Strong student voices

When students need an advocate on their side, the person they’ve often found there has been Jonathan Hughes.

A third-year law student, the Cole Harbour native has been a staple at Dalhousie Student Advocacy Services (DSAS) since his undergrad, when he was pursing his degree in Sociology and Social Anthropology. He has served as summer director twice and still volunteers with the office.

Last week, his commitment to student advocacy and academic justice was recognized at the Dalhousie Student Impact Awards with the DSU’s Level Chan Award.

“It has been a really great collective effort in my time there,” he says of DSAS.

The defender

Mr. Hughes has done a lot to build relationships with university administration, the Senate Disciplinary Committee, and faculty. As a summer director of DSAS, he met with the discipline committee to discuss how to improve the advocacy services.

“It’s been a really great experience to rebuild bridges,” says Mr. Hughes.

Mr. Hughes’ primary focus has been supporting students who are appealing grades or defending themselves in plagiarism allegations.

“The majority who come in are distraught and panicked. It’s nice to be able to help someone go through a stressful situation,” he says.

Mr. Hughes says it’s rewarding to help students come to a favourable resolution in the advocacy process. One of his favourite cases was a graduate student who was risking academic dismissal due to a second failure. After a couple of months with DSAS, the student appealed the grade and graduated.

“The experience you get of actually being on your feet and defending students made me realize that I wanted to do some sort of trial advocacy,” says Mr. Hughes, who is pursuing a legal career in criminal defence.

After completing this semester, he will article with a litigation firm in Ottawa before taking his bar exams.

Outside of the DSAS, Mr. Hughes has also served as the chair of the DSU council and played for Dal’s rugby team.

Max Ma (Katherine Wooler photo)

The pioneer

Like the Level Chan Award, the DSU’s Lilly Ju Award is something of a “lifetime achievement” honour, one that recognized a commitment to student life that spans a student’s time at Dalhousie.

It’s hard to think of a more deserving recipient than Max Ma.

Originally from Vancouver, Mr. Ma is in his final year of a combined honours degree in early modern studies and classics. He attended King’s for the first two years of his undergrad and represented King’s students as a councillor on the Board of Governors.

After switching to Dal, he became president of the Dalhousie Arts and Social Sciences Society (DASSS) and a DSU councillor, while serving as a student appointee or member on four other committees.

“What I value the most are the people I’ve worked with,” he explains. “You realize how much you’ve learned about your own character traits from interacting with them,” adding that he believes that his experience on committees has increased his confidence.

The DASSS Undergraduate Conference has been one of Mr. Ma’s largest projects. He was a member of the society when the conference was initiated in 2010 and served as vice-president during the event’s second year.

Most recently, while holding the position of president, he saw the conference take huge strides as it became the first national student-run arts and social sciences conference in Canada and attracted participants from universities across the country.

“I was there when the child was born and I got to see the child grow up and do great things,” he says, describing his excitement to have been a part of the pioneering event since its beginnings.

The Dalhousie Co-Curricular Record is another project for which Mr. Ma was a principal developer. He was excited about helping students put together “a more holistic view of [life] life in post-secondary education.”

Mr. Ma also represents the student voice on three committees that are predominantly comprised of faculty and administrators, including the Dalhousie Senate.

He says, “It is important to remind people that students are not a lobby group; we are a part of the university.”  

Mr. Ma plans to pursue a law degree starting next year.

“I promised my roommate that I’d spend more time in school next year,” he says with a laugh.