock is heads and shoulders above other schools participation rates, and we should be commended for that. I encourage anyone who has not participated yet to please visit www.canedsurvey.org and take the 15 minutes to share your opinions.

OUSA

I have completed the first drafts of OUSA’s financial policies, and sent them to the rest of the OUSA membership for evaluation. We have also determined the review process for our staff reviews, and I continue to work on the organization’s future insurance needs, and a switch in credit card providers.

CASA

CASA’s Annual General Meeting was held in Halifax last week. As you may or may not know, CASA is overhauling/reviewing/discussing massively significant internal issues this year, including all of the following:
- The constitution
- The governance structure
- The voting structure
- The fee structure
- The long-term plan
This, as a sum, basically constitutes just about everything that CASA does internally. This, in addition to some policy in the week.

The following constitutes an extremely brief overview of the proceedings:

The first day began with reports from the National Director, about the government climate, and updates from the Digital Technology Officer about a recent media strategy involving east coast schools and MuchMusic personality Paul Telner. We received updates from each of the policy committees and presentations about policies ready for adoption in the afternoon, and then held a policy committee meeting to prioritize the tasks remaining for the rest of the year.

The second day was a full-day discussion about two very important issues: long-term planning, and governance structure. Through breakouts, day-long discussion (including arguments and bigschoolsmallschoollove), healthy debate, discussion and compromise, the organization received through full input, the direction towards a BHAG (the organization’s main goal), as well as organizational core values, and core purpose. The rest will be hashed out through the rest of the year on a committee that I sit on.

The third day focused more on the governance structure, and the large decisions about which bodies/groups receive which jurisdiction and authorities were sorted out, as well as that a board structure was needed, and the rough edges around how the board composition should look. We also had a lengthy discussion about how the voting structure should look, and a shorter-but-important direction-setting session to let the fee structure review committee know what to proceed with. We also held a formal plenary session to accept Fraser Valley into the membership as a full member, and Kwantlen into CASA as an associate member. Within this session, we also held an in-camera meeting.

The final day was the plenary session, with some actual decisions made, as well as more future direction. We passed the policies on Copyright and around graduate student grants, and for CASA to take out membership in the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies. Some budgetary business was discussed at length, and CASA formally passed/approved funding for the Canadian Student Survey. Other working groups and empowerment was delegated: we will be evaluating formal guidelines for observer schools, we have begun to empower our leadership team to take on the powers of the soon-to-be Board of Directors, to develop a communications strategy and the policy committee was taskedwork on the next 5 CASA policies. The motion to adjust CASA’s voting structure will go to a conference-call vote within the next month.

In addition to the committees and activities that I was already involved with, I will be heading the research and leading the committee on the issue of International Branch Campuses from Canadian institutions.

VPUA Job Tip of the Week

Tip #6 – Documentation

In a short word, keep it. Keep all of it, even the things you believe to be incredibly insignificant, or cumbersome. You, or someone else, will need it later.

BUSU has lost a lot of documentation in its history, we have some dead-zones where we know nothing about some years. Many of these were in the pre-computer days, and now that we have these, it makes the storage and tracking of information so much easier for the future.

Save every single e-mail attachment onto the network, as soon as you receive it. This allows you to delete e-mails which you may not need, while providing a back-up copy of any document you’ve received, for review later when you may or may not be online or offline, or on a different machine.

Save copies of every document you create, in every stage. I’ve begun labelling every file ‘RobsXprojectversion1point1’, and then after anybody else revises it, this becomes 1point2, then 1point3, and so on. The historical progression of a decision may not be readily apparent or necessary for you, but imagine three years from now when you are not around, someone should be able to follow your every thought process.

Create labels, folders, and subfolders as specific as possible to help your future selves find the information, in the years they need to find it. I’ve found it helpful to keep a subdirectory of every past year within quick reach as well.

Never throw out your scrap paper. This becomes where you’ve jotted down phone numbers and notes on the go, names, committees, dates, and anything else. At least once per week I sort and sift through a file in my drawer of old scrap papers, because one of those names or numbers has now become relevant or necessary again.

‘Sent e-mail’ history is just as important to save, track and sort through for this information as well. Ensure that all e-mails are backed up and saved for future reference.

An extra 10 seconds of effort today, believe me when I say this, saves you hours of headache later on. And your successors will thank you for it.

Closing Lyric of the BUSAC

“This is my December
This is my time of year
This is my December
This is all so clear”
- Linkin Park

OUSA Blog Post

2009-11-16T14:22:00.000-08:00

Coasts & Coalitions – By Rob Lanteigne (Nov 16, 2009)

With the power of Blackberry, I write this blog with a toe literally dipped in the Atlantic Ocean (cold in November, fyi). Myself and many of the OUSA folk are in Halifax for the AGM of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations.

I can’t help but marvel, not just at the beautiful country we have, but at the strength of post-secondary advocacy in this country. You know (or I hope you do from the OUSA website) about the strength and influence we have in Ontario. CASA provides the parallel voice federally, with great strength and success.

The value of these Alliances is more than just strength in numbers, and a coordinated voice. It’s also about resource and idea sharing, a way for me to strengthen the impact that BUSU has at Brock by learning about what the students’ unions at Calgary and Dalhousie offer their students. The value is in achieving more together than we would be able to fathom working independently. And that’s why I’m proud and humbled to represent my school and my constituents at these conferences.

The beautiful east coast scenery is just a side benefit.

-Rob Lanteigne

A well-reasoned report by Ontario students

2009-11-12T16:32:00.000-08:00

The following editorial appeared online at the University Affairs magazine website, November 12, 2009, written by deputy editor Leo Charbonneau
http://www.universityaffairs.ca/margin-notes/a-well-reasoned-report-by-ontario-students

You can find the PDF version of the OUSA submission at http://www.ousa.ca/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/OUSA-RH2-Submission3-31.pdf

I was impressed by the submission presented by the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance to the provincial government this week (see the press release here, and the full submission in PDF format here).

The 40-page document contains three main priorities: student financial aid, student success (quality), and tuition. I think the report is eminently reasonable, especially some of the recommendations on quality and access. It also lacks some of the needlessly confrontational language I sometimes see with student advocacy.

Many of the recommendations are obviously Ontario-specific, but there are others that I think would resonate Canada-wide.

Here are their recommendations in terms of student financial assistance:

Raise the living allowance to at least the poverty line and ensure geographic differences in cost of living are taken into account;
Raise the in-study income exemption to $100/week, and tie it to future increases in the minimum wage;
Immediately raise the OSAP maximum to $175 per week with a proportional increase from the federal government
Fulfill its promise to provide students with an interest-free year before they must begin repaying their student loans; and,
Maintain the Ontario Student Opportunity Grant at its current level, and finding the funding through the redirection of the tuition and education tax-credits.

Student success:

The provincial government mandate institutions to develop early warning systems to 5 proactively identify and assist those students who may need greater support, especially in their first year;
The provincial government create envelopes within the funding formula that designate specific amounts per FTE for student support services;
Funding be designated by the provincial government to found and maintain instructional support programs that encourage innovation in teaching and provide ongoing professional development for Ontario’s post-secondary educators;
The provincial government develop incentives for all new PhD students to be given formal instruction in teaching methods and practices;
The provincial government designate targeted funding to support the development of new teaching and learning pedagogy at all institutions and across all disciplines; and,
Quality teaching be weighted equally with research performance for all decisions relating to hiring, promotion and tenure. A panel consisting of students, government, university and faculty representatives must be established to explore how this standard can be better maintained.

And tuition:

The provincial government regulate all tuition, including that of international students;
The Ontario government progress toward restoring a 2:1 cost-sharing model where tuition makes up no more than a third of university operating budgets;
At minimum, the provincial government must increase university operating grants to the per student national average.
If tuition increases must occur, then they should go up no more than that of yearly inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index.

Did you catch that very last one? I got a bit of flack last week for saying that calls by student groups to cut tuition are dubious, but I notice this group is not advocating that.

I’m not up on the intricacies of university student politics, but my understanding is this group is aligned with the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, which I gather is viewed as more “conservative” or, if you wish, less “ideological” than the rival Canadian Federation of Students.

VPUA Report November 10, 2009

2009-11-10T10:12:00.000-08:00

Good evening all, apologies for being sick during the last meeting and unable to attend to answer questions. The illness kept me away from the office for much of the week, coming in only for specific meetings and then leaving again. I can respond to questions about this report or the last one during this meeting.

