Hear the Roar!

Tonight the Board of Governor's Student Experience Committee had its annual meeting with a demographic of the Dalhousie student population. The meeting was with student athletes from varsity teams. Approximately 30 athletes showed up, and if it wasn't for having a cap on the number of athletes requested for the meeting I am sure we could have had many many many more!

The focus of the meeting with around the experience that Dalhousie varsity athletes have at Dalhousie and what traditions they feel are in place.

It was quickly discovered that each team has their own traditions that they have (team bonding events, etc) and there are some occasions throughout the year where the athletes come together but they didn't feel that there was an overarching event that pulls all Dalhousie students together.

Many other universities were compared to Dalhousie in the meeting for the way they do Homecomings and have students cheering on athletes at games. But it seemed unanimous that Dalhousie was lacking that something and we need to have it for our students.

Having a homecoming event was an idea that was proposed several times. It could incorporate several teams over a weekend and it could bring back alumni like at other schools.

It was also suggested that having after-game events would be a great way for students and community members to show their support for the teams - and now here is my plug for the upcoming game on Friday night - as part of the DSU's annual Winter Carnival we are encouraging students to attend this Friday night's men's hockey game at 7pm. There will be tiger burgers on special at the Grawood before the game (5pm) and the after party will be in the Grawood.

We also heard a lot about needing more funding to help the teams with things like traveling and to also put funding towards more and better athletic facilities.

And the piece that seemed to be the athlete's plea was that they want students and the general community to know about their upcoming games, to cheer them on, and to know about their successes!

The committee will be putting together all the notes that were taken from the meeting and presenting them to the Board of Governors ideally at the next meeting

Working Together

On Friday night I attended the women's and men's basketball games, both against UPEI, and our wonderful athletes won both games!

In between the games was a presentation from the Dalhousie senior administration and representatives from the Halifax Regional Municipality government (myself and next year's captain of the men's soccer team were the students present for the presentation). The city partnered with Dalhousie university to create a better field facility (Wickwire Field) for both Dalhousie athletes and the HRM community. The city presented a cheque for $150,000 to Dalhousie on Friday night, and another $150,000 will be coming in the future.

As a student of Dalhousie and a citizen of HRM for 18 years now, I really appreciate when I can see great partnerships happening to better the city

 we all live in.

16,000 Acts of Green

Dalhousie University and Acadia University have been going head to head in a competition to claim the green title.

The competition, One Million Acts of Green, put on by CBC and The Hour has people all across the country counting their acts of green. The two universities set up a competition where Dalhousie would need to raise 16,000 acts of green and Acadia would need to raise 3,000 acts of green (the number of acts of green are related to the approximate number of students at each institution).

Tonight the Dalhousie group took the lead and currently we are at 16,892 acts of green and the Acadia group is only at 2,104 acts of green.

Even though our wonderful Tigers have clearly won the competition against the Axemen the Dalhousie community needs to continue to find ways to become greener and continue to add acts of green to the overall competition. So if you have not yet created an account go start one now!

Go Tigers Go!

January Events

During the winter semester there is A LOT of events that take place. I have listed below the upcoming events for January (please note that this does not include Grawood/TRoom events or society events). And you can find out more about our events at the DSU's website.

21 - 24 - Winter Carnival

21 - Society Fair (10:30am - 2:30pm, McInnes Room, SUB)

21 - Council meeting (6:30pm, Council Chambers, SUB)

21 - Shinerama Open Mic (8:00pm, Grawood, SUB - cash prizes and Dalebrity judges!)

22 - Speaker Series - Sex with Sue Johanson (7:00pm, Ondaatje Hall, McCain Bldg - $5 advance/$7 at the door)

23 - DAL vs. UPEI Men's Hockey (7:00pm, Arena)

24 - Charity Ball (6:30pm, McInnes Room, SUB - tickets $25/each)

27 - Speaker Series - Richard Stallman on the Free Software Movement (McInnes Room, SUB, FREE!)

30 - Feb 1 - ANSSA Student Assembly (Cape Breton)

I will try to post each month's events in a timely manner.

