Sam Dunaway | News Editor
With clipboards in hand, several individuals were out on the sidewalks in mid-April encouraging students to register to vote for the upcoming primary election on May 15. Among these advocates are members of the Oregon Student Association, or OSA: a student-led organization that represents close to 130,000 college students in Oregon.
OSA board members spend much of their time at campuses across the state working with student governments to run campaigns, register students to vote and advocate for policy change. Their work aligns with their three main goals: leadership development, social advocacy and policy implementation.
“We prepare students to be civically engaged and advocate for higher education affordability and accessibility, both in the institutional level and statewide,” explained Ricardo Lujan Valerio, Legislative Director for OSA.
OSA has been working closely with ASWOU at Western to assist in voter registration campaigns and successfully registered over 850 new voters for the 2016 election. The organization is also aiming to create a more inclusive and knowledgeable community with sessions on marginalized communities during Diversity Week from May 14-18.
In addition to working on-site at campuses, OSA advocates to the state legislature regarding issues that affect Oregon students. This often includes issues such as affordable tuition, support for undocumented students, K-12 sex education reform and increased mental health resources for students.
Lujan Valerio encourages all students to get involved with OSA.
“As an organization, we succeed based on the student leaders that direct us … Not only would they get a sense of what OSA is all about, but they would gain leadership experience and networking opportunities that transfer into professional careers post-college and have the ability to make higher education reachable for the next generation of students at WOU.”
Additional trainings occur at OSA’s various conferences, including the Oregon Students of Color Conference and the Oregon Student Equal Rights Alliance Symposium. These conferences provide leadership development training for students across Oregon. For more information on attending conferences, visit the ASWOU office on the first floor of the WUC and learn about upcoming opportunities.
Contact the author at journalnews@wou.edu.
Photo by: Paul F. Davis
