President's Holiday Reception

Last night I attended the President of Dalhousie's holiday reception at his home.  Senior administrators, board of governors, and senators were invited to the party. It was a great opportunity to catch up with everyone after exams and before the new year.

I had the opportunity to speak with both the Vice Chair of Senate and the Vice Chair of the Board of Governors about key topics that are going on with our students, ANSSA, and CASA.

As always receptions, dinners, and events in general are a great way for the DSU to network with lots of people to find avenues to assist students.

I have really enjoyed working with the Board of Governors and the Senate at Dalhousie since May and am really looking forward to continuing our working relationship over the next few months of my term.

DSU Meets with Mike Savage

Yesterday myself and the DSU's Vice President (Education), Mark Coffin, met with Dartmouth-Cole Harbour Member of Parliament, Mike Savage.

In our meeting with Mike we talked about some of the key advocacy topics that CASA and the DSU are pushing for. 

Due to the current economic situation the government is looking for projects that it will be able to invest in to help stimulate the economy and we feel that education is the silver bullet to do that. There is approximately $5 billion in deferred maintenance needed for Canada's colleges and universities. If the government places $1.2 billion in the upcoming budget for university and college deferred maintenance this will assist the construction industry and education through attracting students, faculty, staff, and donations to our institutions. 

The current economic situation may also leave post secondary institutions across the country with freezes or claw backs in operational funding from the provinces. We are hoping that the federal government will bolster spending for these institutions. The amount for the transfer that would be needed is between $500 million - $1 billion.

Similar to when ANSSA met with Megan Leslie on Monday we also discussed a federal funding distribution with Mike Savage. The federal funding distribution is something that ANSSA feels is very important to help fund our post secondary institutions. This is why ANSSA brings this topic of conversation up to both provincial and federal governments because the province needs the money from the federal government.

We also discussed the Canada Student Grant Program and what we are disappointed in and what we hope the government may include. The main disappointments in the new program and what differs from the Canadian Millennium Scholarship Foundation is that the grants are income based and not needs based, the other disappointment is that there is not a research component to the system. Without a research component we may not be able to be knowledge towards trends such as who is and who is now able to access post secondary education.

Finally Mark discussed the report he authored to Elections Canada which focused on issues that students faced when is came to voting in the fall's election.

Overall the meeting with Mike went very well and he seemed receptive to many of the issues we are currently focusing on.

ANSSA Meets with Megan Leslie

Today myself, Mark Coffin (DSU Vice President Education), Matt Risser (SMUSA  Vice President External), and Kelly Wilson (ANSSA Executive Director) met with Halifax Member of Parliament, Megan Leslie (NDP).

The items on the agenda that we covered were the role that post secondary education can play in our current economic climate, the federal funding distribution, the integration of provincial and federal student loans, enhanced repayment assistance program (ERAP), Canada education transfer and a pan Canadian accord, and the Canada Student Grant Program.

ANSSA believes that education is the "silver bullet" through fostering the knowledge economy, social capital, and provincial prosperity. We hope that that despite the current economic challenges that the government will not cut funding to education, because we believe that education is an opportunity and investment and should not be looked upon as a burden by our governments.

ANSSA is advocating to the provincial government to advocate to the federal government to change the federal funding formula from per capita to per student. Nova Scotia traditional has a relatively high participation rate in post secondary education and is also the second highest net importer of students amongst the provinces. The current set up leaves Nova Scotia with a structural deficit for its post secondary institutions.

ANSSA has been pleased with the Nova Scotia government's Enhanced Repayment Assistance Program pilot. ERAP in Nova Scotia focuses on the borrower's ability to repay, rather than the borrower's willingness to repay. The three ERAP principles are: (1) that no borrower will ever be required to make a student loan payment above an affordable level (no payment higher than 20% gross income), (2) no payment will be required from those with very low incomes, (3) amortization periods will not be unduly lengthened in order to achieve an affordable payment. The federal government plans to implement the ERAP in the 2009-2010 academic years. As we move to a more integrated system ANSSA will watch to ensure that the progressive policies of NS ERAP are not compromised through the streamlining process.

ANSSA would like to see a Canada Education Transfer to be carved from the current Canada Social Transfer in an effort to promote needed transparency to the federal government around how federal transfers are spent, as well as predictability for universities to allow for long-term budgeting. Also through a Pan Canadian Accord we would establish a federal-provincial vision for post secondary education and principles to govern the post secondary education system in Canada.

The Canadian Millennium Scholarship Foundation (CMSF) is nearing the end of its life cycle and will soon be replaced by the Canada Student Grant Program. The new program does have benefits to students; however, there are some concerns that ANSSA has as well. The new program will no longer be on a financial need basis but on an income basis. This can be problematic when students have high financial need while not falling into the lowest income bracket. We hope that this will not result in affecting people who have the greatest difficulties accessing post secondary education, and that we will not be assisting under represented groups. Another concern with the new program is the definition of 'dependent' and ANSSA believes that the change will have severe negative impacts on single parents who hope to attend post secondary education while raising teenage children. The final concern we have for the new program is the research component that was part of the CMSF which has developed cutting edge research that works at arms length from government. It is ANSSA's hope that this will continue with the new program.

The meeting with Megan was very positive and she seems very eager to help us with our goals and priorities. I look forward to continue working with her through ANSSA and CASA to make post secondary education more accessible and affordable for Nova Scotia students, and Canadian students.

A Student's Best Friend

Today I attended Bide Awhile Animal Shelter's grand opening of their new and improved location. The new location is at 67 Neptune Crescent in Dartmouth.

Last year the DSU selected Bide Awhile for the charity that would receive donations from our annual Charity Ball which takes place in January at the end of our Winter Carnival. Charity Ball is our annual tradition where approximately 400 Dalhousie students buy tickets to a served dinner, dance, and live auction. Donations are given from businesses in the Halifax community, and sometimes we receive items from other locations in Canada as well. Last year's theme was a masquerade ball and in an effort to raise more funds for Bide Awhile the DSU also sold masks at the event.

The event was a sell out success and everyone who attended had a fabulous time. In total from the sale of masks and the live auction the DSU was able to raise $3,750.00 for Bide Awhile. The DSU had passed along the cheque last year after the event but today I had the opportunity to have the DSU recognized from our strong contribution to our community.

At today's event I presented a large novelty dog bone shaped cheque to the board of the shelter. There was a huge turn out of community members at the event, which included Mike Savage (the Member of Parliament) for Dartmouth-Cole Harbour. I gave a brief speech to the people at the event on how Dalhousie students are proud to be able to support their community and to get involved in philanthropy work. After my presentation I had lots of community members come up to me and say how truly proud they were of the DSU for hosting the event and for selecting Bide Awhile to donate the funds to, and also Dalhousie students for helping their community.

The event today was wonderful to be a part of and I am very proud that the DSU is able to be very active in our community.