Abigail Oyewole

Staff Writer

There are many services offered by the DSU. The student health and dental insurance plan improves the well-being of students. Dawson Dining provides free meals for students and takes place every Wednesday at Conrod’s. The DSU Hive is a Gender Advocacy Center with a coordinator on-site to act as a resource for students for various information surrounding sexual and mental health, sexuality, and gender.

Kenneth Clarence Oledan, DSU President

A.O: Introduction

K.C.O: Hello fellow students! My name is Kenneth Clarence Oledan and I am the president of the Dawson Student Union for Fall 2024 to Winter 2025. I was formerly a student councillor for the social science, business and technologies sector.

A.O:  Tell us about your role as president of the DSU.

K.C.O:  As president, I oversee all the offices and VPs (Finance, Academic Affairs & Advocacy, Operations & Services, External Affairs, Internal Affairs & Communications, Sustainability & Equity). I act as the main spokesperson of the union and ensure the smooth running of day-to-day operations.

A.O: What are the services offered by the DSU?

K.C.O: There are many services offered by the DSU. The student health and dental insurance plan improves the well-being of students. Dawson Dining provides free meals for students and takes place every Wednesday at Conrod’s. The DSU Hive is a Gender Advocacy Center with a coordinator on-site to act as a resource for students for various information surrounding sexual and mental health, sexuality, and gender. The Hive also provides menstrual products, contraceptives etc. Another service offered by the DSU is the Special Project Funding. If students have a project or initiative they need funding for, they can apply for the SPF and be approved if it meets all the necessary criteria. Every year part of the budget of the DSU goes to the SPF. This year the total amount is $15,000.

A.O: How can students be more involved with the DSU?

K.C.O: Students can pass by our office to ask about volunteering opportunities. They can also apply to become student representatives who will sit on different committees through the VP Academics and Advocacy. Student representatives have an impact on the day-to-day life of students and are an important role with lots of opportunities to learn and grow. They can also volunteer with the Blue Ring Society to help with events and tasks all over the school.

A.O: Can you talk about the petition for the exemption of Indigenous students against law-14?

K.C.O: The petition is to fully exempt Indigenous students from the provisions of Law 14. It is an initiative that is spearheaded by the DSU. It is sponsored at the national assembly level by Jennifer Maccarone, a member of the National Assembly or MNA for the Westmount Saint Louis riding. We hope to garner as many signatures as we can for this petition as it is a very important cause. The deadline to sign the petition is September 30th.

AO: Can you talk about the student health and dental insurance plan?

KCO: In Winter 2021, a referendum was passed to students to decide if they want a student health plan and they voted to have insurance. After many years of back and forth with the college, we are finally able to implement medical and dental health insurance for students. For more information, I will hand over the interview to our student care representative.

S.C: My name is Shenoa, I work at student care. The health insurance plan has a lot of benefits for the students. It includes vision, travel, virtual healthcare, mental health and wellness, gender affirmation care and lastly, legal care. What most students ask us about is prescription drugs. In this case, oral contraceptives and antidepressants are covered so the only thing that they have to do is go to the pharmacy and present their MQ,  group number and the certificate number that they have to retrieve from thestudentcare.ca website. From the website, they can retrieve their student care ID. It will activate their coverage and give them the certificate number that they’re going to need to either change the coverage or make any claims. 

Another thing students ask us a lot about is the health practitioners. Students have coverage for chiropractors, physiotherapist massage, speech therapist and audiologist. All that is a payable amount of $40 per visit and up to $400.00 for all of these health practitioners during the coverage year which follows the academic year so it starts on September 1st, 2024 and ends on August 31st, 2025 as long as they’re still eligible during the winter period. The insurance also includes prostheses like mobility aids, vaccines and hospitalisation amongst other things are also covered by the health plan. They can have health medical coverage for any medical gender-affirming care component up to $5000 per procedure and we have a list of the eligible procedures also that is provided by Greenshield. Students have access to legal assistance for gender affirmation care and any other questions that they may have in that they need to reach out to a lawyer.

A.O: Do you have any advice for new students?

K.C.O: Join a club, sleep well and most importantly, don’t forget to have fun.