Congratulations to the Pride of StFX Awards

The STFX Students’ Union was extremely excited to see the Pride of STFX Awards established this past Homecoming weekend as a collaborative effort between the Alumni Association and X-Pride. We would also like to congratulate the first winners of this incredible award, and the significant impact that their leadership has had on our Xaverian community.

We were deeply saddened by some of the recent comments made by an alumni in regard to this awards creation, however these only serve as a reminder of the work that there is still to do across the Xaverian community. There never was, and never will be tolerance for harassment, discrimination, homophobia or transphobia towards the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, and we must strive to foster a Xaverian community of love, inclusivity, and acceptance for all.

We stand beside the voices of 2SLGBTQIA+ students here at STFX as well as those within the broader Xaverian community.

Brendan Roberts, President

On Behalf of the Students’ Union Executive Board and Representative Council

Storwell Foster Children Bursary Program

A $2,000 annual bursary to help foster children pursue post-secondary education 

In response to the growing number of foster children and youth in care that struggle to afford post-secondary studies, Storwell has developed the Storwell Foster Children Bursary Program. Along with providing accessible and affordable storage units, Storwell is also devoted to helping out the local community through various charitable causes and social initiatives. For over a decade, Storwell has helped numerous students across Canada achieve their educational goals. 

Eligibility Criteria:

The applicant must:

1. Have been a foster child with an official Canadian or American foster care program and agree to have the above organization verify the same.

2. Be enrolled as a full-time student at a recognized general/ vocational College or post-secondary institution in Canada or USA as of September.

3. Be a Canadian or American Citizen or Permanent Resident.

4. Be 24 years of age or less at the time of application.

5. Agrees to have their name, photo and post-secondary institution displayed on the Storwellwebsite.

Storwell offers an annual bursary of $2,000 to help foster children attend post-secondary schools and to offer a hand up as they make their way forward in life. Eligibility requirements and access to the application form can be found at: https://www.storwell.com/bursary-application

St.FX Students’ Union (The U) Open Educational Grant Program

September 19, 2022

St. Francis Xavier University and The U, Antigonish, NS

We proudly announce that the StFX Students' Union and the University have partnered to launch the first Open Educational Resources (OER) grant program! This grant program offers StFX professors funding for the resources that will allow them to switch from using traditionally published textbooks to Open Educational Resources. Open Educational Resources are an openly licensed free alternative to regular textbooks, making for more affordable and inclusive student learning opportunities. 

This is a huge help to the affordability of textbooks for StFX students, and we are thrilled that the first year of the program, which provided $39 488 of funding to StFX faculty, will save students approximately $88 000 in textbook costs per year. In addition, a significant portion of the funding was used to pay for summer students hired by StFX faculty to help them with their Open Educational Resource projects. We would like to thank all the faculty who applied to the OER pilot program and are currently working on their projects, and all those who have contributed to this initiative. Some projects that are presently being funded include Dr. Janitina Toxopeus’s Biology 111/112 which alone will save students up to 56,700$ a year by providing an OER. Successful grant recipients are Dr. Mark Baker’s Physics 121/122, Dr. David Young’s Education 434, Dr. Erin Mazerolle’s new Selected Topics in Cognitive Neuroscience, Dr. Tracy Everitt’s Human Nutrition 425, and Dr. Keith De’Bells’s Math 236. We thank these award winners for their participation and patience as we created and implemented this program. 

Currently, the Students’ Union is working on other initiatives to further the accessibility of universities by lowering the cost of textbooks. Our Zero Textbook Cost course database is available on our website to feature the amazing work professors here on our campus have done to make their classes more accessible. This course database showcases classes that do not have an assigned textbook or that use OER within their classes. The Union and University have also collaborated on the textbook loaner program, where students can donate their used textbooks for free in-library use for other students. Our on-campus partnerships with the university have helped us provide more services to more students to make post-secondary education more accessible. 

For more information, contact: 

Naomi Stobart

Vice President Academic, StFX Students’ Union 

Su_academic@stfx.ca

The U- For Students by Student |   @theuoffical | su_academic@stfx.ca