OUSA

I spent some time these past two weeks working on two very important initiatives for OUSA. Alexi and I have been going over quotes and types of insurance that might be necessary for the organization, and this has come with some time spent on education for myself as well as a deeper understanding of the insurance that BUSU carries for various reasons. The second project is financial policies – I have completed the first draft of a brand new set of procedures for the organization, and this will bounce back and forth a few times over the next few months before being finalized and adopted.

The OUSA website should now be back up and running as of when you read this. Check out the new www.ousa.ca and check out some of the new content, including the revamped OUSA blog which I contributed to last Monday.

On Friday, I attended workshop hosted by the Council of Ontario Universities, which was dedicated to lobby training and public policy. This report was written before that date, so I can update BUSAC verbally about how this went, if the question is asked.

CASA

I held a conference call with the rest of the Strategic Planning Committee two weeks ago to go over the timelines and deadlines for that initiative.

The pre-conference materials for next week’s AGM have been sent out, so I have spent time reviewing these, and discussing the conference with my counterparts at other institutions. Discussions will include very major issues of policy, strategic plan, governance review, voting structure, and fee structure.

Niagara Prosperity Advisory Committee

The NPAC hosted a Community Conversation last week on Tuesday on campus. Lianne and I both attended to learn more about their committee, and bring back some ideas of how we might be able to increase our service offerings. One particular initiative, a “Good Food Bag” filled with healthy local fruits and vegetables, is one service that we may be able to add on to our existing food voucher and ESLP initiatives to help students in need.

BUSAC Committees

I am the chair of two committees: External Affairs and Academic Affairs. Both attempted to meet for the first time two weeks ago. Unfortunately, only three people including myself were in attendance at External Affairs, but we still were able to go over an outline of the year, and discuss some CASA-related initiatives.

The Academic Affairs met however, and I’m proud to say that it reached quorum for the first time ever! The committee will be hosting an open town hall this week, Thursday at 3:30 in AS 215 to gather student concerns about academic matters within Brock. We also have a list of about a dozen issues to tackle this year, beginning with the creation of a student-driven Teaching Award here at Brock.

Referendums

There will be a presentation at this meeting to propose a referendum to be held at the same time as the Executive elections in February, to take $5 in existing ancillary fees and redistribute them for next year into a Clubs Levy, Green Levy, and an increase to the BUSU operating budget. There have been two executive meetings exclusively for this topic this past week, and I took the responsibility of writing the first draft of the Memorandum of Understanding.

Presidents’ Ball

I also spent a bit of time running around the Region to collect some Presidents’ Ball prizes from various local politicians – Chairman Peter Partington, Mayor Damian Goulbourne, Mayor Ted Salci, MP Rob Nicholson, and MPP Jim Bradley.

Canadian Student Survey

Monday, you hopefully (will) receive(d) an e-mail within your Badger account about the National Student Survey. This is a HUGE deal with major implications and buy-in from across the country. This is the first time that students in Canada have produced a full-scale national survey where the data is created and owned by the students, providing cross-sections on a national, provincial and institutional scale.

As many of you might know, the non-renewal of the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation is creating a huge data void within postsecondary education. With the limited research of Statistics Canada excepted (and that is based mostly on census data only), there is no public data and research on education anymore. The only surveys, the only research, the only data, is being collected and held by the groups that commission the research. All too often, this is private companies, groups and think tanks which have a certain agenda and purpose to their data collection. Information and statistics are only released when favourable and when necessary. Statistics that do not support their mission are never released. Those who hold the data hold the control.

This survey, owned by “the partnership” including CASA and OUSA, will allow students access to the data that we can’t get otherwise. It also delves far beyond that, asking students for the first time about many public policy preferences relating to PSE which will help inform future organizational direction. It tests knowledge to indicate whether current government programs are known and are being utilized. And it asks some questions that no other research has been asking because they don’t serve students as members.

I beg of you that you do not ignore this survey. We as Vice Presidents, Presidents, we can only do so much with the experiences we have and the friends that we know. The data of thousands of students is so much stronger than our “belief that this is the case” in our universities. Please take the fifteen minutes to fill it out, and encourage your friends to do the same. BUSU, OUSA, CASA, we can only serve your interests if we know what your interests are, and for the first time we have a large-scale mechanism to evaluate it.

Other Meetings

BUSU Exec meetings – at least 2x per week
Appeals meeting – I am on the appeals board for one of the University services which shall remain nameless. We had a meeting to discuss 9 appeal situations.
Educational Technology Advisory Group
Senate Governance Committee

VPUA Job Tip of the Week

Tip #5 – Meet Your Deadlines

This tip may sound simple, it may sound logical, it may sound like downright common sense. But all too often in this job and student union politics in general, people are not able to meet the commitments that they make. When you get a series of busy people together, whether they are students, reporters, politicians, and a date or time gets agreed upon for a meeting, work to be completed, or a follow up, there is somebody counting on you to hold up your end of the bargain. The most frustrating thing is when busy people get together, and the time is wasted when the preliminary information has not been done.

I hesitate to point out any names of people who do not meet this standard, but there are many people that I have encountered over the past two years. One of the reasons that BUSU has one of the highest meeting rates and influence with our local politicians is based on our prompt use of meeting debrief forms and follow-ups on requests for information. The reason that we are among the most prepared at OUSA and CASA meetings is that material is reviewed and commented on during the preliminary stages based on the deadlines, which gives us greater influence into the initial documents and more knowledge about the process, adding greater weight to the outcomes.

I’m proud to say that no newspaper story of mine has ever appeared with a “Rob/BUSU was unavailable for comment at press time”, and that timely information has led to the retraction of various inaccuracies. We’ve never cancelled, or even delayed, an event that I have been responsible for due to lack of preparation or forward thinking. Being prepared for a meeting when others aren’t immediately increases your credibility in the eyes of everyone else watching, and in this business, if you don’t have credibility, then you don’t have anything.

How does this get done? Get yourself into a routine of writing things down. Blackberries and electronic calendars are technologically cool and can give you a handy beep 15 minutes before you need to be somewhere. But a physical calendar allows you to scan weeks at a glance. I place “internal reminders” throughout my calendar hours or days in advance of the actual deadline, just to remind myself to work on them. I scan at least two weeks ahead in my calendar, every day, to make sure I’m leaving time for something that needs to be done. I may be VP Travel and Tourism, but I’ve never missed a BUSAC report deadline in two years. It’s time prioritization.

I hesitate to even include this as a “job tip” because I wish it was just common sense, but it jumps all the way up my list to number 5 because it’s such a basic function that takes just a few minutes of organization. You’re going to be doing the work, the readings, the reports, the planning, the thinking, and the follow-ups anyway. Do them early before you get caught on the treadmill of being late for everything, and your access and influence increases exponentially.

Closing Lyric of the BUSAC

“It’s the perfect time of day
To throw all your cares away
Put a sprinkler on the lawn
And run through with my gym shorts on”
- Barenaked Ladies

Universities: an essential service?

2009-11-02T10:14:00.000-08:00

Universities: an essential service? – by Rob Lanteigne (Nov 2, 2009)

(the following blog entry was written for the soon to be redesigned OUSA website, currently available as a mirror at http://dev.theblogstudio.com/ousa/)

Welcome back to the OUSA website after our lengthy delay, hope you enjoy the new navigation, and will become a regular reader of our OUSA Blog.

I wanted to start with a timely piece: as of this morning, the union representing Teaching Assistants and Research Assistants at McMaster is on strike. As of yet, classes are still on, but many lectures and labs will be affected. Strikes are becoming commonplace in higher education – immediately last year’s strike at York comes to mind, which cancelled classes for three months and led exams into June. In 2008, the part-time academic faculty at Laurier were on strike for two weeks. The year before that, I helped coordinate a student sit-in at Brock University when a looming faculty strike was set to cancel December exams. In 2006, a province-wide college strike shut down classes for three weeks.

The key similarity in all of these situations, and most certainly for all future labour disputes, is that students are left powerless, and out of the bargaining boardrooms. Certainly there are a few upper-year students who may be members of a bargaining unit, but the majority of the undergraduate and college students in the province are completely at the mercy of the union and the institution. While both sides always claim to have the student interest at heart, how are students expected to cope with squeezed academic semesters, shortened summers, and uncertain timelines?

