“It’s a budgeting issue, but it’s also causing budgeting issues for students.” — Emily Edwards
When people talk about OSAP cuts, the conversation usually revolves around numbers.
Budgets. Grants. Loans. Government spending.
For Emily Edwards, it’s something she thinks about as both a student and a student advocate.
Meet Emily Edwards
I recently sat down with Emily, a University of Guelph-Humber graduate, to talk about her experience of being on both sides of an issue that affects thousands.
When asked to describe herself, she didn’t start with advocacy. She talked about spending time with family, being creative and her goal of becoming a teacher one day.
But like many students across Ontario, recent changes to OSAP have added new questions to an already expensive path forward.
Living the consequences of change
“I’ve had to worry about finances throughout the past four years (of undergrad studies),” Edwards explains. “Going into Teachers College is another financial burden, and I’m going to have to go into more debt.”
The new changes in policies have impacted the timeline and financial planning at a fundamental level for many students across the province.
“It’s not deterred me fully,” she says, “but it’s definitely made it feel a little more stressful.”
Her dream continues to survive. But it is at the cost of peace of mind.
Tuition buys time
Originally from Barrie, commuting to campus would have meant spending nearly six hours a day on transit for Emily. OSAP support allowed her to live in the student residence, stay involved on campus and work at IGNITE, which helped shape her post-secondary experience.
“OSAP funding gives me more money in my pocket to afford commuting rather than just pushing everything into tuition and having to figure out how I’m getting to school every day.”
Her story highlights something that is often missing from policy conversations: A grant doesn’t just pay a fee. It buys time.
Time to join a club. Time to take an on-campus job. Time to participate in opportunities that eventually become the experience section of a resume.
The misconception
Emily wishes people understood is how students actually use OSAP.
“I don’t know a single person who didn’t use every dollar toward their education,” she confesses.
Between tuition, textbooks, housing, transportation and daily expenses, most students aren’t treating OSAP as extra spending money. They’re using it to stay enrolled.
It’s easy to build narratives around misuse when you’re far removed from student life.
It’s harder to hold onto those assumptions when you’re actively talking to people who are calculating whether they can afford groceries, rent, transit and next semester’s tuition all at the same time.
Advocating from experience
One of the most interesting parts of our conversation was discussing what advocacy looks like when the issue affects you directly.
“It allows me to relate more to the students that I’m advocating for,” Edwards says. “I understand the position that they’re in.”
Rather than making her less objective, she believes it makes her more connected to the people she’s advocating for when she is at the rallies supporting the cause.
Because sometimes expertise doesn’t come from reading a report but from staring at the same tuition bill.
What policymakers don’t see
If Emily could ask policymakers to witness one thing, it wouldn’t be a meeting or a presentation.
It would be a normal day in the life of a post-secondary student.
A day where groceries cost more than expected. A textbook needs to be purchased. Rent is due. Classes need attention. Work shifts need to be picked up.
And somehow, students are still expected to invest in their future while managing the realities of the present.
Looking forward
Despite everything, Emily remains committed to advocating for students.
One project that particularly motivated her involved creating student profiles and running them through the OSAP estimator to see the projected impact of the changes.
The results were difficult to ignore.
“I saw firsthand how these cuts were going to impact students in the next year.“
And that’s why she believes students should continue sharing their experiences with elected officials.
“I encourage students to reach out to their local MPP and share how this experience is impacting them,” Edwards encourages.
You can use the Legislative Assembly of Ontario website to find your MPP and send them a letter about the topic.
One question remains
Education is often described as an investment in the future. But investments only work when people can afford to make them.
The next time OSAP is discussed as a budget line, it’s worth remembering that behind every number is a student making a very basic human calculation:
“Can I afford this?”
Feature image by IGNITE
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