As the Student Union and the Brandeis community evolve, the Office of Student Rights and Advocacy is ready to return to the forefront of Brandeis student resources. Due to the Student Union’s efforts to bring back the OSRA — particularly those of Student Union Vice President Hannah Brown ’19 and OSRA Director Zosia Buse ’20 — University students will have a peer resource to go to if academic or campus-related problems ever arise.  

Years ago, there existed a resource on campus through which students could theoretically have academic or other problems on campus resolved by coming to their peers for assistance. However, due to the relative lack of internal structure in the Student Union at the time, it was impossible for this department to flourish to the extent that its creators had hoped for.

Now, with its return, Buse stated, “The OSRA serves as a liaison between students and administration to eliminate barriers to student success and offer consultation and advocacy services in order to take care of student concerns in the most efficient way.” Essentially, the OSRA is an effective resource for students to go to when they have an issue on campus that they do not know how to resolve on their own. A member of the advocacy team there would then serve as a mediator, with the best interest of the student as their top priority. Buse went on to elaborate, “The OSRA fills a large student need. It really helps create a smooth transition from conflict to resolution.” Students can use this resource if they need help with navigating the different routes to take when solving a problem at Brandeis.

Naturally, because the OSRA is promoting itself as a student resource, its primary goal is to get students to utilize it as a means for conflict resolution. 

According to Buse, in order to achieve this goal, “[the advocacy team] wants to not only make students aware of their rights to expedite the conflict resolution process but they also want to extend their accessibility to students to further develop the OSRA as a favorable resource on campus.” 

Additionally, Buse added that the OSRA is still in the process of establishing its online presence, but she does acknowledge that “the extent of our online presence would be our affiliation with the Brandeis Student Union website, but we do have plans to start our own social media presence so we can be more accessible as our own organ of the Student Union.” 

Furthermore, Buse claimed that “the OSRA is going to get its own part of the [Student Union] website once the advocacy team is [officially] built, which I’m in the process of interviewing for now.”

“The OSRA functions for and because of the student body, and the goal is to maintain student integrity while solving [students’] grievances and concerns in the most efficient way, [so as] to not impede their academic, personal, or emotional success in any way, shape or form,” Buse said. 

The OSRA was established for and is fueled by the students of Brandeis, so its doors are open if a conflict needs resolution, she added.