Students pay thousands of dollars each year for an education, not just for a grade. A strike may or may not cancel classes outright, but every single one harms interaction, learning methods, and the chance to pick the brains of other thought leaders in their field. The number I receive at the end of the course means much less to me than the time spent with professors, the learning skills taught by TAs, and the cumulative knowledge absorbed through the entire process. Every single strike harms that learning environment.

Students are a captive and powerless consumer. Once I have been accepted to my school, I’m paying for whatever comes out the other side. I pay the same amount to be taught by a full professor or a sessional lecturer. I pay the same amount in a 400-seat lecture hall in a class with 20 TAs as I do in a fifteen-person class. And I’ve already paid that money by the time “strike season” comes along. I don’t get the chance at a refund, the chance to switch to a new school (until the year is over), and most importantly, I don’t have any sway with the two groups that are holding my education hostage.

I don’t intend to take sides, administration vs. union. I judge every situation based on its own circumstances. But I disagree with the notion that students as consumers must be the losers in every labour dispute in the higher education system. We have the right to an education that begins and ends on schedule, with the promised interaction levels throughout, with no worry, uncertainty or threat of cancelled classes. With no ability to hop institutions, especially not mid-semester, one of the few ways to guarantee this right is through declaring education an essential service.

Essential service declaration would not mean that the bargaining process dies. What it would mean, however, is healthy discussion that does not use “the student interest” as a pawn in the media to gather sympathy for either side. It would mean that students carry out their studies in labour peace, and do not have the threat of late transcripts, missed professional exams, or shorter employment summers hanging over their university careers. And it would mean that, when I’m advising my sister which school to attend for next year, that I’m not using collective bargaining contracts, history and assumptions to tell her which places to avoid.

Thoughts?

-Rob Lanteigne

BUSAC Report - October 27th, 2009

2009-10-26T18:43:00.000-07:00

Good evening all, and a reminder that your clocks “Fall Back” an hour this coming Sunday, November 1st.

Senate/ Senate Committees

Senate business is still very much preliminary this year. The valuable portions of the main senate meetings are the updates from Dr. Jack, as well as the COU Academic Colleague, which keep us informed as to what’s going on from their end of things. The discussions that Jack has in particular, about the direction of the province, the COU, and the priorities he has for Brock, are extremely helpful for informing my work through OUSA, and with politicians. As we are awaiting the formal submissions to the province by the COU this year, Senate and other discussions are the only avenues to keep tabs on the requests the university has for Ontario in the next few years.

I was invited to attend the Senate IT and Infrastructure Committee meeting two weeks ago in response to the motion that was passed at BUSAC supporting 24-hour learning space. I presented to the committee for approximately half an hour including questions, and a motion of support for extended hours on campus was passed. A subcommittee was struck to come with further ideas, and this committee also includes Sebastian Prins. I continue to work with Steven Pillar about a pilot 24-hour space during exams this semester.

OUSA

Of the seven work days which take place between one BUSAC meeting and the date the reports are written for the next one, probably the equivalent of four complete days was spent working on issues that pertain to OUSA.

OUSA General Assembly took place this past weekend (but after the time of writing). After the Assembly approves policies, documentation and bylaws on Sunday, I will send out anything that becomes officially approved to BUSAC by Monday, for your reference and information. I will also highlight the conference verbally and answer questions at that time. I spend time these weeks discussing with our delegates the procedures and expectations for the weekend conference.

On the 14th, I met with the OUSA Auditors to discuss their draft audits for the previous two years. There were a few questions still to answer on both sides, and a few corrections to still make based on the discussions that took place. BDO made the corrections, OUSA signed the necessary documents, and OUSA received the final audit statements on the 21st. I also spent significant time updating the OUSA year-to-date financials for presentation to General Assembly.

The policy on the Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) which I was responsible for was completed as well, with editing, footnotes and other styling details taking up most of the effort on that paper in the past two weeks. I also proposed and sent amendments for the other two General Assembly papers which I did not have a direct hand in writing.

The newest version of the Ontario Operating Funds Distribution Manual, the holy scripture of Ontario university operating funding and policies, was released (nearly 200 pages), and it took significant time to go through the document to familiarize myself with any new pieces.

The National Student Survey, which both OUSA and CASA are participating in, is coming near. I spent some time working at Brock on behalf of EPI (the survey administrators) to ensure Research Ethics clearance, and some minor changes as we near the launch date of November 9th.

Friday the 16th I was in Toronto for a Steering Committee meeting. This one went significantly longer than our usual meetings, but we had a lot to discuss. We flew through a session that looked at OSAP in detail, and all the tweaks and changes we have and should be asking for. If anyone knows more about loan calculations and differences between federal and provincial systems more than Alexi and Paul, I’d like to meet that person.

During the meeting we also had Leah Myers present, she is the Postsecondary Secretariat with the MTCU, and in charge of the current round of discussions around Reaching Higher 2. She is a former President at Durham College, and before that, was the executive director of the Secretariat which supported the Rae Review. In short, she’s one of the top ears in the world to hear and understand our concerns, and influence what we need influenced moving forward this year with respect to RH2 and the tuition framework moving forward. We were able to discuss with her the following topics, all in significant detail:
- E-Learning
- Classroom technology
- Turnitin.com
- Flat fee tuition
- Differential tuition
- Co-op programs, internships and service learning
- How the above interact (negatively) with OSAP
- Branch campuses
- Quality vs. Expansion
It was an incredibly productive day, probably the best Steering Committee that I’ve had in the past year and a half in this job.

CASA

I’ve started the bookings of hotels, flights, etc. for the next CASA conference, the Annual General Meeting in November hosted by Dalhousie.

As one of the Central Regional Coordinators, I’ve also spent a fair amount of time these few weeks on the phone with my counterparts in Ontario and Quebec, gathering input to begin the process of creating CASA’s next Strategic Plan. This stage is still a brainstorming and input stage, the creation of a structure with points and goals will follow shortly.

Niagara Prosperity Advisory Committee

Brad Clarke from Off Campus Living approached me last week about the Niagara Prosperity Advisory Committee. This is a group with a number of stakeholders coming together to address challenges related to poverty, and supporting the work of those that reduce poverty throughout the Niagara Region. There are a number of town halls happening in various communities to identify some of the challenges, solutions and visions of those who face poverty situations, for use in providing some direction for this group to proceed. Brad and I are working on bringing one of these “Community Conversations” to Brock to gather the input on student-specific concerns. Please keep watching the BUSU website and some posters in the hallways to find out more about this event, if you or someone you know is affected by poverty.

Budget Town Hall

Friday October 23rd, Dr. Lightstone held the first town hall of this year’s budget cycle, and invited the BUSU executive to attend. It was effectively a re-summarization of the results of last year, with a challenge to work this year on solutions:

The results of last year’s budget saw Brock close a 17 million dollar gap by approximately 8.1 million dollars. We are now left with a 8.9 million dollar gap to tackle. The impetus in the first year, due to time, was cuts to places where cuts could be made. This year, the focus is on revenue enhancements; that is, finding ways to increase revenues with the same amount of resources, in order to close the gap by moving the revenues side upwards, rather than by moving the expenses side downwards. We have a few months to achieve some of these creative solutions, and Dr. Lightstone will be working with all the stakeholders on campus, including BUSU, on how we achieve this moving forward.

We have promised that town halls will be held, like last year, for students to specifically have student questions answered, and to inform as many people as possible moving forward. Details about when these will be, with a likely location of Isaacs, will be forthcoming.

Deferral Fee Charges

A few weeks ago, I asked Alex to begin looking at how our tuition deferral fee of $75 compared to other schools with their OSAP and tuition payment process. This was expediated in order to get the information for the Brock Press, who independently also stumbled onto that topic for a story. You will find on tonight’s agenda a policy position relating to Deferral Fees.

New Tuition Stats

A Statistics Canada report was released last Tuesday highlighting tuition trends across the country. I’m unhappy to say that Ontario was vaulted up to #1 this year, after every university took the maximum 5% hike allowed. Nova Scotia, previously in top spot, froze tuition this year, and their average actually declined. Ontario is setting new records for all the wrong reasons. I received some coverage in a story in the St. Catharines Standard (along with Kathryn Haynes), and a story in the Brock Press.