Money Talks

Today members of the DSU executive met with the Dalhousie Budget Advisory Committee to discuss their recent discussion paper on the upcoming 2009-10 operating budget for the university.

Due to the Memorandum Of Understanding between Nova Scotia Universities and the Government of Nova Scotia, tuition is frozen (and Nova Scotia students will be receiving a bursary as well) and currently there are no increases in student fees for Dalhousie students. There is also new money coming to the university from the government due to the MOU and the new funding formula which will reflect the increased enrollment that Dalhousie has experienced over the past few years. This all sounds great - however, with the increase costs of items such as energy, fuel, taxes, and insurance (only to list a few of the items with increased costs for the coming year) the university is currently planning to run a deficit of $3,709,000.

The linked discussion paper is the first draft of the upcoming year's budget and more work will be done on it, including more consultations, over the next few months. The budget will be going to the Board of Governors Annual General Meeting in June for approval.

Dalhousie Presidential Review

A few months ago it was brought to the attention of the Board of Governors that Dr. Tom Traves (University President) would like to extend his term. I was selected from the student senators to be the student representative on the committee that would conduct a Presidential Review and would recommend if Dr. Traves should be permitted to extend his term. The committee has had a couple meetings and is now in the stage where we are seeking feedback from the Dalhousie community. For more information on the review please visit the News Section of the DSU website.

Ready to Rock'n'Roll

On Friday all 5 DSU executive and our General Manager went on a retreat. The purpose of the retreat was to reconnect with each other after the break, evaluate and revise (if needed) projects and goal, and plan for the transition of our successors.

The retreat was extremely successful and really opened our eyes to see the timelines were are all working with and how we can assist each other during our last few months in office.

I feel that this retreat really allowed us to have the opportunity that other executive teams have missed and because of the retreat we will be able to all work towards being a stronger and better union for our students.

Committee for Safe Student Drinking

Tonight the DSU Council had its first meeting of the new year. One of Dalhousie's medical students did a presentation to council on a proposed committee for safe student drinking.

The Committee for Safe Student Drinking is a multi-institutional, interfaculty student group created to address the concerns surrounding post-secondary student drinking in Halifax. Specifically the committee will:

1) Collect all relevant research and perform an environmental scan of the post-secondary student population in the HRM, regarding areas of primary concern related to student drinking.

2) Develop a list of discrete solutions to propose to municipal and provincial governments as well as university administrations.

3) Advocate for the implementation of the proposed solutions by the appropriate bodies.

At any time, the committee may add to these specific tasks. Although the committee was initially sanctioned by the Dalhousie Medical Students’ Society, we aim to have at least one student representative from the following organizations: Halifax Student Alliance, Saint Mary’s University Students’ Association, MSVU Students’ Union, NSCC Students Association, Student Union of NSCAS, King’s Students’ Union, Dalhousie Health Science Students’ Association, Dalhousie Law Students’ Society, and Dalhousie Student Union. The committee is open to any student attending a post-secondary institution in the HRM, even is their student organization was not mentioned in the preceding list. The committee also will have advisory representatives from Doctors Nova Scotia, local law enforcement, the Atlantic Institute of Criminology, and the HRM regional council.

Given the large size of this group, the committee will communicate mostly over email. Small sub-committees will be set-up to complete specific tasks that require meeting in person (e.g. research collection, municipal lobbying, etc). The minimum responsibilities of committee members will be reviewing the compiled research and solution document, and acting as a communication channel with the student organization that they represent.

At the next DSU council meeting - January 21st 6:30pm in Council Chambers - we will be voting on the following motion:

BIRT Dalhousie Student Union Council expresses its support of the Committee for Safe Student Drinking's objectives and affirms its activities to promote safe student drinking amongst the Dalhousie community and in the greater Halifax student community.

Students Call for Strategic Investments in the 2009 Federal Budget

Education also was a focus at the national level today. The Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA) has been working on their pre-budget submission to advocate to government and it was released today. The following is their press release:

Ottawa, ON – With the 2009 federal budget only three weeks away students across Canada are demanding that the federal government make funding for education, knowledge and innovation a priority for the year ahead.

