Rory Norris, the Waterloo Undergraduate Student Association (WUSA) Vice President of Government Stakeholder Relations, has been elected president of the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA). Two other candidates ran for the position: Stephen Titizian, vice president of external affairs from the University of Western, and Aisha Mahmoud, vice president of education from the University of McMaster.

Running on a platform based on student affordability after recent OSAP cuts to student grants, Norris aims to increase visibility for OUSA and amplify student voices.

OUSA is an organization consisting of nine student associations in Ontario, including WUSA. Elected WUSA representatives, including Norris, form part of the OUSA steering committee.  The election process for OUSA executive positions begins at the student bodies of each member organization. At UW, an elected WUSA executive joins the steering committee. Afterwards, members of the steering committee elect a president in mid-May who serves until April 30 of the following year.

His platform ran primarily on combatting the inaccessibility of post-secondary education from OSAP changes and the loss of student union independence due to Bill 33 amendments. Other platform points include addressing rising living costs that impact student affordability and increasing OUSA visibility among students.

Rory Norris, WUSA VP and OUSA president-elect. (Photo credit: WUSA)

Norris had previously advocated on these issues during his tenure as WUSA president from May 2023 to April 2024, leading the Board of Directors and supporting student advocacy on the municipal and provincial levels. “I told myself something very clearly [that] I would never run for elected office again,” Norris wrote in his OUSA platform of his thoughts after his tenure as president. Despite this, Norris has continued his involvement in student advocacy and policy work.

Norris stated that his plans as incoming OUSA president are broken down into four key areas, the first of which is enhancing the visibility of OUSA as an organization.

“Students don’t necessarily know what’s going on with OUSA; it operates at … more of an arm’s length,” he observed. Norris explains that he plans to tackle this issue through campus visits and better student interaction through social media. Other matters he will focus on include the impact of Bill 33, student affordability, and reducing student union fees to OUSA.

Regarding the last point, Norris believes that “OUSA is, from a budget perspective, at a pretty healthy place.” According to the new president-elect, OUSA has enough reserves to “cover … two years of expenses without needing to charge those membership fees anymore.” An alternative he mentioned is using certain funding for campaigns of interest, like the ongoing fight against OSAP aid cuts.

When asked about concerns regarding balancing responsibilities between OUSA and WUSA, Norris stated that although another full-time VP at WUSA will help shoulder the workload, he will “probably end up working more hours than [he] would have if [he] did take on this role.” He then went on to state that “the combinations of these two pieces will sort of come into play where, yes, I spend … more time supporting this external organization to which we are a member, but at the same time, I am still making sure I’m committed to my duties and responsibilities.”

Norris has two messages for readers: encouraging students to get involved and building meaningful connections that they can take with them as they depart post-secondary education.

And finally, Norris encourages student advocacy so that constituents can push and fight for the changes they would like to see. He hopes they ask themselves, “how can they look at a problem that exists in the world and start to work towards advocating for a solution?”