Letter to the Editor
Students in need, OSAP falling short
Re: “Biting the hand that feeds you” Mar. 9, 2010
To the editor:
While there are students at Western able to afford the cost of a post-secondary degree without support from our government, there are many, many more who cannot. At least they cannot without facing a future of extraordinarily damaging private debt.
The Ontario Student Assistance Program, which supports 35 per cent of students at Western in managing the cost of higher education, is falling significantly short of addressing the modern realities facing the largest cohort of university students Ontario has ever seen.
The Ontario Undergraduate Students Alliance and the University Students’ Council have fought and will continue to advocate on behalf of students at Western to ensure our government takes a proactive approach at increasing and modernizing financial aid in the province of Ontario.
Our current Food for Thought campaign, covered in Monday’s edition of the Gazette, seeks to draw broad student and public attention to many of the archaic requirements in the OSAP program; ranging from expected contribution from parents, to the $2.50 per meal in food and nutrition allowance.
To suggest the campaign is misguided in its attempt to create consensus for investment in government funded financial aid, and that the true problem is with a small group of students that don’t “budget well,” is an affront to thousands of students at Western who would be unable to attend university without the needed support of the OSAP program. These students, and the countless that are unable to access university at all, need an accessible, affordable and high quality university system.
As students, it is our responsibility to draw attention to the failures of the programs designed to guarantee the accessibility of higher education. We will continue to call for investment in financial aid and the removal of barriers to accessing OSAP.
—Dan Moulton
Vice-President University Affairs
OUSA President
Actually the “affront to students” is more the suggestion that they’re all desperately in need of governments handouts to attend school. There are all sorts of students who had the foresight to plan ahead for uni, hold down a part-time job and, maybe, receive OSAP to help cover the costs.
The so-called “student leaders” who keep endlessly churning out the same claims that have been floating around for decades to make their case for money are the real affront; putting together a really compelling case and avoding the “students are victims!” routine would be a good start.