Other Meetings

BUSU AGM – Attendance of 5; did not meet quorum
Student Senate Caucus – regular meeting before Senate
O-Week Debrief – The exec are sitting down to formally discuss the process and outcomes of all the events we ran, to incorporate everyone’s feedback from an executive sense into the reports for next year’s staff, and for BUSAC
Staff appreciation dinner
Regular Executive meetings – 2x per week

VPUA Job Tip of the Week

Tip #3 – RSS Feeds

RSS stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication’, and you’ll recognize the orange square symbol that you’ve seen on many websites. An RSS feed allows you to keep track of websites, blogs and other feeds that update on a regular basis, without having to continuously check their sites directly. Though there are many formats to receive RSS, my preferred method is through my e-mail, as a new folder within Microsoft Outlook which continuously scans the RSS feeds I’m subscribed to for new content. Each RSS story will show the first three lines of content in the story, with a link to take you to the source page if you want to read the whole story/blog post, etc.

I have a host of RSS feeds coming in; most blogs and news sites have RSS feeds for their content, using iGoogle I get RSS feeds updating me on any stories about Brock University, or with my name in them. I even use RSS to automatically post content from my blog, into a Facebook note for me so I don’t even have to copy-and-paste the content into Facebook. So they’re handy in two ways: delivering you content, and disseminating your content in multiple locations.

Closing Lyric of the BUSAC

“’Cause I’d get a thousand hugs
From ten thousand lightning bugs
As they tried to teach me how to dance”
- Owl City

Tuition in Ontario climbs to highest in Canada

2009-10-20T06:56:00.001-07:00

Press Release

October 20, 2009: Tuition in Ontario climbs to highest in Canada

Ontario students now pay the highest tuition in Canada, according to the Statistics Canada university tuition report released this morning. Average tuition levels have increased by 5%, or nearly $300 in one year, pushing Ontario past Nova Scotia and into the worst spot in the country.

“10 out of 10 is a great score on a midterm, but the worst place to be when comparing provinces,” noted Rob Lanteigne, Vice President University Affairs with the Brock University Students’ Union (BUSU), “Ontario needs to be at the top in quality, affordability and accessibility, not setting new records for the highest tuition levels.”

Ontario universities already face significant financial challenges, and our students continue to pay the highest percentage of university operating budgets, compared our counterparts in other provinces. BUSU is calling on the provincial government to bring per-student funding up to the national average, while asking for the federal government to take leadership on the nationwide issue of rising tuition.

BUSU stands with a partnership of federal and provincial student organizations across the country, representing over 600,000 students, calling upon the federal government to increase post-secondary funding to $4 billion. BUSU is a member of both the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA), and the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA).

“Coming off a summer with record highs in student unemployment, faced with rising debt levels and reduced employment prospects, it’s unreasonable to charge more tuition to students who can’t afford it,” said Lianne Bradley, BUSU President. “Both the provincial and federal governments must come to the table with substantial new investments for students.”

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For more information please contact BUSU VP University Affairs, Rob Lanteigne at vpua@busu.net or 905-688-5550 x.4198 (W)

BUSU is a not-for-profit organization representing over 15,000 undergraduate students at Brock University, working to improve the post-secondary education experience for Brock students.

Council Report - October 13, 2009

2009-10-13T06:37:00.000-07:00

Good evening all, happy returns from your Thanksgiving break

Thanksgiving Weekend Bus Service

(Caveat, this report is written on Friday morning, and thus outcomes of this bus are not yet known as of writing. Full updates can be provided for you during the meeting upon request.)

The Thanksgiving buses took place this weekend, with three bus routes. The return trip from Kitchener to St. Catharines was cancelled, a decision made on Tuesday last week based on poor ticket sales. Those who had purchased tickets on that route already were accommodated, but we were not prepared to lose the volume of money that we would have on that return trip.

As of the time of writing, sales were approaching the break-even mark for both of the outbound trips. The inbound trip from London is fairly sluggish and will cost BUSU money, but has enough passengers that running the bus is still desirable for the passengers who have purchased tickets. Not every experiment can end as an unqualified success. A full evaluation of this service will take place after the weekend, once feedback has been received from the riders and we know where the final numbers lie.

I have been working through the past few weeks responding to questions, and dealing with both stores as they have sales questions, as well as adjusting information and working with Coach Canada on the issues that arise “on the spot” with such a new service.

OUSA

Along with Justin, my counterpart at Waterloo, I have been working on a paper which will be brought to General Assembly at the end of the month for adoption. It is focused on RAP – the federal Repayment Assistance Plan, which provides support measures for students who may have difficulty paying back their loans. Ontario currently has measures known as Interest Relief (IR) and Debt Reduction in Repayment (DRR), both of which the federal government just eliminated in favour of the new RAP. This policy is focused on convincing the provincial government that harmonizing with the federal RAP is in the best interest of students, as well as recommending some changes to RAP as it exists now. This paper is just under 10 pages, and set to be finalized this week, and will be debated and (hopefully) adopted by the end of the month.

Community Barbecue

The second Community Barbecue this year was held on Wednesday October 7th in St. Catharines, at the Anglican Church on the corner of Glenridge and Glendale. About 250 people were served between 4 and 7pm. We had the assistance of BUSU staff behind the grills and tables once again, and another successful partnership with the host facility. It was, however, very chilly and lacked the grassy surface for playing which made the Thorold barbecues most successful over the past few years. We will need to be very proactive through the summer next year to find and secure a St. Catharines location that fits all of the objectives.

Great Neighbour Program

The Brock Off Campus Living/Brock University Students’ Union Great Neighbour Awards are now live, there is a link on www.busu.net to find the applications. There will be great prizes available for 6 individual students, 6 groups of students, and 4 long-term residents/households. With the Brock website switch-over, the OCL department is not ready to host this information yet, so BUSU is currently the only location for the forms, and OCL will be directing people to our site for the immediate future.

Community Connections Day of Service

Saturday October 3rd was the 2nd Annual Community Connections Day of Service (I’ve attended both now). It attracted close to 100 people, to attend one of multiple sites throughout the region to engage in service projects, and bring students a volunteer experience which they might parlay into a long-term volunteer commitment with a number of agencies. I was located at the Morningstar Mill, at Decew Falls, assisting with cataloguing in great detail all the articles which are owned by the mill and historical site.

BUFAC Meeting

Tuesday October 6th, I arranged for a training session for councillors who were interested in doing a mock-meeting to give them the tools and tips they need to become experts at Robert’s Rules, and our other council procedures. 9 people attended, as well as Damien who served as Speaker. It was a very informative session, and I think the people who went would agree that we should continue this model of training moving forward. 37 motions, covering over 30 types of motions, were made and discussed, giving these councillors practical examples of how and why to get things done at council this year.

Other Meetings

Obviously not every meeting is report-worthy and has substantial outcomes. However, I feel bad that my report looks a little “light” on initiatives this week. Below is a summary of some of the other meetings I had this week on topics which did not become noteworthy enough to warrant extra work, or larger updates.

CASA Policy Committee – discussion about an upcoming childcare policy
Kim Meade + GSA – conversation about accessible events, and regular updates between the two associations with the Brock VP Student Services
O-Week Debrief – The exec are sitting down to formally discuss the process and outcomes of all the events we ran, to incorporate everyone’s feedback from an executive sense into the reports for next year’s staff, and for BUSAC
Legislative Affairs – has held two meetings, I’ve been at both, with two bylaw proposals
Town and Gown – Thorold committee discussed reaction from O-week, but nothing of substance was raised at this meeting, only a few concerns from private citizens
2014 Conference – Brock is bidding to host a major conference in 2014, I attended a reception to help impress the site visit committee
Online Voting – Chris, Lianne, Nazir and I had a web-based presentation from a company that facilitates online voting.
Regular Executive Meetings – we have two to three of these per week, about various topics
Senate Committees – UPC and Governance both had regular meetings with very routine business. Subcommittees are being struck, and both are in the very early stages of planning the paths of action for the year
H1N1 – A staff meeting about the spread and prevention of the flu
Dr. Jack – The exec regularly has a breakfast with Dr. Jack to have updates flow in both directions about activities happening around the school, and for us to raise some concerns
Mr. Harper – Oh right, Lianne, Sohail and I briefly chatted and had a photo WITH THE PRIME MINISTER. No big deal...

