Political Action Week a success,
says SU President Julie Bogle
From October 8-12 the University of Calgary Students’ Union celebrated its Political Action Week: Affordable Housing. The week of events allowed us to bring the issue of affordable accommodations for students to the forefront.
As President of the University of Calgary’s Students’ Union, and on behalf of the student body, I would like to thank all post-secondary students, stakeholders and media representatives for their support and interest during this special week.
The week was a busy but quite productive one. On October 9th and 10th students camped out on the South Lawn in tents to raise awareness of the lack of affordable housing. “Tent City”, as we called it, drew much attention and visits by local media and representatives from the provincial and municipal government.
On October 10th, the Students’ Union also officially launched its discussion document, Working Together: Finding Solutions to Affordable Accommodations for Students. This document offers key recommendations on how student organizations, levels of government and the university can work together to address the issue of a lack of affordable housing for students in the Calgary area. Reaction to the document from the municipal and provincial government as well as the university has been unanimously positive and supportive. Those interested in viewing the document and the key recommendations can visit the Students’ Union web site at http://www.su.ucalgary.ca/
On October 11th, the Students’ Union attended the University of Calgary’s Report to the Community which announced that the University will make a recommendation to its Board of Governors to build a new 300-unit student residence to open in late 2009. The Students’ Union believes this is a step in the right direction in addressing the lack of residence space available to students.
Finally, also on October 11th, representatives from the Students’ Union traveled to Edmonton and made a presentation to the Alberta Legislature’s Standing Committee on Managing Growth Pressures. This committee was formed to address pressures that have come with Alberta’s tremendous growth over the past few years and to develop approaches to sustain this growth. The Students’ Union informed the committee on how students are affected by these growth pressures, namely in finding affordable places to live while attending a post-secondary institution. We also shared our recommendations on how the province can assist in addressing this issue.
Our Political Action Week: Affordable Housing was a great success. Thanks to interest from media, government, the university and the general public the lack of affordable housing for students has become a hot issue that requires immediate action.
Julie Bogle
President
University of Calgary Students’ Union
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