Advocacy is the foundation of the Science Students’ Council (SSC). Yet ironically, it is also the aspect of SSC that is most elusive to students. How does the SSC exactly advocate for us, the Science students? Who represents our opinions in front of the faculty members? Does advocacy even occur? The glaring existence of these questions are justified, precisely because advocacy is more so achieved behind-the-curtains.

Overall, this article hopes to provide more clarity and insight towards what SSC really is and their day-to-day operations. In short, the advocacy division of the SSC is separated into three different streams: science councillor, science senator, and department representative. All three positions, while embodying very distinct aspects of our student experience, share a common goal of representing the student body at important council meetings that take place at Western University.

Jacky Lee, 2nd year Medical Sciences student and science councillor, describes his role as a liaison between the science faculty and the University Students’ Council (USC). As such, science councillors talk profusely not just in USC meetings, but also with the students-at-large in order to gauge where general opinions lie in specific issues. Science councillors are elected by the student body, in hopes that people like Lee would be able to present widespread concerns at USC meetings.

“Day-to-day, there are no set things that we do, besides meetings of course,” said Lee, “While senators deal with the academic issues, we are more involved in policy-based issues. We are more focused on improving student experience by getting feedback from students and advice from other science advocates via email, social media, or in-person conversations.”

The low voter turnout during the annual USC election indicates that there is a general disregard towards the student government’s role in bringing about university-wide change. However, the student population is already benefiting greatly from the USC without realizing it. For example, many people may have noticed that there has been a change to the transit system this year, namely the addition of the two new bus routes 93 and 94 on Western Road.

“We were able to add new bus routes in our efforts to address the students’ need for more transportation and mitigating congestion,” said Lee, “It’s great for students living far away from campus or for those who want to be at Masonville Mall within 10 minutes. In fact, the USC and OUSA also successfully lobbied the provincial government this year to keep the bus pass as a mandatory fee. This is a much cheaper option compared to buying a monthly pass separately.”

Junayd Hussein, 3rd year Medical Sciences student and department representative for the Epidemiology and Biostatistics department, differentiates the scope of his advocacy role as more local. Every science module is represented by a department representative like Hussein. On a regular basis, he attends meetings for both the SSC and the Undergraduate Student Council of Epidemiology and Biostatistics (USCEB) in order to provide academic amenities and resources for the module, opportunities for internship, professional development workshops, and course information for interested students. For example, The Great R Workshop was a popular event organized by Hussein, in hopes of conferring employable skills in a world that is driven by computer data.

“A lot of university-wide decisions that you may have heard of, such as fall reading week or the 15% rule, are headed by the science councillors or senators,” said Hussein, “For us, we work more closely with our module and department club to share any pertinent motions or events and garner each other’s support.”

However, Hussein and Lee admit that the USC and SSC can undoubtedly improve their communication with the student population. In order to tackle this issue, Lee and other science councillors organized an open event called “Chat with US(C)” at Taylor library and released online feedback forms back in November. Hussein has likewise praised the SSC’s recent Science Student Donation Allocation Committee (SSDAC) report, which was made by the VP finance, the research and policy committee, and department representatives.

“There seems to be a general lack of knowledge on what department representatives really do,” said Hussein, “It would be helpful to have a publicly available report like the SSDAC for the department representatives to delineate what they have done for the year. It helps with supporting newly-elected advocates and encouraging conversations between the SSC and the students-at-large.”

“We tried to encourage students to give us feedback, which helped us learn more about students’ general attitude towards specific issues such as the self-report absences or the timing of fall reading week,” said Lee, “Having this feedback is useful because it helps shape our own positions and how we initiate action.”

Despite the challenges, Hussein and Lee both share great memories in their advocacy roles. For them, the rewards of passionately talking with their peers and gaining the trust of a student body are invaluable, not to mention the honor that comes with representing a diverse range of opinions at council meetings. Even in society, students make up a huge advocacy body, where young adults of ages 18 to 30 comprise a significantly large voting bloc in Canada. Being aware of this autonomy that we students have is important and can be nurtured through participating in student unions. At this time, one of the best things that advocates can do is actively listening to the needs of the population. And when students-at-large become more aware of what passionate people like Hussein and Lee do as advocates, we are then able to be more proactive in addressing our concerns to the SSC and USC together.

If you have questions or concerns about anything related to your student life, you can visit https://www.westernssc.ca/council for contact information and office hours of your advocates!