Equitable Education
Arguably, education is the unifying tenet which brings together everyone in the McMaster community. As a group, all members are united by a shared interest in teaching and learning, conducting inquiry, and a desire to better understand our world. As a result, it is imperative that education be equitable, accessible, and reflective of both the needs and future prospects of our community. My proposals outline the means by which I hope to better unite McMaster's goal's for education with real-world application and how I hope to make education more accessible through greater access to free or lower cost textbooks, research methods, and skill development.
Work with Libraries to promote Information Literacy
The Association of College and Research Libraries defines information literacy as, “a set of integrated abilities encompassing…discovery of information, the understanding of how information is produced…and the use of information in creating new knowledge…”. Information literacy as a concept is vital to students to further their education and professional growth. However, services are often underutilized due to insufficient promotion and exposure. To help remedy this, I hope to work directly with McMaster Libraries as well as faculty to directly integrate services which improve information literacy and student skills, such as LinkedIn Learning, into courses. The result will be a more cohesive and equitable educational experience which will give students the necessary skills to achieve not only academic but also professional success.
Increased adoption of OERs
to reduce or often eliminate textbook costs
Textbook costs represent one of the largest and most restrictive factors preventing academic success for students. On average, post-secondary students in Ontario spend more than $500 on textbooks every semester. For all students, but especially those of lower socioeconomic backgrounds, this can be a major detriment to their economic security and thus wellbeing. Open educational resources refer to freely accessible, text, audio, video, or other types of media which can be utilized by researchers for collaboration, teaching, and learning. This allows for the creation of course specific media which can be used to replace textbooks as a point of reference in courses. Essentially, they offer the opportunity for classes to no longer require textbooks but instead make use of specifically designed materials which can be provided to students without additional charge. Currently there exists an annual grant at McMaster of $16,000 to support creation of more OERs, while other institutions offer more than $200,000. Thus, I will advocate for greatly increased OER funding and push for inclusion of OER production to be a part of the professor tenure process in keeping with DOERS3 guidelines. I look forward to directly collaborating with the Associate Vice Provost (Faculty), OER Committee, and McMaster Libraries among others to achieve this goal. Being a strong champion for the greater adoption of OERs at McMaster, I hope to set the institution on a path to create a future with reduced or potentially no excess textbook costs.
Introduce research assistant opportunities in which students may work to develop OERs in collaboration with professors
It is important as well that within the production process of OERs, students be directly involved. This will ensure we create educational resources which are accessible and equitable to those within the McMaster community while fulfilling the needs of students more accurately. As a part of McMaster University’s recently adopted Teaching and Learning Strategy, there exists the Student Partners Program. SPP aims to promote collaboration with and leadership by students in future academic developments. I hope to use this framework to create research assistant opportunities for students to help assist professors in the creation of OERs. This would allow for some of the burden in production of OERs to be removed from professors and instructors, further incentivizing their production, while simultaneously creating unique, interesting and skill-developing work opportunities for students. Students can then benefit from diversified attributes, opening new horizons for future work. With the implementation of this strategy, students can directly be involved in making their own education more accessible, less expensive and more equitable for the future.
Promotion of UN SDG integration within courses
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are prominent sustainability and societal development landmarks which exist as targets which will create a fairer, more environmentally friendly, more just World for all. They are aimed to be achieved by 2030, and have been very strongly endorsed by McMaster University as organizational goals. While McMaster has made significant progress regarding the topic, there still exists a wide gap between targets and execution. There is inadequate incorporation of SDGs within courses in a manner specific to course content. Furthermore, the lack of a unified, organization-wide approach dampens greater incorporation of SDGs. The inclusion of SDG-topics in courses is highly important to pursue, as it will create curricula that is more inclusive of topics vital to the future professional success of students. To help achieve this, I will pursue the creation of a university-wide SDG strategy with a focus on greater incorporation of SDGs in courses. By communicating to students via platforms such as Mosaic and the Academic Calendar what UN SDGs may be discussed/reflected within the content of courses, I hope to give individuals the agency to chart an academic path more in-line with knowledge relevant to their growth and success.
Increasing Experiential Learning Opportunities
Experiential learning is often defined as “learning by doing”. The insights which may be gained from having such first-hand interaction with concepts, ideas or applications has been shown to be one of the most successful ways of allowing individuals to gain the skills they need for professional success. The impacts of the pandemic has greatly reduced the breadth of services offered to students. I will advocate for the reintroduction of previously cancelled experiential learning opportunities as well as greater expansion of new opportunities. With collaborations with the Office Community Engagement, the Student Success Centre, and programs such as MacChangers, I hope to ensure a greater proportion of the student body has access to community-based experiential opportunities that will expand their insights and bolster future professional opportunities.
Advocating for a freeze in tuition
Tuition has almost without exception been an ever-growing factor contributing to inaccessibility of higher. Since the year 2000, McMaster tuition has increased from less than $4000 on average too approximately $7000 on average, faster than inflation and has become particularly inaccessible because of the pandemic. International students have even more burdensome tuition expenses which generally are four to seven times that of their domestic peers. I will advocate for a moratorium on increase in tuition for the next 3 years to help ensure financial security of the student body, especially as the pandemic has continued to significantly dampen career prospects. Through collaborations with the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance, I will advocate for a province-wide initiative that will bolster university funding through avenues outside of the pockets of students themselves. Through the implementation of this strategy, we can create a more accessible and affordable educational path for us all.