Over this past week, the UVSS partnered with the Alliance of BC Students (ABCS) to lobby the provincial government on issues that are important to students. UVSS Directors met directly with Ministers and MLAs to made recommendations on the following priorities:
Investing in Post-Secondary Education
- The UVSS recommends that the Province of British Columbia conduct a funding review of provincial post-secondary institutions’ operating grants, ensuring that students, faculty, and staff associations are fully integrated throughout the review process
- The UVSS further recommends that the Province of British Columbia develop an International Student Education Strategy that ensures that international students’ cost of education is predictable, and reduces institutions’ reliance on international student tuition.
Building Capacity of Mental Health Services
- The UVSS recommends that the Province of British Columbia: ensure that students are able to access free- to low-cost, multi-session counselling through new investments in e-health and other remote technologies, either through investments in the existing Here2Talk service, or through newly developed programs.
Ensuring Graduate Student Access to Non-Repayable Aid
- The UVSS recommends that the Province of British Columbia permanently establish the BC Graduate Scholarship fund, and expand the eligibility criteria to include students in non-STEM disciplines at a total annual cost of $8 million.
- The UVSS further recommends that the Province of British Columbia expand the eligibility criteria for the BC Access Grant to include graduate students.
Supporting Students with Disabilities
- The UVSS recommends that the Province of British Columbia conduct a province-wide survey on the experiences of students with disabilities in post-secondary education.
Fighting Sexualized Violence
- The UVSS recommends that the Province of British Columbia renew the $760,000 to address campus sexualized violence on an annual basis.
- The UVSS further recommends that the Province of British Columbia adopt into regulation the 11 minimum standards identified by Students For Consent Culture under the Sexual Violence and Misconduct Policy Act.
These asks align with the UVSS’ value of social justice, which includes supporting, uplifting and providing services to students and student-led organizations that centre issues of equity; this includes, but is not limited to, confronting racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia, ableism, colonialism, and all other discriminations and/or systems of oppression. In COVID-19, much of this equity work has taken a lens of affordability and access to education in an entirely online environment with limited work opportunities.