Earlier this month, Jessie, Pat, and I attended the Alliance
of Nova Scotia Student Associations (ANSSA) Board Education Retreat. This was
an opportunity for us to meet with a number of people in regards to Post
Secondary Education (PSE) in the province of Nova Scotia.
We spent three days in Halifax and met with six different
people. Our first day included a meeting with Carole and Ken from the Nova
Scotia Student Assistance Program. They provided us important information about
the successes from student assistance over the past two years (I have
summarized that in a table below):
|
2011-2012
|
2012-2013
|
|
Investment of 42.5 M in PSE
30 M in Student Tuition Bursary
12.5 M in Student Assistance
30% grant/ 70% loan
debt cap: 28, 560
|
Investment of 35.3 M in PSE
30 M in Student Tuition Bursary
5.5 M in Student Assistance
35% grant/ 65% loan
debt cap: 28, 560
|
As you can see, there was a 7 million drop in funding to PES
this past year. We are encouraged by the fact that the Provincial Government
did give some money to the Student Assistance Program, but there is still work
to do.
We also met with Paul Black, Director of Policy and
Community Relations at the Office of the Premier of Nova Scotia. This was a
candid conversation about where money is being spent and the direction of our
current government in regards to PSE funding. It is important to note that Paul
Black is an advisor and does not make the final decision. Even so, this was a
good meeting, as we learned a number of things about the plans for the
government going into an Election year.
The third meeting was with Ray Ivany, President of Acadia
University. He spoke with us about the funding formula for Universities and the
disadvantage that it put St. FX and other small Universities at. We receive
less funding, but are trying to provide the same, high quality of education.
With Mr. Ivany being the Chair of the Council of Nova Scotia University
Presidents (CONSUP) this year, we will look to work along side him and his team
as we lobby the government to address the issues with the current funding
formula.
On our second day, we discussed the Dalhousie Transition
Year Program for African Nova Scotian and Aboriginal Students. This is an
amazing program that assists with the transition to University and put an emphasis
on the culture and history of African Nova Scotians and Aboriginal Nova
Scotians. The afternoon of our second day we discussed the current situation in
Quebec and the potential impacts to our own province.
Our final day consisted of an excellent session on Board
Governance, during which we learn about many of the changes we need to make to
our own By-Laws to make them a more functional document to work with. As well,
we spoke with Ryan McNutt and received media relations training, so that we are
able to speak with the press better.
This was a really informative three days! We are ready to
move ahead to our Policy and Strategic Planning Retreat in July during which we
will set forth our lobbying priorities for this year.
For more information about ANSSA check out: http://www.anssa.ca/. If you have any
questions, please do not hesitate to email me (su_pres@stfx.ca)
or call me (902-867-2435) any time. Hope all is well from wherever you are
reading!
Cheers,
Nick
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