For all the Grad Students out there...

This year I worked very closely with a colleague whom some of you may know, Mr. Eric Snow. The following should not be taken as an endorsement for his uncontested run at the presidency of the Dalhousie Association of Graduate Students in the next few weeks. Eric has helped me to do a lot for graduate students this year, specifically in terms of broadening the scope of graduate student representation and policy in our external lobby organizations.

We attended the fall AGM of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations together, where, with the help of a well timed motion from the floor by DSU President Shannon Zimmerman, it was approved that CASA would move to obtain membership as a student organization in CAGS, the Canadian Association of Graduate Students. Membership in this body will improve the networking capability CASA has to refine issues into actionable policies. Further to the CASA + Grads epoch of progress, last week at our Lobby Conference 18 hour plenary session, CASA approved a new board structure which will include the chair of the Graduate Committee. By having this graduate specific position available on the board, the graduate students from CASA will be in a better position to liaise with other groups and bring their issues more prominently into the fold of CASA's policy sphere. I was happy to support that board structure and speak to its merits at the meeting. Eric and Graeme from Waterloo can take full credit for the idea.

While CASA moved ahead, ANSSA (The Alliance of Nova Scotia Student Associations) did not sit idle. ANSSA adopted a new policy which proposes increases to graduate specific scholarships in Nova Scotia, something which our province embarrassingly does not have, or if you count NSRIT at all, does not have enough of. This disproportionately affects Dalhousie of all the schools in ANSSA for the simple fact that our graduate students outnumber the entire student bodies of two ANSSA member schools.

Anyway, for next year, now that the Graduate Student Scholarship Policy has been adopted I will be working hard to make sure it is more than just a blip on the governments radar and will passionately support that it be adopted as an advocacy priority for the year at the Board Retreat. I think it will fit in nicely where the priority of having a comprehensive review of Post-Secondary Education in Nova Scotia was, since it has been achieved by myself and ANSSA with our wonderful full-time staff person, and for full disclosure: my roommate, Mark Coffin.

Fantastic Second Day of Lobbying

I had a great second day of lobbying here on Parliament Hill! I met this morning with three senators from Nova Scotia, Jane Cordy, James Cowan, and Wilfred Moore. Senator Cowan is the leader of the opposition in the Senate, and Senator Moore is the vice-chair of the post-secondary education caucus of the Liberal party. We pushed to get the Social Affairs and Science and Technology standing committee of the Senate to re-launch the Access to Post-Secondary Order of Reference that had been worked on before prorogation. I believe that this will be achieved. The focus of my first meeting was to discuss Federal transfer payments to the provinces, more particularly a dedicated transfer for post-secondary to the provinces. In the second meeting I had a chance to talk about aboriginal student issues and redistribution of graduate student scholarships. In the third meeting I reiterated the focus CASA has this week on aboriginal student issues.

From these meetings I used the experience I had presenting our aboriginal and first nations student policy to present the very same in our meeting with Michael Ignatieff, Leader of the Opposition and Federal Liberal Party. We had an extremely successful meeting which was sat in on by Mike Savage whom I met with yesterday who is from my home riding of Dartmouth-Cole Harbour. Mr. Savage is the critic for Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, the ministry responsible for spending on post-secondary (mostly).

Yesterday I also had a meeting with Dave Van Kesteren, MP for Chatham-Kent Essex. We discussed reforms to the Canada Student Loans Program, a dedicated transfer for post-secondary, and reductions to interest rates for student loans as well as graduate student scholarships. Tomorrow morning I have a meeting with policy developers from the department of Human Resources and Skills Development Canada itself. Very exciting!

-Rob

First Day at CASA

To call 10 hours in the same small room with 50+ delegates, staff, presenters, and translators exciting seems a stretch at first glance.Welcome to LobbyCon 2010. The introduction of a number of policies in the morning was followed shortly by the approval, with a few amendments, of each one. Exciting developments included the adoption of a child care policy, as well as a policy on advocating for a national teaching award. CASA also welcomed the Students' Administrative Council of Mount Allison University on as members, and we were pleased to have the University of Saskatchewan Student Union represented as observers.

It's hard for me to express how great it was to see the ideas that had come forward at 2009 Policy and Strategy Conference turned into policies penned by our members. I served on the Pan-Canadian Accord Committee this year and was excited to see the Road-map to a Pan-Canadian Accord that the committee developed approved by the membership.

Nearer the end of Day 1 we received lobbying training, some people around the table have just been elected to their respective positions with their student unions and its great to be able to offer help and feedback in our practice lobby sessions. Tomorrow is a light day for me, with two meetings, one with the critic for Human Resources and Skills Development with Eric Snow from DAGS. We are up late here going over some points on the lobby document and figuring out who would be best to discuss which issues, potential anecdotes to give a narrative, and going through potential pushback issues and our responses. I have to say, although I am very tired, this is probably the most excited I have been about what CASA does in Ottawa. We'll be advocating for a dedicated transfer for post-secondary education, eliminating interest on student loans, overall student loans program reform, increasing access for aboriginal first nations metis and inuit students, and spreading out mega graduate scholarships to benefit more students.

I'll keep you posted!