Fall 2024 Semester Recap

Published January 2025

Happy New Year!

I’m reaching out today with a brief recap of our Fall 2024 semester efforts, along with a glimpse of what’s on the horizon for the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA). As a member of our organization, you are the reason for everything we do and we want to ensure that you are updated on our efforts to support you and others in our community.

Guided by our values of creativity, compassion, inclusivity, advocacy, and persistence, the GSA team embraces a nurturing and cheerful approach to serving you. As the officially appointed voice for Laurier’s graduate students, we strive to recognize our unique perspectives, identify our common threads, and amplify our collective voice—always with a genuine focus on making your experience here both supported and fulfilled.

This past fall, we worked diligently across our three strategic priorities - Addressing Burdens, Fostering Connections, and Bolstering Internationalization. 

Addressing Burdens

Our efforts to address burdens center on creating supportive initiatives and opportunities that aim to alleviate some of the financial and emotional burdens graduate students face in their time at Laurier. We also spend a significant amount of time advocating for our Laurier and community partners to do the same. For Fall 2024, addressing burdens included ongoing collaborations with the Town and Gown Committee’s, Food Security Working Group, LSPIRG’s Distro and the Students’ Union food hamper program to provide safe, nutritious, and affordable food to Laurier students. We also continue to work with these partners to provide resources (e.g., food education, cooking classes, and food security resource maps) while also looking at the ways to address the root causes of food insecurity in Waterloo Region. As we returned to campus to start the Winter 2025 semester, we finalized a KIND bars donation in partnership with Student Affairs Development to stock The Mini Market, which complements the broader food security work we’ve been doing.

In Brantford, we continue to work closely with campus partners to explore how best to support the ongoing food security initiatives of our partners. Alongside these endeavors, we advocated for a child-minding program in Waterloo, taking inspiration from the YMCA childcare services in Brantford to support graduate students juggling family responsibilities. Our goal is to work with Laurier to create an initiative similar to the Oregon State University’s "Our Little Village" program.

We also saw exciting progress in our Holistic Graduate Student Support Centre Project. Phase One, which featured focus groups and targeted outreach, is complete—thank you to everyone who shared their stories and ideas! Our goal with this project is to utilize design thinking to create a centre that meets the real, diverse needs of our graduate student community led by the voices of you, the students! In tandem, our advocacy work led to a major win for orientation and transition funding, we will now be acquiring per-student support comparable to the Students’ Union. Finally, we are especially proud of our soon-to-be-released white paper on practicum and placement experiences, which highlights the themes we heard from those of you balancing coursework, research, and experiential learning. Thank you for trusting us with your stories.

On the transportation front, we remain steadfast in representing your interests. This semester, full-time students in Waterloo (including Kitchener) will have the opportunity to vote in a U-Pass referendum, allowing you to shape how best to meet your transportation needs. We also continue to advocate for inclusive exemptions that meet your transit and/or financial needs. Meanwhile, our Board approved an investigation into adding fertility support services to our extended benefits plan, reflecting our desire to address often overlooked areas of student health. We are proud to be the first student association in the country to consider this option for our members.

Fostering Connections 

Fostering connections within and around our community continues to be a joy for us. We hosted several events in Waterloo and Brantford, while our “Gather Box” program reached online learners who might otherwise miss out on in-person gatherings. We also supported academic and social happenings organized by grad students through our dedicated GSA funds, providing spaces for you to connect, unwind, and collaborate. In November, we had representatives attend the Canadian Federation of Students’ National General Meeting in Ottawa, bringing back fresh perspectives and forging relationships with student leaders across Canada. In addition, we participated in key university discussions—including the Freedom of Expression/Academic Freedom Task Force and hiring panels for positions like the VP: Student Affairs, Dean of Science, Dean of Social Work, and Dean of Education—to ensure the voices of graduate students remain heard and respected at all levels. Along with raising our collective voices, these opportunities are critical to fostering meaningful relationships with members of senior leaders at Laurier that creates space for even more conversation and coordination of change-making efforts in the graduate student experience. 

Bolstering Internationalization

With our focus on Bolstering Internationalization, we introduced a more flexible extended benefits model so students beginning in any term can get adequate coverage right away. We also designated a research assistant to lead our contributions to the Town and Gown International Student Experience Working Group, with the goal of identifying the unique challenges faced by our global community. Working closely with Laurier’s Director of International Student Support, we helped many international students navigate new federal guidelines and transitions to life in Canada. Meanwhile, we’re conducting a sector scan of global travel opportunities, looking to expand and streamline the options for those who want to broaden their academic and professional horizons abroad.

As we look ahead, our winter 2025 schedule is already brimming with ways for you to get involved with events and have your voices heard. We’ll soon be holding elections for our Board of Directors, and the U-Pass referendum will give you the chance to shape the future of grad student transit in Waterloo Region. Phase Two of the Holistic Graduate Student Support Centre Project is set to launch, building on your feedback to create a uniquely supportive environment. On top of that, we’re collaborating with Student Affairs and the VP: Academic’s office to finalize a transparent agreement outlining how comprehensive student services fees are used, and we continue exploring the potential for a dedicated Graduate Research Centre with the VP Research Office.

We want you to feel safe, inspired, and respected here at Laurier. Whether it’s coming to events, participating in student leadership, or emailing us with ideas and questions, your input shapes our decisions and fuels our passion for advocacy. Thank you for sharing your Fall 2024 journey with us, and for all the ways you’ve helped us grow as an organization. Here’s to a vibrant, uplifting, and successful 2025 - together.

With warmth during these colder months,
Taylor