Your Student Union is here to advocate for you on all levels in order to make sure you have a fantastic experience and all the help you need during your time at UPEI.
Advocacy is supporting a particular recommendation or cause that will affect public policy. At the UPEI Student Union, we advocate on behalf of students on issues that relate to post-secondary. For example, if you aren’t getting enough money for your student loans, we research and write a policy statement on why students need more student loan money, then we take that to the government and tell them why students need this. We advocate to the University administration, and the municipal, provincial, and federal levels of government on a regular basis. What we advocate on is determined by the student body and the Academic and External Affairs Committee.
On campus, the SU engages with university administration and campus services in a variety of ways to ensure the student voice is well represented as decisions are made on issues that affect your education and university experience. Your elected student union members hold seats on a number of university committees and groups including the University Board of Governors (BoG), the University Senate, and other committees where the student voice should be heard, as well as regular meetings with UPEI’s senior administrative team. We also provide information and guidance on student discipline, recourse, or grievances, including academic appeals.
If you find yourself with questions or in need of guidance, please don’t hesitate to contact your Vice President Academic & External using the contact information below.
Check out our Academic Grievances Handbook to get more info on academic appeals.
Contact: Academic Coordinator | academiccoordinator@upeisu.ca
VP Academic & External | vpax@upeisu.ca | (902) 566-0648
Advocacy in Action
Your Student Union executive team, alongside our Advocacy Team, have frequent lobby meetings with governing officials on municipal, provincial, and federal levels.
In February 2016, the UPEISU had its first major advocacy win – after persistently lobbying to the government on PEI student loan issues, the government increased the weekly maximums on the provincial student loan portfolio and increased the maximums by the provincial inflation rate on a yearly basis.
Check out our 2022-2023 Lobby Document to get more info on some of the policy priorities we’ve been advocating on this year. Below are our Lobby Documents from previous years:
2019-2020 Lobby Document
2018-2019 Lobby Document
2017-2018 Lobby Document
2016-2017 Lobby Document
2015-2016 Lobby Document
2014-2015 Lobby Document
Contact: VP Academic & External | vpax@upeisu.ca | (902) 566-0648
External Policy
External policy are statements made by the UPEI Student Union on a particular concern to our student body and comes with recommendations on how the University and the government can address resolve those problems. Every year, we hold policy consultations on what issues students are facing. We take those problems and research solutions. Once we have the problem and the solution, we put them into a policy statement and advocate on it.
Click here to read our External Policy Book
Contact: VP Academic & External | vpax@upeisu.ca | (902) 566-0648
Feedback
Have an idea for a policy proposal that you think we should look into? Or maybe some ideas about how we could improve our approach to achieving our policy goals? We’d love to get your feedback! Click here to fill out a policy proposal package.