Mid-term Report - VPAX 

January 14th Council Meeting 

 
The following is a summary of activities and
accomplishments of the VPAX office over the course of
September to December of 2017. For clarity, convenience,
and efficiency, the summary is compiled in bullet point
form.

For additional clarity, the VPAX job description (as described in the Executive
Committee By-law) is provided below, and the report has been organized
accordingly based on the main responsibilities of the VPAX portfolio (with a
few additions of subsections outside of the main points in the job
description, to allow for elaboration on other major topics or initiatives).

VPAX Job Description:

● a. Coordinate and conduct lobbying activities for the municipal,
provincial, and federal levels of government as assigned or
required by the UPEI SU on behalf of its members;
● b. Serve as a member of the UPEI Senate;
● c. Assist students with any academic related issues as required;
● d. Co-ordinate events relating to post-secondary awareness,
education or academic student issues;
● e. Be Chiefly responsible for all advocacy on campus relating to
academics
● f. Be responsible for community relations within Charlottetown;
● g. Act as primary delegate to the Canadian Alliance of Student
Associations, and;
● h. Perform other duties as required.

Lobbying Activities:
● The last semester has consisted of a number of different lobbying
efforts. In terms of official meetings and presentations to government,
the following were held between September and December of 2017:
○ 3 meetings with Minister Sonny Gallant (Department of
Workforce & Advanced Learning)
○ 4 meetings with Deputy Minister Brad Colwill (Department of
Workforce & Advanced Learning)
 ○ Presentation to Standing Committee on Education & Economic
Development
○ 2 Meetings with MP Sean Casey
○ Meeting with MP Lawrence MacAulay
○ Meeting with Senator Diane Griffin
○ Meeting with Senator Percy Downe
○ Meeting with MP Celina Caesar-Chavannes
○ Meeting with MP Alexander Nuttall
○ Meeting with MP Robert Morrissey
● Career Connect:
○ Prince Edward Island’s new Career Connect program has been a
hot topic in the province and on campus over the last few months
(if you are not familiar with Career Connect, you can find more
info ​here​). The UPEISU is advocating that the program be adjusted
so that there are unique eligibility requirements for students in
regards to insurable hour requirements necessary in order to
collect EI. Currently, there are discrepancies in eligibility
between students with permanent residency in Charlottetown
and those outside of the capital.
○ After numerous conversations with Island MLA’s & MP’s, the
UPEISU has provided letters of support to MP Sean Casey’s office
upon his request. Additionally, briefing documents have been
circulated to all MLA’s and MP’s, and letters of support from each
provincial caucus have been requested (these will be sent to
Island MP’s to indicate support for these changes at the
provincial level, which will in turn aid in seeing these changes
through at the federal level).
○ As of right now, provincial Liberal and Green caucuses have
indicated that they will be following up with us once they have
reviewed these documents, and Sean Casey’s office has
indicated that the documents and letters have been shared with
Minister Duclos’ office (minister responsible for the Canadian
Employment Insurance program).
○ We will continue advocating on this issue in 2018 and hope to see
some follow-through on these discussions with both our
provincial and federal counterparts.
● 2017 provincial lobbying successes:
○ This year, for the first time in UPEISU history, an external policy
is being adopted by government in the same year that it was first
 introduced. Since September 2017, the UPEISU has been
advocating that government enact legislation mandating and
regulating sexual violence policies for all post-secondary
institutions in the province. We received word in December 2017
that this legislation has been placed on the legislative agenda of
the Department of Workforce and Advanced Learning, meaning
that it is currently being drafted and should hopefully go to the
Spring 2018 sitting of the Legislature to be voted on (if not then,
at the Fall 2018 sitting).
● 2017 federal lobbying successes:
○ While the federal budget has yet to be released, the Standing
Committee on Finance has released its recommendations for the
upcoming budget, which include a number of very promising
measures.
○ Most notably, these included:
■ CASA’s recommendation to have the Canada Student Loans
program provide funding to cover the upfront costs of the
assessments required for students who need access to
academic accommodations (these are generally very
expensive tests which therefore hinder students’ abilities
to access the help they need).
■ CASA’s recommendation that government create a pilot
grant to help incentivize the development of Open
Educational Resources (OERs).
■ CASA’s recommendation that funding and eligibility be
increased to the Post-Secondary Student Support Program
to better support Indigenous students in Canada.
○ See CASA’s press release ​here​.
○ We will be anxiously awaiting the announcement of the 2018
federal budget to see if these recommendations will be put in
effect.

Event Coordination Related to Post-Secondary Awareness, Education, or

Academic Issues:
● While the majority of in-person student consultation events are
usually held in the 2nd semester, I organized the campus consultations
for the UPEI Sexual Violence Prevention & Response Task Force in
October.
 ○ This was organized as a “roundtable discussion” event wherein
participants sat at different roundtables around the room, with
brown paper and markers at each one.
○ There was a facilitator to every table helping brainstorm ideas
and capturing discussion on paper.
○ There were four different focus group themes: Education
Programming, Supporting Survivors, Campus Culture, and General
Discussion. Participants could choose their table based on which
theme they were most eager to discuss.
○ The feedback recorded on the brown paper was recorded,
synthesized, and presented to the Task Force so that it can be
included in their work and in their recommendations to the
University.
● The Academic & External Steering Committee has been making plans
for events in the upcoming semester (both for annual consultations but
also other events). There has been a noted desire to do more
issue-focused advocacy awareness and engagement events rather
than blanket events touching on a number of PSE issues.
● A letter-writing campaign has been planned to take place the first
week of February, wherein a template letter will be provided to
students for them to sign, provide additional commentary, and will be
sent off to the Premier’s office. This letter will ask government to
implement a per-student funding model dedicated to supporting
student mental health. This campaign is meant to reiterate our
dedication to grassroots advocacy efforts while bringing greater
attention and understanding to students of the type of advocacy work
that the SU engages in. The hope is that a flood of letters will send a
strong message to government.
● Plans are also underway to host an in-person student consultation
session and launch some online polling surveys in the upcoming
semester in an effort to discern the SU’s policy priorities for the
2018-2019 school year.

