Human Rights Centre
It is important for the student union to pressure the university to increase the level of support for the Human Rights Centre. Human Rights Centres at other universities play much more of an active role on campus and act as a hub for marginalized students. This is not the case at Trent. Because of a lack of funding, the Human Rights Centre provides a limited amount of services and has the potential of having such a positive impact on the student body.
International Student's Tuition
It's too high! The administration can not use international students to cover shortfalls in their budgets by raising tuition by unreasonable amounts. As President I would continue the TCSA's lobbying of the administration to only raise tuition fees the same percentage as domestic students tuition. A student should not face the possibility of their tuition doubling overnight. This creates unneeded stress on international students and their families.
Advocacy
Student Advocacy Portal
Students who are on the TCSA have access to spaces of advocacy that other students are not offered access to. This creates a power dynamic between the association and the students that can at times be dangerous. These advocacy systems are complex for even TCSA board members to understand, and the association needs to play more of an active role explaining the decision making process of the university to students. Using a under accessed current budget line, as President I would launch a student advocacy portal which explains to students the different committees of the university. Disseminating information about the purpose and actions of these different spaces will help Trent students engage with the administration in more accessible ways, and will improve the possibility of success of students wanting to change something.
Student Advocacy Audit
Because of the complex nature of university decision making processes, an audit of the committees where students are represented should be undertaken. Different student organizations have had seats on different university committees and lost them because they didn't even know that those spaces were open to the them.
Diversity in O-Week
Students in their first week on campus need to feel welcome. This means that the university needs to make more of a concerted effort to include both diverse staff week, but also diversify the programming offered. Marginalized students are looking in their first weeks to see if Trent is a welcoming space, and we need to see that reflected through the staff and the programming offered.