Ontario Students Take Action on Access

TORONTO, March 4 – This week marks the launch of OUSA’s second annual Blue Chair Campaign. The Blue Chair campaign is a grassroots, student lead campaign that seeks to raise awareness around the need to expand access to higher education as an equalizer of economic prosperity and social vitality.Many of Ontario’s best and brightest cannot attend university due to financial, cultural, geographical, motivational and informational barriers. Studies predict that within the next 10 years, 70 per cent of jobs will require a post-secondary credential. Ontario’s current participation rate, of 18-24 year old, sits at 40 per cent, with only 33 per cent of students from the lowest income quartile and 28 per cent of Aboriginal students persisting to higher education, directly from high school.

In recognition of these challenges, from March 2nd to 6th, campuses across Ontario will be jam-packed with empty blue chairs aimed at creating awareness, raising funds and taking action at reducing barriers to post-secondary education. The empty Blue Chairs symbolize the lost potential for our province when access is restricted.

“This campaign will provide students and community members with the opportunity to become directly involved in our fundraising event. Our aim is to call attention to the need for increased success, and expanded accessibility, for students who face barriers to higher education,” said Trevor Mayoh, President of the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance.

The funds raised at universities across Ontario, including Brock, Wilfrid Laurier, McMaster, Queen’s, Waterloo, Western and Windsor, will be donated to various early outreach programs across the province

Please help Ontario youth find their seat.

For more information, check out our website at http://www.ousa.ca/bluechair/ or by joining the Blue Chair Campaign group on Facebook.

OUSA represents the interests of more than 140,000 professional and undergraduate, full- and part-time university students at seven institutions across the province.

For further information: Trevor Mayoh, President of OUSA, (519) 884-0710; Tammy McQueen, Communications Director of OUSA, (416) 341-9948