Saturday, July 25th, 2015
VPFA’S Report to Brock University Administrative Council
Welcome BUSAC Councilors,
I hope you have all had a chance to relax and enjoy the summer! I know here at BUSU we
definitely have been with all of the exciting projects that have been completed and others that
are well on their way towards completion. However, before I get into what we have been up to
for the past three months I’d like to congratulate you on taking the initiative to represent your
fellow students on this council. Getting involved with student life on campus is one of the most
important aspects of our university experience. Each and every one of you are eager to be
involved, have your voice heard, take action, get results, and ultimately influence positive
change across our campus. For this reason alone I can say I am so very excited to work with all
of you this coming year.
Some of the projects that I have been heading with the support from the executives, BUSU
staff, and Brock administration are as follows:

Transit

International Welcome Program

Receive Additional Credit for Extracurricular Involvement

Brock/BUSU Mobile App

Student Success Portal (Name up for discussion)

Financial Literacy
Transit
After reviewing some of the complaints and suggestions that were voiced by students last year,
as well as taking a look at U-Pass ridership numbers by route to see what routes are in high
demand, I have decided, with the approval from Board, to add an additional route that will be
running through the Winterberry Keefer area in Thorold (Appendix 1).
I have also extended Route 128 (Brock—Towpath—Rockwood—Shuttle) to run on Friday’s as
this was another main area of concern of some of our BUSAC councilors and other members of
our community.
Ridership on regional buses has dropped tremendously since BUSU decided not to sign with
them in 2014/2015. Realizing we are a huge contributor to transit this has led the Region to
start conversations around what it will take to get us back on board and resign a new contract.
They have mentioned re-implementing route 50/55, which was originally taken off to better
serve the new outlet malls. This has been a very high level conversation and if they were to
implement it, it would be mid-way through the school year. We are open to negotiating a new
contract with the region as long as our needs our being met. I will have updates for you as this
conversation continues.
We will be running a Transit Advocacy Campaign in September that will focus on three main
areas; Safety, Opportunity, and Awareness. The safety component will focus on pedestrians and
cyclist. Opportunity will include the benefits of taking public transportation, and awareness will
be making students aware of what is available to them but also making us aware of what
students want to see out of the transit system.
I have also been quiet involved with some of the projects that Antonio, Alex, and Quinn have
been working tirelessly on that include transit. Namely, the Late Night Bus Service, and
Community Connector.
International Welcome Program
For the first time ever, we are excited to offer Airport Pick-up service to those students who are
coming from all around the world. Starting from August 28th to September 7th we will be
running a shuttle bus that will bring you directly from Pearson International Airport to Brock
University’s main campus. The bus will be arriving at 7p.m. and will leave Toronto Pearson at
9p.m. Student representatives will personally welcome students on to the bus and ensure they
make it home safe.
Receive Additional Credit for Extracurricular Involvement
As I mentioned earlier, getting involved is one of the most important aspect of our university
experience. Often, students are learning more out of the classroom than they are inside. Why?
Because we apply the knowledge we learn in class and expand on it even further by actively
participating in the community. Clubs is one area to be involved, and in some cases clubs have a
strong correlation between what is being taught in the classroom and the activities that the
Club puts on for their members. I’d like to see students who are actively participating in the
club to receive additional academic credit for their accomplishments. I have begun this process
by identifying what clubs have the strongest correlation to in class course material. I have met
with a couple club executives to talk about how we see this getting done in the most efficient
and effective way. Next steps are to begin talking to Faculty Deans, and Department Chairs to
have them see the benefit of it and adopt this as a practice. Once we have a couple professors
that include this in their course, this will help strengthen our argument and will help us
continue to push forward with this project.
Brock/BUSU Mobile App
Brock Mobile App has the capability to include all the buttons that I believe would be of benefit
to the majority of current and future Brock students. We will be continuing the conversation
with Marketing and Communications and other parties that will be part of the app to see
exactly what information we would like to see on it.
They include:

First year Student

Campus Map

Food Services

Directory

Financial Aid

BUSU

Campus Security

Transit

Health Services

Events

Recreational & Athletics

Library

Sakai

Get Involved

Brock Press
Student Success Portal (Name up for discussion)
We will be creating a new website that will be in partnership with Marketing &
Communications, Alumni, Grad Studies, GSA, Career Services & Mentorship plus, Student Life
and Community Experience, and other members of our community.
The purpose of this website is to highlight current student success, graduate student research,
and get our students to think unconventionally about their degree by looking at what alumni
are currently doing with their degree.
Right now we talk about all the wonderful things that Brock can offer students, and what
opportunities they have to get involved, but we never highlight what our students are doing
once they get involved. From a recruitment and retention standpoint this success portal will
benefit both current and potential students by highlighting what exactly students are up to
across campus, and open up their minds as to what more they could be doing.
Financial Literacy
We are looking to run a Financial Literacy week as well as a series of Financial Lit Friday’s.
Details have not been worked out yet.
Collaborative Projects:
With Antonio:

Community Connector

Late Night Bus Service

Light up Decew/Merritville

St.Davids Rd.
With Kyle:

Bus Shelters

Why This Degree
If you have any questions or would like to help on any of the projects that I am currently
working on, please feel free to ask, I would love for you to lend a helping hand! 
Sincerely,
Spencer Dawson