The Board of Directors report card: VP Education Blake Oliver

Blake Oliver’s first semester was successful, having either completed or begun every point of her platform promises.

Highlights of the semester include the first Policy Con, held on Nov. 12, which Oliver began as a means of creating more discussion around the more than 20 policies passed by the Student Representative Assembly. Oliver found that due to the length and complexity of the policies, most would pass without debate or amendments. It was attended by 60 people, including about two-thirds of the SRA.

“I wanted to have a more robust process to have better policies with more research, more student consultation and involvement, and more debate,” said Oliver.

While feedback indicated there was not enough time between the Sunday morning  email and the SRA meeting for members to read the attached, amended documents following the Policy Con weekend, Oliver sent out the draft papers to all delegates and SRA members the Wednesday before the conference, the same day that they would have received them as per the old structure.

“If it continues to be successful, we will likely make an amendment to Bylaw 3 to ensure that SRA members are attending as a part of their responsibilities,” said Oliver.

Following original setbacks with CASA and ADVOCAN, two lobbying groups whose focuses did not align with McMaster’s, Oliver and Monaco-Barnes partnered up with the Wilfred Laurier University Students’ Union to lobby together in Ottawa on Indigenous Students, Students with Disabilities, and International Students.

“Overall, I felt like this was much more productive as we were able to meet with over 30 MPs to talk about priorities that I had specifically ran on,” she said.

Oliver’s promise to lobby for Indigenous course requirements have also been set in motion, with the creation of the Joint Indigenous-Admin Consultation Group that will begin meeting this December.

Oliver also successfully lobbied to remove mandatory yearly intake appointments for students with permanent disabilities, removed the need for students to have to hand deliver accommodations to professors, and removed the $20 doctor’s note fee, all of which can create barriers and issues with disclosure.

Furthermore, Oliver wants accommodation documentation to be focused more around functional limitations of the student rather than DSM diagnoses. In the future, she wants to ensure that students waiting for proof of documentation will be accommodated for while they are waiting, pushing others to take students at good faith.