VPUA Job Tip of the Week

Tip #3 – Twitter

It may be a fad, it may be a trend, but within the past 3 months, Twitter has emerged as the most vital, and the most timely, link to education and other informational news. All of the “players in the game” have twitter accounts, including OUSA, CASA, CFS, campus newspapers (but not the Brock Press...yet), universities, bloggers, and a hefty amount of student union politicians from across the country. If something relevant happens or gets released, a flurry of re-tweets ensures that it reaches a large number of people in a short amount of time. Check #cdnpse for any national stories, and updated by contributors from all across the sector. #casaacae and #cfsfcee are fairly active surrounding student group initiatives and media releases, and a host of individual bloggers have their own threads. I also follow the @brockuniversity channel for any information flowing either to or from Brock, and often place @brockuniversity in my tweets to make sure it hits a wider audience. You can check my list of follows and followers, and ask me about some of the other major players if you are interested.

Tweet Deck is a great application for your desktop, which updates twitter feeds in real-time, keeping you updated on multiple channels all day long.

Closing Lyric of the BUSAC

“Some people they’re looking for paradise
Others they’re searching for inner light
But me I’m just having the time of my life
I’m headin’ out, to check it out”
- Bryan Adams

Council Report - for September 29, 2009

2009-09-26T10:28:00.000-07:00

September’s almost over, where did the month go? And, I’m already hearing rumblings about people running for my job next year. I swear those discussions begin sooner and sooner every year.

New Bus Service!

So the majority of my work the past two weeks has been getting details of this service confirmed, and running. Posters went up last week, and ticket sales began on Tuesday. Here are the details for you:

There are two buses running on Friday of Thanksgiving weekend to get people home: one goes to Kitchener and Guelph, and the other one goes to London, Woodstock and Brantford. Both of these buses return from the same cities on Monday night, allowing time for a Thanksgiving dinner with families as well. Tickets cost $22 for the Kitchener and Guelph run, and $30 for London, Woodstock or Brantford. These are savings of up to 27% over the student price offered by Greyhound and Coach Canada on their regular routes, and saves over an hour of travel time to all destinations.

For now, this is just for Thanksgiving weekend, but based on demand we hope to be able to extend this to every weekend throughout the school year, and even run reciprocal buses by partnering with the students’ unions at Waterloo, Laurier, Guelph and Western. If the demand exists, we hope this can become a permanent addition to the regular lineup of savings that BUSU offers to students on a regular basis.

It may not sound like much, but I spent the majority of these two weeks confirming buses, destinations, design and ticket details, and the back-end POS system at GB and SS where we are selling them. I’m happy that this service is finally good to go, and I expect a great response

The website contains all the information and frequently asked questions about this service, along with specific departure and arrival times. Please direct your friends who may be from these cities, who may take the bus home, and help them save a little money at the same time.

OUSA

The OUSA executive met by conference call to discuss two very important documents: the long term plan of OUSA, and our bylaws, which have not been amended since 2005. As Treasurer (and due to pending bylaw changes, soon-to-be VP Finance), I had pretty significant influence in the wording of some of the proposed changes. The bylaw changes are mainly changes of wording and reflective updates, while the long-term plan will be a very progressive, forward-thinking document. OUSA has the potential to take many large steps forwards in the next few years, and we need this vision written down and passed to take us there.

After this, Steering Committee met at Western to discuss these documents and refine them further. As well, we discussed logistics for the upcoming General Assembly in Waterloo, and talked about our submission for post-Reaching Higher in Ontario. Campus Coordinators also attended this meeting to get some training, so Carly White came along with me as the first part of her job this year.

OUSA is/was here on campus today (Tuesday) with a booth set up to talk to interested students, as well as conducting the first in a series of focus groups. The initial set are centered around the issues of financial aid, and student services on campus, and will be used to inform our future policy development. You will also find a presentation from OUSA Home Office staff on tonight’s agenda, and if you have any questions about the organization after this, please feel free to ask.

Senate

We now have a full complement of senators for the year, and for the first time that I can remember, we had all seven student senators at a meeting last week. It looks to be a promising, but important year from that end. Many committees will shortly be reviewing a new Travel Policy for Brock, which could have some significant ramifications. If you recall from the last two years, this is also a critical year for the issue of 3 and 4 year degrees. If all three year degrees are to be phased out by 2014 as the Brock Academic Plan suggests (note: this was never passed by Senate, or by students), this year is the one where the changes need to be made, such that no students are allowed to enter a three-year degree program beginning next year. Also, there are issues surrounding new degree and program expectations from the provincial government, and we will be examining ways to give senate more control over the program reviews that happen around the university.

Most crucially, it appears that all phases of the budget process will be accelerated this year, to allow Senate committees (and most notably the Undergraduate Program Committee, which deals with all program and course changes at the university) to appropriately approve/reject proposals that are contingent on budgetary decisions. The series of Town Halls that were held last year about the budget will return, with the first one being held this year on Friday October 23rd, at 8:30am in the Sean O’Sullivan Theatre. This of course is not a particularly student-friendly time, but I will be there, and we will ensure that one is held again inside Isaacs at a time more convenient for the majority of students.

Community Barbecue

One Community Barbecue has been held so far this year, in Thorold on September 16th. Turnout was approximately the same as last year, with over 300 people coming to grab some free food and connect with their neighbours. Mayor D’Angela, as well as Thorold councillors were also in attendance to help work the grill. This is a very important piece of neighbourhood relations, and also very important to the city of Thorold, who helps us out greatly every year.

The St. Catharines barbecue location and time have not been confirmed yet, but we are aiming for some time in the week of October 5th to 9th. That coincides with....

Great Neighbour Week

This is an initiative that Community Connections and Off Campus Living have started for this year, which BUSU will be assisting with. October 5th to 9th is the week, and this is when we will be rolling out the Brock Off Campus Living/Brock University Students’ Union Great Neighbour Awards. There will be great prizes available for 6 individual students, 6 groups of students, and 4 long-term residents/households in a program that I had envisioned during my campaign, and am now bringing to practice. Coincidentally, however, OCL was already planning something similar, so we have joined our resources together to offer over $2000 in prizing.

CASA

The Governance Review Committee of CASA has sent out requests for BUSU’s thoughts on the CASA structure, and I have finalized my comments on that, sent to Lianne for her review as well. The Strategic Planning Committee, which I am on, held a few meetings this week with our consultant to begin the next phase of our plan for that organization. The Childcare Committee is also continuing to hold regular meetings, and we will have some policy and a number of internal CASA issues ready to discuss at AGM at Dalhousie in November.

VPUA Job Tip of the Week

Tip #2 – Academica’s Top 10

Academica is a marketing company that does research, branding, web and recruitment in the realm of higher education across North America. They have a host of clients of all types, including Brock University. They also have one of the farthest reaches when it comes to information about higher education. Academica’s Top 10 http://www.academicagroup.ca/top10/subscribe is a daily newsletter sent out (usually between 3am and 4am – turn off those blackberries while you sleep folks) with the top 10 stories of relevance to universities and colleges in Canada each weekday. Lots of it focuses on their core business – rebranding, new websites, etc., and each day’s stories usually include university expansions, new buildings and groundbreakings. But there is usually very interesting and relevant information on students, student groups, and statistics which appear a few times a week, as well as a smattering of random news which is very interesting to keep your eye on. Check out their free subscription service to get your daily dose of PSE news from across the country.

Closing Lyric of the BUSAC

“We can't really enforce a curfew, as there is no light or sound.Just one of the many problems, with hosting a sporting event in space.”
- The Lonely Island

Council Report - September 15, 2009

2009-09-11T18:27:00.000-07:00

School has started again! Welcome back, and hope you all had an amazing O-week. Once again, this report is longer than normal due to the two-month layoff between BUSAC meetings. Stay with me, they’ll get shorter at some point.

Financial Restrictions Policies

As I updated you in the last report, one of the projects I began working on last year was a way to restrict any money that BUSU collects as a result of flat-fee, and reallocate that back into direct financial support for students. I’m happy to say that, since the last meeting, the remaining pieces of the policy have been passed by the Board of Directors. The three new additions – an Emergency Grants Policy, and a Scholarships and Bursaries Policy, are now added to the existing Food Voucher, ESLP and Campus Support programs that we have as acceptable uses for flat fee money. This year, just over $11,000 in flat fee money will be restricted to these programs, and that number is expected to climb for the next two years until flat-fee is fully implemented across all students on campus, to a number somewhere in the $24,000 range annually.

