Oregon Student Association
Founded in 1975, OSA is a coalition of student governments dedicated to the representation, service, and protection of the collective interests of over 100,000 students in postsecondary education.
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Internet Digest
March 5, 2007
OSA Introduces Two New Bills that Tackle Access to Higher Ed and Student Voter Registration
On February 26, OSA introduced two new bills into the Oregon legislature. The first, chief sponsored by Senator Vicki Walker, addresses the university system’s increasing reliance on fees that are not factored into a student’s financial aid. Currently, students in certain majors are paying hundreds of dollars in extra programmatic resource fees. Some of these fees make no sense, as students have to pay more for a degree that does not usually produce a higher-paying job. In addition, these fees are not included in the cost of attendance, so they are not covered by a student’s financial aid, nor are they on a student’s radar screen when she/he is doing financial planning for college.
SB 1029 would freeze the introduction of new resource fees until a committee of students, faculty, and administrators can outline a more transparent method for introducing new fees, with the end goal of incorporating programmatic resources fees into the cost of college attendance. In addition to OSA’s proposal to use $3 million from interest earnings on tuition dollars to decrease current resource fees, this bill would begin to stop the trend of nickel and diming students.
OSA’s second bill introduced Monday, whose chief sponsor is Senator Brad Avakian, addresses an issue at the heart of student organizing: getting out the student vote. This bill would require universities and community colleges to work with student governments to make voter registration easier for students and provide voter resources prior to elections. Much like the DMV’s Motor Voter service, this bill would allow students better access to voter registration. Institutionalizing voter registration into the campus experience is especially important for college students, who often face a voter registration deadline only a matter of days following their return to campus in the fall.
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