Greetings once again from your funtastic FedS Councillors! We have a few updates from Students’ Council that may be relevant to your interests, including changes to FedS Housing Advocacy Strategy and the UPASS deal with GRT. There are a few notes on upcoming FedS events a bit further down.
Changes were made to FedS Off Campus Housing Advocacy Strategy at Council on Nov 13th. The basics are more or less the same, in that Feds will continue to advocate the needs of UW students to all relevant government bodies to ensure that students have affordable, accessible and safe housing options. Changes were made to apply the policy to all neighbourhoods where UW students may be residing, whereas the previous policy made specific reference to the Northdale neighbourhood. FedS is also committed to assisting in the development of a long-term plan for the City of Waterloo’s post-secondary student population. This includes engagement with officials from the local government, as well as WLU administration and the WLU Student Association.
UW FedS is also working to improve the current UPASS deals with GRT. For those of you who are not aware, this is the deal that allows you to use your WatCard like a bus pass on the GRT. In the future, negotiations will be done in concert with a working group comprised of representatives from UW FedS, UW GSA, WLU GSA and Wilfed Laurier Students’ Union to develop a long term agreement that will be of benefit to the entire student population. Fees have increased to $60.64 per term, but there has also been the addition of the new iXpress 201 route. Overall service times have increased and wait times have decreased, which I’m assuming is a good thing!
Last business-y thing (I promise!); there is still one Engineering seat left on FedS Council! There are 5 remaining council meetings, one per month from now through April 2012, as well as the AGM in March. You can download the nomination form and submit it to the FedS office at any time. If there are no other nominations within 7 days then you get the seat! All those interested should contact one of your friendly neighbourhood FedS councillors (I’ll leave some info below).
EVENTS! HURRAY! The term may be drawing to a close, but there are still a few events that may be worth checking out. Such as…
The Last Bomber Wednesday of the term is taking place on November 30th (same day as publication). Doors open at 9:00 PM, there is no cover for UW Students ($5 for non-UW Students) and the night features $3 BEvERages.
End of Term with WTFedS is taking place all day Dec 1st in the SLC. FedS would like to wish everyone good luck on exams and a happy holiday by giving out Free Snacks!
Last, but certainly not least, is the Call for Talent that is continuing on Tuesday Dec 6th. This is an audition for Showcase Your Roots, a talent and fashion show in February 2012 as part of Black History Month. The show will be for an all age’s audience, and all backgrounds, identities and genres are welcome! Singers, spoken word artists, dancers, models, instrumentalists, emcees and artists of other varieties are needed, Details for all of these events can be found at feds.ca/events.
That’s all for now folks! If you have any questions or comments about the goings on at FedS, feel free to stop by POETS (I try to be there as much as humanly possible) or send me an email at kskoretz91@gmail.com.
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