Transcripts and Academic Issues

During the summer retreat, it was identified that academic transcripts are an issue. On a student’s physical transcript (not the online version on the self-serve), dropped classes may have been shown. I followed up immediately on this issue, looking into existing Brock policies and speaking with the Registrar. The policy states, and the current practice is, that if a course is dropped during the period when the online registration is open, nothing will appear on your physical transcript copy. If anyone knows of ANY evidence to the contrary, please contact me immediately.

I have also spent the summer assisting a few students through their academic issues relating to courses and marks and appeals, mostly in the spring academic semester.

Health and Safety

Over the summer, I became fully First Aid and CPR trained (I had unfortunately let me certification lapse), and became re-certified on the AED machines around campus. We also held a fire drill in our building, and have participated in the early stages of pandemic planning (such as the Swine Flu, if it were to hit campus in the fall), in order to keep BUSU and our students as safe as possible should anything happen on campus this year.

Municipal Transit

I became heavily involved this summer in the transit contract negotiations with both Welland and Niagara Falls. Lianne, Sameer, Nazir and I attended a Welland City Council meeting to speak about our transit issues, and we received an extension of the current contract as negotiations continue to progress. With Niagara Falls, I conducted a major analysis of class times at Brock, and we re-jigged the entire Niagara Falls bus schedule to coincide with some better arrival and departure times for students who have classes at peak times during the day. This deal is now finalized.

Potential New Bus Service

In early August, Lianne and I met with two representatives from Coach Canada, and the gentleman who runs the St. Catharines Transit Terminal. We were looking at options for chartering cheap buses to get students to and from home, or other destinations, throughout the school year. Other student unions run similar services, such as the FEDS at Waterloo, and the AMS at Queen’s. We believe we have a pricing model in place that will work for a few destinations, and we are looking to launch some buses on Thanksgiving weekend as a test-run to see if the market supports the need that we have identified. Tickets will be sold at prices approximately 20% below the current passenger rates on the existing carriers, and in some cases, could make the drive 50% faster than existing connections.

Brock TV

The executive and Brock TV collaborated to create a BUSU promotional video for this year, based on the theme of ‘Planet Earth’ and focused on Brock. By the time you read this, you should be able to find it on our website and YouTube, so make sure you check this out if you haven’t done so already.

Town and Gown Issues

I attended the first meeting for the year of the Thorold Town and Gown committee, and Lianne was able to attend the St. Catharines Student Housing Liaison Committee. Both of these committees exist to address concerns of and about students in the respective cities. The first meetings went extremely well this year, and there are no immediate threats of any student-unfriendly action. Thorold’s committee is still waiting for the release of a staff recommendation after a rental property bylaw last year proved unpopular with landlords. St. Catharines is in the midst of a crackdown on properties that are unsafe for tenants to live in. Myself and Lianne are monitoring all of these developments to ensure that students will not be suddenly kicked out of their properties and leases if any houses are deemed to be unsafe; but that appropriate and reasonable time lengths are given for upgrades, or to find alternate housing.

Media

I did a live interview on CFBU for about half an hour on Wednesday August 26th, speaking about everything from O-week to lobby priorities. I also received some coverage in a Canadian Press article (picked up by CTV, The Star, Macleans On Campus, The Record and more) about digital textbook formats. On September 4th, I did a newspaper interview about student unemployment which was printed the next day, and another radio interview that night on CKTB. I also received some press on OUSA-related issues in the Ryerson Free Press, which was picked up by the Canadian University Press and could be in campus papers across the country in the coming weeks.

Copyright

On August 27th, I travelled to Toronto for a town hall on copyright issues. This was the second of two open meetings in Canada (the other was held in Montreal a few weeks prior), and were held in addition to about a dozen closed town halls about the issue. CASA or a CASA member school has been present at every part of the consultation, and I was able to attend, on behalf of BUSU and CASA, the Toronto session.

I was able to make a three-minute speech on behalf of students, touching on three main topics:
The maintenance of the current definition of ‘fair dealing,’ which allows use of copyright material for academic purposes. The current standard is interpreted by the Supreme Court, but not yet enshrined in law, and if our efforts are unsuccessful, could be replaced by a specific series of exemptions which WOULD include academic uses, but lead our universities to become much more restrictive with the flow of information for fear of being sued.
The increasing digitization of learning, including podcasts and online supplemental materials (such as lecture slides delivered through WebCT). The previous incarnation of the copyright bill placed severe restrictions on this content, and in some cases required the deletion of materials at times that are not conducive to a research or study cycle.
The ability to circumvent digital locks if the use is for an otherwise non-infringing purpose. Examples: converting material into a text-to-speech reader, studying cryptography in a classroom.

I feel that the points were very well received, and the Minister spent more time writing during my comments than I saw him at any other point of the night. The forum was, unfortunately, dominated in a coordinated fashion by music-industry representatives with their own agenda to push, but everyone in the room recognized and saw this, including the Minister himself. I am certain that with the access students have received through this process, that any new proposed legislation will be much more student-friendly than the last (provided an election doesn’t kill a copyright bill again).

Federal Election

We’re gearing up again. The opposition parties have all once again threatened to pull the plug on the government. A federal election could be held as early as November. The Welcome Wagon kits this year included election information, and the background content for our website during an election is being updated. As well, I have already been in contact with Elections Canada on a number of issues throughout the summer.

Good Neighbour Program

Independently this summer, myself and Brad Clarke from Off Campus Living both developed an awards program to reward students and community members who are being good neighbours out in the community. We met, harmonized our ideas into one joint program (with double the budget), and have placed the information on the backgrounds of our respective websites. We will be ramping up the promotion of them during the first full week of October, where OCL was already planning to initiate a ‘Good Neighbour Week’. All-told, we will be giving prizes to 6 individual students, 6 student households/groups, and 4 longer-term community members this year.

OUSA

Throughout the summer as OUSA VP Finance, I had been working on revamping the accounting system of OUSA. This project has now been finished from my end – approximately 70% of OUSA’s line items are either renamed or moved, and about 90% of lines now have new descriptions to better reflect what expenses get put into them. This is a significant improvement on what had been done in the past – there were numerous lines used that had not been budgeted for, and vice versa. There were a number of gaps where expenses were falling into miscellaneous accounts, and many numbers from the previous three years were virtually useless for any future predictions. The bookkeeper is now finalizing all of the changes in our accounting software, and our auditors have been notified of the changes. This will be a marked improvement in the past, and should be able to withstand the next decade or so of finances for OUSA.

Along those lines, OUSA’s information from the past two years is now with the auditors. We had missed an audit, so this is a double-year for us. We don’t anticipate any major deviations from our calculated income statements, and the results should in by early October, with plenty of time before OUSA General Assembly.

We are now looking at revamping OUSA’s bylaws to update them into modern language, and updates needed as the organization has moved away from some of the realities at the organization’s creation. These should be approved by Steering Committee at its next meeting, later this month in London.

At the same time, we are working on a new long-term plan for OUSA, as this is a year for the expiry of that as well. The core principles and strategies should be ready for General Assembly to adopt in October.

Meetings with bureaucrats in Toronto have continued all summer, with Alexi and Dan taking the lion’s share of these. MTCU has two important projects this year (in our eyes) – the tuition policy, and a follow-up to Reaching Higher 2. Both of these will ramp up quickly in the fall when the legislature and politicians return.

CASA

Beyond the copyright issue that I discussed earlier, much of the work with CASA this summer has been of the preliminary policy nature. I am, as of now, sitting on three committees: policy committee, child-care sub-committee, and the strategic plan committee. I have a few more that will come on-line in the coming months, and for now we are mostly reviewing the existing documents and policies in these areas, looking for the gaps and compiling our research independently to move forward with new documents for November in Halifax.

CASA is, of course, also preparing for a federal election, and as a Regional Coordinator, I have some extra roles to play in the facilitation of satellite lobbying, and setting general election campaign strategy for the organization. These conference calls continue to be on-going as well.

Welcome Wagon

Lianne, Sameer and I were able to participate in this year’s Welcome Wagon on the Wednesday of O-Week. I was sent out to the Jacobson area with two fire prevention officers in St. Catharines, and we knocked on all doors on the street. If we hit a student house, we welcomed them back to the neighbourhood with a welcome kit, and we also talked to the longer-term residents about good neighbour relations. This program has been a growing success every year, and I feel very positive about the impact we will be having, especially in some of the higher-problem areas of the past.