Campus Advocacy Relating to Academics:

● A big focus of academic advocacy this year has been in relation to
sexual violence and the creation of the new policy. This is also where
we have seen some of the greatest successes in academic advocacy
this year. The policy being created for the University has seen a
complete overhaul and the University has since announced that a new
 Sexual Violence Prevention & Response Office will be developed for
UPEI, with dedicated staff and services.
● Another major focus of academic advocacy efforts has been with the
Enhanced Teaching & Learning Committee and our work to advocate
for changes to the Student Opinion on Teaching Surveys. Detailed
explanations of the approach we have taken to these advocacy efforts
can be found in previous VPAX reports. To sum up, we developed and
brought forward a number of proposals for changes we would like to
see to the administration and review of SOTS. Additionally, a survey
was drafted and circulated to students in an effort to get an updated
sense of student’s thoughts on the course evaluation process and a
better understanding of where the main issues lie. In demonstrating
just how many students care about the course evaluation process and
wish to see changes made, we hold a very valuable persuasion tool.
The survey is set to close next week and hopefully there will be an
ETL Committee meeting soon following so that the results can be
distributed to Committee members and we can keep moving these
conversations along.

Community Relations Within Charlottetown:

● I have made efforts this year to do more collaboration with community
experts in Charlottetown and to engage the community in the work
that we’re doing. One good example of this would be the community
engagement we’ve seen with the Sexual Violence Prevention and
Response Task Force’s efforts. For example, we engaged a number of
community partners at the consultations, having representatives from
PEI Man Up, the PEI Rape and Sexual Assault Centre, and the PEI
Advisory Council on the Status of Women act as facilitators at round
table discussions and having them sit in on meetings as “Additional
Resource Personnel.”
● Since September, we have also participated in the 2nd Annual YDAY as
registered stakeholders.
● Discussions about upcoming collaborations with the Young Voters of
PEI and the PEI Coalition for Women in Government are also underway.

Canadian Alliance of Student Associations:

● Work with CASA has been ongoing. I have been serving as Vice-Chair
of the Federal Policy Committee and have been working on a number
of different policy development projects through my involvement
 with the committee. My work last semester was focused on doing
policy reviews and two policies that I reviewed, one on the integration
of federal and provincial student loan programs and another on the
exemption of parental income from the CSLP needs assessment went
to the membership for vote. I also started a number of other projects
which I’ll be carrying over into second term, including reviews to 3
policies and the development of 2 new policies (one on experiential
learning and one on the need for longitudinal data in the CSLP).
● In November, I also participated in CASA’s annual Advocacy Week,
wherein we spent a week on Parliament Hill meeting with Senators,
MPs, and stakeholders. I was involved in 9 meetings total: 5 MPs, 2
Senators, and 2 stakeholders (Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada
and the Canada Student Loan Program).

UPEI Senate:
● There have been 4 meetings of the UPEI Senate since I began my term,
3 of which occurred between September - December 2017. I have been
present for all.
● I have participated in 4 sub-committees of Senate since the beginning
of my term (I am appointed to a number of other committees as well,
but these won’t meet until the Winter semester):
○ Academic Planning & Curriculum Committee
○ Senate Library Committee
○ Indigenous Education Advisory Circle
○ Enhanced Teaching & Learning Committee

Student Assistance in Academic Related Issues:

● I have assisted/advised approximately 20 students in academic related
issues in a formal capacity between the months of September to
December of 2017. These issues ranged anywhere between appeals of
grades, to exam scheduling conflicts, to issues with the processing of
student loan applications.

UPEI Sexual Violence Prevention & Response Task Force

● Since September, the Task Force has been working to achieve its
mandate of reviewing a stand-alone sexual violence policy for UPEI
and working towards a more robust approach to supporting survivors
and eliminating campus sexual violence.
● A number of meetings were held over the course of the semester,
primarily focused on reviewing the draft policy and
organizing/discussing consultation initiatives. An in-person
consultation session was held in October. The Task Force then
reviewed the feedback (synthesized and presented by the student
assistant) and attempted to incorporate this feedback into the policy or
into proposed initiatives of the Task Force.
● Following SU advocacy and Task Force discussions surrounding the
need for more centralized services, the University announced that it
would be creating a new Sexual Violence Prevention and Response
Office equipped with dedicated resources and a full-time staff
member. Following this announcement, the original draft policy had to
be overhauled to reflect the role of the new office. What resulted is
largely a combination of UBC and Ryerson’s policies, which are
recognized as some of the best in the country. The last draft is
currently being vetted by UPEI’s legal team before it will be sent back
to the Task Force for its final review before being sent to the Board of
Governors for approval.
● An online survey has also been drafted which will reviewed by the
Task Force this January before it is circulated. This survey is meant to
1) gain a better understanding of the campus climate regarding sexual
violence and 2) get feedback on the policy and programming that
students would like to see on campus.

As always, if there are any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to get in

touch.

vpax@upeisu.ca