Advocacy at WUSA
We advocate with undergraduate students on all matters impacting your experience at the University of Waterloo.
At WUSA, we believe in fostering an inclusive and safe environment where every student feels heard and valued. We strive to make your post-secondary experience accessible, affordable, accountable, and high-quality, both inside and outside the classroom.
Our commitment to you
Serving over 36,000 undergraduate students, we focus on areas that matter most to you as learned through your feedback.
WUSA is a non-partisan, not-for-profit student advocacy association, and our advocacy priorities are written by and voted on by students. Our advocacy is shaped by ongoing engagement through:
- Surveys
- Focus Groups
- Interviews
- OUSA Consultations
This research informs our Long Range Plan—a five-year strategy created by our Board of Directors. The plan analyzes past advocacy efforts and student feedback to set high-level themes that guide our work, ensuring sustainable, long-term change.
Each year, the incoming Board develops an Annual Plan, using fresh research to refine our focus and determine specific actions to take within the broader Long Range Plan themes.
While these plans provide structure, we remain flexible and responsive—adapting to urgent issues, like COVID-19, when needed. Our goal is to ensure advocacy remains student-driven, strategic, and impactful year after year.
What Does Advocacy Look Like?
Advocacy is a long game.
While change doesn’t always happen overnight, we push for meaningful improvements in all areas of student life—through research, policy recommendations, direct lobbying, and initiatives that turn advocacy into action. Sometimes this means policy change or meetings with University administration, and other times it results in new resources or campus improvements.
Advocacy takes many forms—it’s about pushing for change in whatever way is needed. For us, this means:
- Meeting with decision-makers to share student concerns.
- Running awareness campaigns to inform and engage students.
- Conducting research to inform our advocacy through data.
- Hosting events and consultations to hear directly from students.
- Creating resources to support students.
Below, we highlight six key advocacy themes shaped by student feedback. This is not an exhaustive list, but these priorities reflect what matters most to Waterloo undergrads through their feedback.
Housing
Continuing to work with all levels of government and university administration to build more and better housing to deliver safer, affordable housing to Waterloo students.
International Students
Between regulating tuition frameworks and identifying educational barriers unique to international students, we strive to create a momentous student experience.
Equity & Accessibility
Identifying barriers to access for all students to ensure full and safe participation in post-secondary education.
Affordability
Recognizing and pushing for pragmatic steps the university can take to increase efficiency, increase value, and where possible, decrease fees.
Educational Quality
Understanding campus-wide policy changes and investments that could benefit students, making clear that what is good for student educational outcomes are also good for the university.
COVID-19
Learning, growing, and continuing to make informed decisions based on the learning of navigating through a pandemic.
Advocacy Position Statements
Nick Pfeifle
President
Arya Razmjoo
Vice-President
Melissa Thomas
Director, Communications and Stakeholder Relations
Jill Knight
Manager, Advocacy & Stakeholder Relations
(On-leave)
Andrena Lockley-Brown
Manager, Advocacy & Stakeholder Relations
David Kuhn
Stakeholder Relations Officer
Jordan Daniels
Research Analyst
Nathan Ermeta
Research Coordinator
Sam Sawant
Advocacy Specialist
Amrit Khaira
Advocacy Specialist
Charlie Davis
Research Coordinator