Hi Warriors, it’s almost time for the start of a new term! We hope you’re all excited for the cooler weather, and to see everyone back on campus.

We wanted to be sure to communicate about some of the discussions and updates from WUSA’s Board of Directors to all students, so here’s some of the topics that were discussed during the August Board Meeting: 

UW Class information access 

WUSA’s president met with the Associate Provost, Students, (Chris Read) and expressed concerns that have been raised regarding public access to class information and some negative repercussions this change would have on students. During the conversation, President Norris recommended that the University should consider collaborating with the developers of UW Flow to ensure that students can still have easy access to class information while also feeling safe. Making sure UW Flow has access to the right APIs will be important to ensure it remains a useful tool for students. 

Board Meetings & Governance 

The board discussed reverting to the policy-recommended monthly meetings as opposed to having bi-weekly meetings and decided that the bi-weekly meetings should continue until Board committees are fully operational and have recommendations to present for board’s consideration. 

Housing Advocacy 

The Advocacy Positions Committee is reviewing drafts of the Off-Campus Housing Advocacy Position Statement for its coming future approval. This will coincide well with advocacy towards the Municipal Rental Bylaw which the City of Waterloo is set to review in 2024. Additionally, WUSA has worked with the Studentcare Legal Protection service to develop Housing playbooks to ensure students are alerted to red flags in leases; these should be ready to be shared during the fall term. 

Board Outreach Plan 

Work has started to discover how the Board can better engage with students and by which channels and campus engagement that can happen. The Outreach Plan is set to be finalized in October.  

External Groups and Committees Directors Attended: 

• Internal Funding Group – Approved 9 of 12 submitted student projects.
• Student Services Advisory Committee 
• EdTech Advisory group 

To get to know more about how the Board functions at WUSA, feel free to check out their page here. To learn more about WUSA’s Advocacy work, you can find that page here.   

WUSA’s Board meetings are livestreamed on YouTube so subscribe and check your notifications to watch.