Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance

Last updated
Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance
AbbreviationOUSA
FormationFormed 1992, Incorporated 1995
Location
President
Vivian Chiem (WLUSU)
VP Finance
Emily Poirier (USC)
VP Admin & HR
Kate Traynor (WUSA)
Steering Committee
See Steering Committee
Key people
  • Vivian Chiem
  • Emily Poirier
  • Kate Traynor
Affiliations CSA, CASA, UCRU, Student Mental Health Canada
Staff
  • Malika Dhanani
  • Octavia Andrade-Dixon
  • Ananya Gupta
  • Tiffany Li Wu
Website www.ousa.ca

The Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA) is an alliance of students' unions in Ontario, Canada. Their common objective is to protect the interests of over 160,000 professional and undergraduate, full-time and part-time university students, and to provide research and recommendations to the government on how to improve accessibility, affordability, accountability, and quality of post-secondary education in Ontario.

Contents

History

The initial catalyst for the creation of OUSA was disagreement over the position of the provincial and national student association in Ontario on the first Gulf War. [1] In 1992, The student associations of Brock University, Queen's University, the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University, and the Association of Part-Time Undergraduate Students at the University of Toronto approached the Ontario Federation of Students(OFS) to host a roundtable discussing the prospect of pushing for an increase in tuition fees. When this idea was rejected, the roundtable occurred informally and resulted in the formal incorporation and creation of OUSA. [1]

Part-time students at the University of Toronto withdrew from the Alliance, as did Queen's Alma Mater Society, citing concerns over the organization's management in the mid-1990s. Queen's then rejoined the Alliance as an associate member in 2001 and then as a full member in 2004. In May 2011, OUSA welcomed two new members, the Trent in Oshawa Student Association (later the Trent Durham Student Association) as associate members, and the McMaster Association of Part-Time Students as full members, who had rejoined after a 7-year absence. [2] In May 2013, the University of Windsor Students' Alliance voted, through a referendum, to leave the Alliance. On April 29, 2014, the McMaster Association of Part-Time Students also withdrew from membership in OUSA. [3]

The Students' General Association (SGA-AGÉ) of Laurentian University was admitted into OUSA in April 2016, with membership taking effect May 2016. [4] Most recently, the Ontario Tech Student Union (OTSU) joined OUSA as a full member in April 2023. [5]

Members

As of 2023, [6] OUSA's membership consists of:

Steering Committee

OUSA's Steering Committee is the body responsible for setting and monitoring the organization's priorities and strategic initiatives. It is also the non-profit organization's board of directors. One executive member of each constituent student union sits on the board as a voting member. According to the organization's Bylaws, each association is entitled to appoint one additional non-voting resource member to OUSA's Steering Committee. [7] Alma Mater Society of Queen's University is the only OUSA member in recent years that regularly uses this provision to appoint an additional member.

As of December 2022, [8] the membership of the committee is:

TitleNameStudent Union
PresidentVivian Chiem WLUSU
VP FinanceEmily Poirier USC
VP Administration
& Human Resources
Kate Traynor WUSA
Additional voting membersAlyssa Hall BUSU
Julian Mollot-Hill AMS
Abigal Samuels MSU
Zarreen Brown SGA-AGÉ
Anthony Coulter TDSA
Samantha Brown OTSU
Non-voting membersVictoria Mills AMS

Criticisms

Due to its moderate leanings when compared with other student advocacy groups and close working relationship with many decision makers, OUSA has faced criticism[ by whom? ] that they are too cooperative with the government. OUSA has also received criticism for a mid 1990s proposal that asked for increased government spending towards universities along with increased tuition fees, however this recommendation was reversed a few years later, and OUSA has called for tuition freezes and decreases since at least 1999. [9]

Presidents and Executive Directors

Presidents

Executive Directors

Related Research Articles

Trent University is a public liberal arts university in Peterborough, Ontario, with a satellite campus in Oshawa, which serves the Regional Municipality of Durham. Trent is known for its Oxbridge college system and small class sizes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laurentian University</span> Mid-sized bilingual university in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada

Laurentian University, officially Laurentian University of Sudbury, is a mid-sized bilingual public university in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, incorporated on March 28, 1960. Laurentian offers a variety of undergraduate, graduate-level, and doctorate degrees. Laurentian is the largest bilingual provider of distance education in Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Windsor</span> Public university in Windsor, Ontario, Canada

The University of Windsor is a public research university in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's southernmost university. It has approximately 17,500 students. The university was incorporated by the provincial government in 1962 and has more than 150,000 alumni.

A students' union or student union, also known by many other names, is a student organization present in many colleges, universities, and high schools. In higher education, the students' union is often accorded its own building on the campus, dedicated to social, organizational activities, representation, and academic support of the membership.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alma Mater Society of Queen's University</span> University student organization

The Alma Mater Society of Queen's University, otherwise known as the AMS, is the central undergraduate student association at Queen's University at Kingston in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. It is the oldest organization of its kind in Canada. Its roots lie in the old Dialectic Society, which created the AMS in 1858. The society seeks to represent and facilitate the student experience, whether it is through a multitude of clubs, services, governance or volunteer opportunities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canadian Federation of Students</span>

The Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) is the largest student organization in Canada, representing over 530,000 students from across Canada. Formed in 1981, the stated goal of the Federation is to represent the collective voice of Canadian students and work at the federal level for high quality, accessible post-secondary education. The CFS has its roots in Canada's long tradition of having national student organizations, such as formerly the National Union of Students (Canada), the Canadian Union of Students, the National Federation of Canadian University Students, the Canadian Student Assembly, and the Student Christian Movement of Canada (SCM).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">McMaster Students Union</span>

The McMaster Students Union (MSU), is the central undergraduate student government at McMaster University, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

The Alma Mater Society of the University of British Columbia Vancouver, otherwise referred to as the Alma Mater Society or the AMS, is the student society of UBC Vancouver and represents more than 58,000 undergraduate and graduate students at UBC's Vancouver campus and their affiliated colleges. The AMS also operates student services, businesses, resource groups and clubs. The AMS is a non-profit organization that exists to advocate for student viewpoints and ensure the needs of students are met by the University Administration and the Provincial and Federal governments. The Alma Mater Society is composed of a number of constituency organizations for undergraduate students, and works closely with the Graduate Student Society of UBC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brock University Students' Union</span>

The Brock University Students' Union (BUSU) is the students' union representing the over 17,000 undergraduate students of Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. BUSU is a founding and current member of the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance.

OUSA may mean:

The New Zealand Union of Students' Associations (NZUSA) is a representative body that advocates for the interests of tertiary students in New Zealand. Between 1935 and 2006, it was known as the New Zealand University Students' Association, until it merged with the national polytechnic students' association.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ontario University Athletics</span> Governing body for university sport in Ontario

Ontario University Athletics is a regional membership association for Canadian universities which assists in co-ordinating competition between their university level athletic programs and providing contact information, schedules, results, and releases about those programs and events to the public and the media. This is similar to what would be called a college athletic conference in the United States. OUA, which covers Ontario, is one of four such bodies that are members of the country's governing body for university athletics, U Sports. The other three regional associations coordinating university-level sports in Canada are Atlantic University Sport (AUS), the Canada West Universities Athletic Association (CW), and Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Otago University Students' Association</span> New Zealand student association

The Otago University Students' Association (OUSA) is the Students' Association of the University of Otago, New Zealand. OUSA was founded in 1890 to advance student interests on campus.

Robert Sutherland (1830–1878), a native of Jamaica, was the first known graduate of colour at a Canadian university, and the first Black man to study law in British North America. A graduate of Queen's University, Sutherland qualified to practise law in Ontario under the then prevailing system of apprenticeship and examination. He studied at Osgoode Law School and practised law for 20 years in Walkerton, Ontario. Upon his death in 1878, Sutherland's left a large bequest to Queen's University, roughly equivalent to the institution's annual operating budget. This donation was the largest the school had ever received, saving it from financial catastrophe in a banking crisis.

The organizations listed below constitute the Canadian Labour Congress, the national federation of trade unions:

The Council of Ontario Universities (COU) provides a forum for Ontario's universities to collaborate and advocate in support of their shared mission to the benefit and prosperity of students, communities and the province of Ontario. A membership organization consisting of Ontario's 20 publicly assisted universities and one associate member, the Royal Military College of Canada, COU works with members to find consensus on a wide range of university issues and advances them with government and other stakeholders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Higher education in Ontario</span> Colleges and universities in Ontario, Canada

Higher education in Ontario includes postsecondary education and skills training regulated by the Ministry of Colleges and Universities and provided by universities, colleges of applied arts and technology, and private career colleges. The current minister is Jill Dunlop who was appointed in June 2021. The ministry administers laws covering 22 public universities, 24 public colleges, 17 privately funded religious universities, and over 500 private career colleges. 18 of the top 50 research universities in Canada are in Ontario.

The Trent Durham Student Association (TDSA) is a non-profit and was created to represent all undergraduate and post-grad certificate students, part-time and full-time, that attends classes at the Durham Campus of Trent University. The TDSA is also a member of the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance where the TDSA Vice President of University Affairs sits as a board member. In collaboration with OUSA the TDSA have advocated to students by working with the provincial and local governments to provide students with services they may need.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Undergraduates of Canadian Research Intensive Universities</span>

The Undergraduates of Canadian Research Intensive Universities (UCRU) is an alliance of students' unions in Canada. Their common objective is to protect the interests and advocate on behalf of over 240,000 undergraduate university students from Canada's largest research intensive universities (U15), and to provide research and recommendations to the government on how to improve post-secondary education in Canada. The UCRU began as an informal association called ADVOCAN, and was formalized and rebranded in late 2017.

References

Information taken from OUSA's website unless otherwise stated. Presidents and Executive Directors updated annually.

  1. 1 2 The Same Thing Twice, By Kelli Korducki, Published:17 March 2009, The Varsity
  2. "Newswire Press Release". Archived from the original on 2013-01-15. Retrieved 2011-05-27.
  3. "McMaster Association of Part-Time Studies | McMaster University".
  4. "OUSA Welcomes New Member". Newsroom. Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance. Archived from the original on 23 April 2016. Retrieved 9 April 2016.
  5. "Ontario Tech Student Union Joins Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance". Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  6. "Members - OUSA". Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  7. "OUSA Bylaws & Documents". OUSA.ca. Retrieved 25 December 2022.
  8. "Steering Committee - OUSA". Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
  9. Beyond the Breaking Point - Recommendations for a new Tuition Fee Policy, October 31, 1999 Archived February 27, 2015, at the Wayback Machine

See also