O-Week

Was pretty boring this week. JUST KIDDING! We had an amazing week, with over 300 volunteers for move-in day, the best tower kick-off ever, and a tower party that broke attendance records. Of course, we also smashed the Guinness World Record for Largest Air Guitar session on Wednesday night during the Metric concert, and held the first ever Brock Paper Scissors tournament. Over 100,000 free items were given away, and the week was a resounding success on all fronts. You’ll receive more information verbally, and from Sohail’s report.

VPUA Job Tip of the Week – Part 1.

I’ve been doing a ‘closing lyric of the BUSAC’ for a year now, I thought that I’d also start filling my reports with “job tips”, or some of the tools and things that I have learned that help me gather information and do my job to the best of my ability. We have 14 BUSAC meetings scheduled, including this one, so consider this a 14-part mini-series about the VPUA and politics. For anyone who is considering running for VPUA in the future, or wants to get more involved in external activities, representation, or anything else, you may find some of these suggestions useful for you immediately.

Tip #1 – Macleans on Campus

Keeping tabs on the website http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/ is a virtual requirement. This site features a number of regular student bloggers, as well as consistently updating with relevant stories about universities and colleges, student assistance, and broader issues that are making national news which might be student-related. As well, a few longer-term bloggers have very in-depth knowledge about internal students’ union workings, and share their thoughts when certain topics come to the forefront. This is also one of the few places where bloggers actively seek out information on what student unions are up to, outside of everyone’s individual “campus bubble” (such as breaking last year’s ‘Shinerama scandal’ at Carleton). Also look to this site to be in the middle of any issue involving CASA, OUSA or the CFS. **Caution, as with any media, be cautious to separate opinion from fact, and recognize that some articles may be written with certain political slants.

Closing Lyric of the BUSAC

“Every generation gets a chance to change the world
Pity the nation that won't listen to your boys and girls'
Cause the sweetest melody is the one we haven't heard”
- U2

Correction

2009-09-11T18:18:00.000-07:00

My last blog (council report) used some misleading wording about OUSA which I take full responsibility for. That language was taken and used in some news stories in campus papers across the country. The correct information, stated at council, is:

- OUSA only missed one audit year (ending April 2008). That audit, and the one ending April 2009 are both with the auditors right now
- No financial information was ever missing or lost. The lack of an audit was simply an internal oversight
- The General Assembly was informed of the financial state of the organization at every meeting throughout the year
- OUSA has employed a certified accountant to manage the bookkeeping of the organization for the past three years
- The 'budget overhaul' was an internal process to help us better budget for year-over-year consistencies, not a 'fix' of a broken system
- We are confident that the audited statements will show that all financial statements have been materially correct throughout these past two years

I am not going to retroactively change what I have posted, though I apologize for using stronger language to reflect the importance of the work I was doing through my job at BUSU and my election to the position within OUSA.

July Report to BUSAC

2009-07-27T09:10:00.000-07:00

Rob Lanteigne
Vice-President University Affairs
BUSAC Report
July 26, 2009

Welcome back council! This report is very lengthy due to the two and a half month gap between BUSAC meetings, so rest assured that future reports will not typically be 7 pages in length. Be aware though, that I have a habit of making my secondary reports and documents fairly long. Grab a coffee, kick back and enjoy reading about my summer so far.

Lobby Meetings

Within the past few weeks, I have had meetings with all four of our local federal MPs to speak about the issues of Student Financial Aid, Copyright and Academic Materials, and the issue of national research and data about Post-Secondary Education. In addition, I have had the privilege of briefly speaking with some of our provincial and national ministers, and the leader of Canada’s official opposition at announcements and events. I have been able to meet with:

May 20th – Dwight Duncan, Provincial Minister of Finance
May 25th – Tony Clement, Federal Minister of Industry
June 22nd – Michael Ignatieff, leader of the Liberal Party of Canada
June 24th – Malcolm Allen, MP for Welland
June 25th – Rob Nicholson, MP for Niagara Falls and Justice Minister of Canada
July 14th – Dean Allison, MP for Niagara West-Glanbrook
July 14th – Rick Dykstra, MP for St. Catharines

At a Dwight Duncan luncheon, Sameer, Nazir and myself were able to ask about the new Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) and its effects upon students. I spoke to Minister Clement about copyright issues, and was fortunate to have a picture with the minister posted on the Industry Canada homepage for a week. I met Michael Ignatieff at a public event in Welland, and was able to ask a question about ensuring access to post-secondary education for all qualified students, as well as filling the research gap at the federal level. I was also able to speak to him after the event. Mr. Allen will be helping us with issues surrounding student debt levels and ability to repay, and Mr. Nicholson is most interested in issues surrounding access for underrepresented students. Mr. Allison will be a great ally for us in the area of students with disabilities, and Mr. Dykstra continues to work for us on issues surrounding copyright and textbook importation laws. Many of our needs as students are being quite seriously tackled by our elected representatives of all party stripes, and I am fortunate to be building on a great tradition with long-established relationships through BUSU.

Inter-City Transportation Issues

As many of you may know, late last school year, GO Transit announced their expansion into the Niagara Region. GO Trains have already started rolling into St. Catharines and Niagara Falls on weekends and holidays until October, and rush-hour bus service will be coming to the region beginning in September, linking to the Go Train station in Burlington. This was a result of some hard lobbying in previous years, and we are happy to have a new way for our students to get to and from the GTA. The number of round-trips towards Toronto will exceed 20 daily in the fall.

In the aftermath of this announcement, I sent out a press release, which was picked up by the St. Catharines Standard. Some members of the private bus industry saw this coverage, and came into BUSU to meet with me about some of their concerns about GO Transit. Many of their concerns are extremely important, but especially a concern about the sustained level of coverage to the smaller cities and towns in Niagara should one of the two existing private carriers leave the area due to increased competition. This is certainly an area that I will be keeping my eye on throughout the year, as we need to protect the routes to Welland, Port Colborne, Niagara Falls, Fort Erie, Beamsville, Grimsby, Jordan and more.

A side-issue in this conversation led to the issue of offering a chartered bus service to our students out of town on weekends to many popular Ontario destinations at a reduced cost. Other student unions including Waterloo and Queen’s run a similar service for their students. We have done the research into the hometowns of our students, and believe that the demand might be there for certain routes leaving St. Catharines on Fridays. I have been following up with this company and have been contacting them about pricing for routes to Waterloo-Wellington, Peel, Durham, London-Sarnia-Windsor, and Kingston-Ottawa. This is still very much an issue-in progress, but if the price is right, we may roll out service on long weekends to gauge the demand for a regular, sustained service to some of these destinations.

The last transit-related issue deals with inter-municipal service in Niagara. As many of you know, there are currently six transit services in Niagara (St. Catharines including Thorold, Niagara Falls, Welland, Port Colborne, Fort Erie, and Pelham). Current laws prohibit these buses from crossing municipal lines in their service except for chartered routes, which is what BUSU buys through the U-Pass. The Niagara Region has hired a consulting company to look at the transit issues in the region, and has launched a survey to which we have posted a link on www.busu.net. I have submitted thoughts on behalf of BUSU to try and eliminate these barriers and borders which would allow for more efficient routes to get our students to and from Brock. Sameer has also been at meetings with this company. It appears that the ball is finally rolling on this issue, and we will be participating and monitoring the progress of this study throughout the year.

Provincial Grants

On May 1st, the provincial government announced that it was negatively affecting two grants available to students – the Textbook and Technology Grant, and the Distance Grants for students whose home is more than 80km away from any university or college. Both of these were previously available to any student who applied to them, however the government has decided to restrict them to only students who qualify for OSAP. Doing so took away the ONLY mechanism for students to receive government grants without being automatically forced into taking a loan as well. For our debt-adverse students, this is an especially significant blow. The Textbook and Technology grants for our remaining students will also not be increasing for this year as promised.

In the aftermath of this cancellation, I received some media coverage in the St. Catharines Standard, as well as a live interview on 610 CKTB.

Retail Operations

On May 25th, I was trained and worked a shift at SubCetera in the afternoon. All of the executive also underwent their training on different days, so that we are all familiar with the operations of our convenience stores. This allows us to understand the prespectives and needs of our employees, as well as having four extra fully-trained staff available for our stores in case we run into emergencies.

OUSA

My work with OUSA has been extensive so far this year. It “began” with the interveiws for the Director of Communications on May 8th to replace Tammy McQueen, who has moved on to a postgraduate program in Australia. As the only returning member of OUSA Steering Committee, I was asked to sit in on these interviews, where we eventually selected Alvin Tejdo to round out our staff team.

