By Jack Armstrong - News Editor and Haunani Tomas - Editor-in-Chief
The Oregon Student Association is currently campaigning against bill 4.15 introduced into the upcoming ASWOU elections beginning Monday, April 20 through Friday, April 24.
Bill 4.15 would effectively sever the current ties between the OSA and ASWOU. Both organizations are designed to provide advocacy on behalf of students, with ASWOU being specifically centered on Western Students.
The ballot asks: “Should WOU students leave membership with OSA?”
WHAT IS OSA?
Created in 1975, the OSA is, in part, a reaction to what Oregon students saw as rapidly decreasing student involvement in higher education administrative decisions like tuition, incidental fees, and on-campus policies. Since then, OSA has become the second largest voter registration in the United States.
According to the OSA mission, their purpose is to “represent, serve, and protect the collective interests of students in postsecondary education in Oregon.” The organization collectively represents more than 120,000 college students in Oregon, and serves much like a student labor union.
OSA’s short-term goals involve working with legislators and decision makers to act as a lobbying for students to the state.
“Lobbying is an ambiguous concept to people,” said OSA Executive Director Emma Kallaway. For reference, lobbying is the act of attempting to influence the actions of public officials, especially legislators.
The 45-member non-profit organization consists of a team that firmly believes in their mission: “protect the collective interests of students in postsecondary education in Oregon.”
HOW DOES OSA BENEFIT US?
While advocating for post-secondary education affordability, OSA works to prevent sexual violence, accounting to cultural competency, increasing accommodations for those with disabilities, and collecting data about the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, Transgender, Queer) community to better serve the needs of college campuses.
More recently, OSA petitioned for an increase in financial aid, lower tuition and an increase in the quality of education.
The OSA’s efforts include organizing student rallies like the Rally to Restore Higher Education. Held on Feb. 12, 2015, the rally brought together students from 26 universities and community colleges to push for a reinvestment of state funds to freeze tuition costs.
OSA also sends students to Salem when the legislature is in session to speak on behalf of Oregon students. OSA has several students speaking to the legislative body concerning debt at a university budget hearing Tuesday , April 14, 2015.
Western students attended the Rally to Restore Higher Education, and some of the organization on the Western end was handled through ASWOU, but if bill 4.15 passes then Western will officially resign their membership to the OSA.
“There is an increased level of difficulty getting legislatures to support individual schools,” said Kallaway. “[OSA provides] a nearly 40-year long relationship with state officials that [Western students] have access to.”
Instead of lobbying for individual campus needs, OSA has the utilitarian lens of looking at the bigger picture.
“OSA has the ability to view what’s best for the entire student body population of Oregon versus the needs of an individual institution,” said Kallaway.
Western’s membership with OSA is funded through incidental fees, which are collected from students every term and used to fund student clubs and activities that fall outside the realm of academics – such as special interest clubs, health and wellness, athletics and student leadership activities.
These fees have been initially approved by both ASWOU senate and the incidental fees committee (IFC), but according to WOU Students Against 4.15, a student action group, “ASWOU senate recently passed a bill that was contrary to their [already voted upon] budget and decided to give students the opportunity to approve OSA membership on the ballot.”
Affordability being OSA’s chief objective, it costs students $1.49 per term to be members of the OSA.
Kallaway describes the per-term membership fee as being “less than a cup of coffee.”
“It save [students], at minimum, hundreds of dollars per student,” she said.
IF PASSED, HOW WILL BILL 4.15 AFFECT US?
This referendum would completely strip students’ ability to advocate for themselves at the state and renders students powerless. In other words, Western would be removed from OSA.
Proposed referendum measure that is being voted on next week would completely strip students of its collective power.
Consequently, OSA field organizer Brittany Duffy-Goche said this would leave Western students with “little to no power in Salem to be able to fight against tuition increases and policy that helps promote a safe and inclusive learning environment.”
“Students of Western would lose their impact,” said Kallaway.
Duffy-Goche explained that Western would be removed from the OSA, which would “sever our ability to effectively advocate for students on a statewide level.”
Some students on campus have already spoken out against the proposed changes. The student-lead group WOU Students Against 4.15 writes on their website that “withdrawing membership from the Oregon Student Association is a huge mistake.”
“If this referendum is passed, it would be detrimental on a multitude of levels,” said Duffy-Goche.
Students Against 4.15 believe that departure from OSA would severely limit Western’s ability to advocate on behalf of the student population without the power in numbers that OSA offers.
Students Against 4.15 writes: “be extremely wary of any attempts to limit your collective student voice in Salem. We need to work together in order to achieve real victories for higher education in Oregon.”
