Rosane Wtaers on the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations
*Interview conducted on July 27, 2017.*
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: This is an interview with Rosane from CASA (Canadian Alliance of Student Associations). Rosane, what is your brief background? How did you find out about CASA?
Rosane Waters: Sure, I studied undergrad at Brock in history, which is a CASA member. I did a master’s degree in history as well. I have always been interested in the intersection between history and politics. I see the two as very related. Following that, I did an internship in the Ontario legislature. Then, I worked for under a year for the Ontario government at Elections Ontario as a public servant doing policy work, basically. Then, I was still curious about the historical studies that I had done in my undergrad. And masters years. So, I ended up going back to school and doing a Ph.D. at McMaster. I actually, very shortly after defending my thesis, was very lucky to give birth to a beautiful daughter. I was very fortunate to be able to spend some time at home with her. By that time, my family was living in Ottawa. I was looking for something interesting to do to get back into the workforce, looking for something that I would be able to use the research and analytical skills I feel that I had developed during my studies and alongside my interests in politics and current affairs, and interests in a lot of the type of issues students tend to work on around affordability and accessibility. Obviously, my background means I care about these things and feel strongly about the value of PSE (post-secondary education) across the board. So, I was starting to look for work. This job came up. It is an organization I had heard a little bit about and did a fair deal of research into, and I realized it aligned with my values and things I was interested in working on. I was fortunate enough to get the job.
Jacobsen: What do you think is the biggest reason people don’t know about CASA? Why do you think it is important that people know about it?
Waters: I think that’s a great question. I think CASA is an organization where there are a certain number of people who are actively involved in it because they are the people engaging in the committee work, driving the policy, developing the advocacy and asking things. They have a close feel for that. At the same time, those are the same individuals who have a lot of responsibilities on their campuses as well. The average student doesn’t necessarily have the direct, regular engagement that those who serve as delegates do. Having said that, I certainly hope that students will… I think it benefits in advocating for grants and loans and benefits students across the board. I think it is essential people understand and can engage with the organization. I know that we tend to, as a member-driven organization, look to our student delegates for direction in terms of the types of policies that are really important right now on campuses, as well as having that direct student engagement. This is where our ideas and understanding come from in terms of what matters to students and in terms of the needs and interests of students. That’s a huge thing. It is making sure students know they can engage with CASA as well and can share their ideas and expertise to make sure we really represent them.
Jacobsen: Between the CASA Foundations 2017 conference in late May and the policy and start conference in late July, there were correspondences and organization around priority theme selection. Based on the needs of students and the student leaders based on their analysis of it, what were some of the top themes? What direction do they seem to be taking?
Waters: Basically, the process that we followed was at our foundation’s conference, where we have all of the delegates involved and able to talk about the issues to be able to find common ground across campuses or places where they feel improvements can be made. A number of ideas came out of that, ranging from student research, supporting student research, improving educational materials and things related to open educational resources, to supporting students, whether Indigenous students, taking on non-financial barriers, financial barriers continue to be a big one, supporting international students came up as a consistent issue. Now, we are in a position where the board has put forward some proposals, and we’ll see what the membership decides to focus on. The benefit of an organization like ours, too, is based on years of membership. They’ve developed expertise on the board on all kinds of issues that matter to students. This year’s membership will select priorities for this year’s membership, but we have the opportunity to advocate on a wide range of issues. There are always a lot of submissions, consultations, and so on, to work on papers, to engage on social media and traditional media, and that kind of thing as well. It will be a busy year. I look forward to getting to work on these things.
Jacobsen: What is the take-home message for student associations that are not part of CASA that could observe or, possibly, become a part of it in the long term?
Waters: I hope that the message is that the federal government, though not the direct overseer of post-secondary education in the same way the provinces are, does have a huge role to play, factors in in terms of billions of dollars invested, whether it is through research through the Tri-Council agencies or the most direct mechanism through Canada Student Loans or all kinds of range of all kinds of ways. I hope that the messages that engage with the federal government and that students have a voice at the federal level are extremely important. With all those investments, it is important students have a voice in the shape they take, and CASA is a vehicle for that.
Jacobsen: Thank you for your time, Rosane.