The economic downturn is leaving a significant impression on Canada’s post-secondary institutions – CASA believes that endowments that universities rely on for scholarships and bursaries have, on average, lost between 12% and 15% nationally. These short term losses are dramatic but do not compare to the potential reduction in revenues a recession will impose on the provinces’ ability to sustain spending for post-secondary education.

Without government intervention, these and other shortfalls in operating capital must be made up by the institutions themselves, typically through curtailing class offerings, freezes in hiring, and downloading of higher tuition and ancillary fees to students.

Moreover, Canadian families are now finding themselves face-to-face with layoffs, pay freezes, decreased value of homes, loss of businesses, declining savings and so forth. Confronted by these issues, many students will find themselves suddenly without the necessary resources to pursue higher education during this year, and into the next.

“The current economic uncertainty has created new, unexpected demands upon both post-secondary institutions and students,” said Zach Churchill, National Director of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations. “As a result, the Canadian post-secondary education system is expected to take a crippling hit if the federal government does not invest in higher education.”

On behalf of its 300,000 members, the CASA is recommending that the following actions be taken as a part of the 2009 federal budget. CASA believes that if adopted, these actions will produce reinforcing effects of stimulating the economy, while easing the burden that Canadian education institutions and their students face given the current economic circumstances.

1. Invest $1.5 billion in Accumulated Deferred Maintenance (ADM) at post-secondary institutions across the country

2. Provide a one-time, earmarked transfer to the provinces for PSE to offset freezes or claw-backs in provincial PSE funding

3. Provide temporary targeted grants to counterbalance the difficulties students and their families may face in finding the means to afford post-secondary education

4. Extend the Interest Relief period for Canada Student Loans from the current 6 months, to 9 months.

“If adopted, these actions will produce reinforcing effects of stimulating the economy, in addition to reinforcing the federal government’s strong commitment to building a knowledge advantage for Canada,” concluded Churchill.

ANSSA Welcomes Minister Streatch

Today the NS Government announced some changes to ministers. One of the changes was for the Minister of Education. Judy Streatch will be replacing Karen Casey in this position.

The Alliance of Nova Scotia Student Associations (ANSSA) released the following today:

The Alliance of Nova Scotia Student Associations (ANSSA), representing over 75% of students in Nova Scotia, looks forward to working with newly appointed Education Minister Judy Streatch.

Last year, the Government committed to reducing tuition to the national average by 2010. ANSSA looks forward to seeing this goal through to fruition with Minister Streatch. Nova Scotia is host to eleven universities and thirteen community colleges which boast high quality and innovative practices in education. “Investing in our resources requires a long term commitment on behalf of our governments. An integral aspect of this investment involves a commitment to reduce tuition fees in Nova Scotia to the national average by 2010-2011,” says Matt Risser ANSSA President.

In the wake of economic uncertainly, it is imperative that post-secondary education remain a high government priority. “Census data tells us that an aging population will soon leave Nova Scotia without a viable workforce.” says Matt Risser, ANSSA President. In an effort to curb this trend, the government must actively work to lessen the burden on students and create financial incentives for them to remain within the province.

Education is a critical piece of the 'provincial prosperity' puzzle. Investment in education is an investment in Nova Scotia's political, social, and economic capital. “As a former educator, we are confident that Minister Streatch understands the value of an accessible, affordable, and high quality post-secondary education” says Kelly Wilson, ANSSA Executive Director.

ANSSA also wishes to thank and congratulate former Education Minister Karen Casey on a productive and successful term. Throughout the last two years ANSSA has been impressed with the government's record on post-secondary education, including the implementation of a tuition freeze and reduction, the introduction of grants, and several positive changes to the student financial aid system. We wish her the best of luck in her new portfolio.

First Day Back!

Welcome back to Dalhousie everyone!

Today was the first official day of work for the DSU executive and full time staff for the 2009 year.

This semester is jam packed with events happening every week.

On Wednesday January 7th, in Council Chambers (second floor of the Student Union Building) we have our first council meeting of the new year. For all of the agenda items please visit our council documents webpage

Council meetings are open and I strongly encourage you to attend them - this is where 40 student representatives come together to govern the union. There is also the opportunity to ask councilors questions and to have your ideas for how to make a better and stronger union heard.