Vice President of Education Sam Titus presented the union advocacy policy. The changes, created by him and his external affairs committee, was unanimously approved at the SRC meeting on Thursday. This document is created annually that shows the policies the union advocates for. They will not necessarily be implemented for a few years, and he said the document will continue to be changed throughout this year.
Some of the changes include:
The “elimination of the parental contribution assessment to the provincial portion of student loans and the implementation of interest-free student loans”, which Titus said is part of NBSA policy.
The Union supports looking into having co-curricular transcript program at the university. So instead of just grades, will have your extra curricular activities on the resumes. Other universities have implemented this in Atlantic Canada.
The policy also said it would like to see more funding for abroad programs so that every student can have the opportunity to go on exchange.
The committee also changed the Health and Wellness on Campus section to make clear wellness includes both physical and mental health.
They also want to use the surplus money from health care provider services to use for equipment for intramural sports.
The Union wants to look into including “Safe Spaces” campaign which would include a sticker on a professor’s door that would indicate a student could talk to them about sexuality, gender issues, etc. without judgment.
The Union would like to create a faculty code of conduct, after it was brought up last year.
The document also included a new section that focuses on reviewing international student issues on a more frequent basis.
* Note: not all changes are included in this brief.