On May 11th, I was back in Toronto for a meeting with the Canadian Publishers Council (CPC), to review the results of a joint survey, and to discuss strategies to reduce the cost of academic materials in the future. Discussions related around the topic of “unbundling” CDs and ancillary information for students who just want a textbook with no support materials, and the future of online delivery methods including “digital textbooks” which can be “rented” with an expiry code, often at half the cost of a conventional hardcopy textbook. This was the 5th in a series of meetings with the publishers that began last year.

From May 26th to 28th, OUSA Transition Conference was held in Toronto, with the incoming VPUA’s and Presidents from across the province, as well as some of the outgoing members. The week included sessions on lobbying and media strategies, as well as some presentations from key organizational stakeholders (Kelly Jackson from the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, Paul Genest from the Council of Ontario Universities, Alex Usher from the Educational Policy Institute, Tyler Charlebois from the College Student Alliance, and representatives from the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario, and the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations). All of these groups and more are vital partners that we have built strong relationships with over the years, and they help us achieve our educational mission.

The conference ended with a Steering Committee meeting, where the new executive slate of OUSA was elected. I am happy to let you know that I have been elected as the new OUSA VP Finance, alongside our new President, Dan Moulton from Western, and our VP Administration, Justin Williams from Waterloo.

Since that time, we have held two Steering Committee meetings, and our Strategic Planning retreat for the year. These have outlined our organizational priorities for the year including:
- The groundwork for our new Strategic Plan
- The continuation of the Blue Chair campaign this year
- The strategy to tackle the provincial tuition policy
- The strategy to tackle the new multi-year government plan for PSE after ‘Reaching Higher’ ends this year
- Media strategies
- Internal organizational functioning, such as a wiki to assist our lobbying efforts
- The revamp of the OUSA website
- Our policy development priorities
o Students with Disabilities
o Repayment Assistance Plan
o Student Success
o An Economic Lens on Student Issues
o University Differentiation
o University Inflation
- Our advocacy priorities
o Tuition
o Student Financial Aid
o Student Success
o Funding Excellence
I have also spent numerous days working from both Toronto and St. Catharines on the OUSA budget, as the new VP Finance. In previous years, financial controls have significantly lapsed, and the organization has gone two years without an audit. In addition, a lack of knowledge and policies around our finances have led to significant mis-postings, and budgets that look nothing like the actual expenditures. I have been leading a complete budget line-item overhaul, and the beginnings of developing strong financial controls and procedures for the organization. It’s easy to sum that up in a sentence or two, but it’s been a solid week of work so far, and will take a significant chunk of time moving forward this summer.

CASA

The CASA year started off with Brock hosting the Central Regional Transition Conference in late May. We had 24 student leaders here for a two day span, where they received an overview of the organization that would allow them to jump right into policy discussions at the next conference of the year. We were also able to show some great Niagara hospitality with a Maid of the Mist tour, dinner in the Skylon Tower revolving restaurant, and some winnings at the casino.

This was quickly followed by the Policy and Strategy Conference in Calgary, where we set organizational direction for the year. Outcomes of this conference included:
- An ambitious list of Policy Development Priorities
o First Nations, Metis and Inuit Student Issues
o International Students
o Childcare
o Access Grants
o Copyright and Intellectual Property
o International Branch Campuses
o Graduate Student Issues
o A Pan-Canadian Data Set
o Student Debt Cap
o Electoral Streamlining on campus
o Academic Materials
o Distance Education/Online Learning
o Students with Diverse Abilities
- Advocacy Priorities
o Metis, Inuit and First Nations Student Issues
o Democratic Accessibility
o Childcare
o Graduate Student Issues
o Academic Materials
o Access Issues
o Affordability
o Research Renewal
o Dedicated Transfer
- A motion to post all minutes, documents and agendas publicly available on the CASA website
- The defeat of a motion to deal with voting structure reform at CASA, but the continuation of a committee to work on a new proposal
- A motion to have complete bilingualism with simultaneous translation service available at the next conference, and explore more bilingualism options for the future. The previous year’s surplus was dedicated to finance this task
- A committee to review the fee structure of CASA
- A committee to create a new strategic plan (I sit on this one)
- A committee to review the governance structure of CASA (I sit on this one)
- And various policy committees

I was also re-elected as one of the Central Regional Coordinators, which gives me more input and communications responsibilities between conference periods. As a result of this position, I then attended the Leadership Retreat in Ottawa last week to further strategize our priorities for the year. As of this writing, the decisions that we made at this retreat are still of a confidential and sensitive nature, but I will happily note that the organization is shifting away from a staff-centered model to be much more responsive of member priorities and input, and the committees and decisions that will be made this year will help enshrine a process that allows for a much smoother and more accountable structure within the organization.

Projects

I have begun (and in some cases finished) a number of projects which are not currently visible, but will provide us with the valuable knowledge and background tools to make strategic decisions in the future. Others are results that will be seen by the Board and the student body shortly, once they have been finished.

Financial Restrictions Policy

Near the end of last year, I created, and the Board approved, a policy which restricts the use of any money that BUSU collects as a result of the University’s flat fee tuition model. Simply not charging ancillary fees on the extra billed tuition is not a feasible option, either in time or finance. So this “extra” money should be returned directly to students in certain ways. We already have policies surrounding some of them: ESLPs, Food Vouchers and Campus Support, but there are some options which the policy included, that have not been developed yet. I have been working to create policies on three options: Emergency Student Grant Program, Scholarships, and Bursaries.

Ontario University Funding Grants

The way Ontario funds universities is incredibly complex: the manual concerning this is over 130 pages long, and is missing half of the information that is necessary to truly understand how operating funding works in this province, both today and historically. For use by OUSA this year, and by BUSU and others in the future, I have been working on condensing the relevant information into a much shorter booklet for use in our lobbying and media strategies.

Student Union Fees across Ontario

The last major review of where we compare to other student unions in terms of fees charged is at least four years out of date. Myself and Alex have been working to catalogue all of the fees that are charged to students at every university across the province, to find out where we stand and help us in our preparations for the BUSU Strategic Plan review.

Students Guide to Representation

There has historically been no “one-stop-shop” for students who are interested in getting involved on decision-making bodies within the university, or who are interested in finding out which body or group is responsible for making decisions in their area of concern. This problem has now been addressed with the creation of the Students Guide to Representation, a listing of all of these bodies, how to get elected or involved with them, and what they do on campus. This will be a section within the Dayplanner this year, and will have its own section on the BUSU website.

Dayplanner

Speaking of the dayplanner, a task that I took on this year was all the text and content revamp that needed to happen for this year’s version. It is now sitting in the hands of the Brock Press, and ready to go for September.

Website

And speaking of the website, with our redesign, there are a number of content changes that have happened, and will continue to happen as well. With the assistance of Jordan, and the rest of the executive, the site map for our new design was created by myself, and I have written the content for over 10 of our new or redesigned pages, with more still to come.

Executive Video

We want to create a fun welcoming and informative video for our students, which can also be placed on YouTube and viewable for the world. Lianne and I jointly created the storyboard for this project, and we are working with Brock TV to figure out the filming logistics. I don’t want to spoil the project and tell you what it will be yet, but filming will happen in August and it’s going to be un----------believable.

BUSU Budgets

I have also been playing with historical numbers and doing some analysis on our previous years, to get a mindset and framework for how BUSU’s budget needs to look in the future, during our Strategic Plan discussion and creation.

Other

Each morning, the executive does two Smart Start presentations for incoming first years students in the Skybar Lounge. We also then show up at the Services Fair in the afternoon to answer any questions, as well as sell Access Gold, Lockers, BOC memberships, and to collect lists of volunteers. This takes a significant chop to our day each and every day, but is so productive and useful to inform the first year students about what we do for them, why and how.

I was also pleased to be a part of the BUSU Relay for Life team overnight on the Brock campus last month. Along with Alex, Sara, Trish, Jacky, Curtis and Cailin, we rocked the night and survived the rain to contribute to cancer research.

Closing Lyric of the BUSAC
“I’m on a boat and it’s going fast, and I got a nautical-themed pashmina afghan” – The Lonely Island

Finalized Breakout Topics for CASAcon

2009-06-09T15:56:00.000-07:00

- 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

First Blog, First Update

2009-06-09T09:49:00.000-07:00

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.