On Monday, several Queen’s students and administrators travelled to Queen’s Park in Toronto to speak with Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs).

According to AMS Vice-President (University Affairs) Palmer Lockridge, the Queen’s at Queen’s Park day was organized by the Office of University Relations as a lobby day to educate legislators and staffers about what’s currently going on at Queen’s.

AMS President Jenn Li and Vice-President (Operations) Chelsea Hollidge were also in attendance, along with Rector Cam Yung, Principal Daniel Woolf, Provost Benoit-Antoine Bacon, Dean of Student Affairs Ann Tierney and Vice-President (University Relations) Michael Fraser.

Those in attendance had a chance to speak with several MPPs and Premier Kathleen Wynne about Queen’s and the work being done by students and faculty to bring change to the University.

Their conversations with the MPPs mainly pertained to topics like mental health care as well as sexual violence prevention and response, Lockridge said.

Mental health funding and sexual violence are two of six main lobbying priorities the AMS will bring forward to the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA) during their lobbying week in late November.

During that week, the AMS executive and other Queen’s students will join 150,000 students from seven OUSA member institutions in Toronto for a full week of lobbying. According to Lockridge, the team plans to meet with approximately 55 MPPs.

Similar discussions will occur during another Queen’s-organized event in October Queen’s at Parliament Hill day.

Other lobbying priorities on the agenda for this fall include tuition and funding, experiential learning, open educational resources, data reporting and accessibility.

Looking back on their meeting with Premier Wynne and the MPPs, Lockridge said travelling to Toronto was a useful opportunity to explain what sets Queen’s apart from other universities. 

“We had students and faculty there from pretty much every sector of Queen’s, so it was a good introduction,” he said. “A lot of the staffers and MPPs had actually been Queen’s students, so it was nice to talk to them about what was going on when they were at Queen’s and what has changed.”