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
April 25, 2007
Higher Ed Dominates Ways and Means Hearings
Students from across the state have been out in droves to show their support for postsecondary education before the Ways and Means Committee, both in Salem and in their hometowns. Portland, Corvallis, Eugene, and Medford were all visited by the Committee as part of its “Road Show,” where members solicited public input on the Co-chair’s budget. The Ways and Means hearing for funding for community colleges (HB 5012) in Salem took place April 16th. Approximately 50 students were present at each of the hearings, dominating the hearings with concerns about funding for postsecondary education.
Said the Register Guard of attendees of the Eugene hearing, “Not surprisingly, higher education was at the top of the list for many of them.” ("Lawmakers listen to funding pleas,” April 12, 2007)
Said the Mail Tribune of the Medford hearing, “Area residents expressed approval of the state’s K-12 education outlay but roundly harangued the legislature’s budget-writing Ways and Means Committee…for coming up short on higher education money.” ("Higher ed cutbacks slammed,” April 14, 2007)
And the Gazette Times said this of the Corvallis hearing: “Oregon State University and Linn-Benton Community College supporters were out in force, urging the lawmakers to fund building projects, hold down tuition, raise teacher pay and reverse years of waning state support for higher education.” ("More than 400 turn out to seek support of Ways and Means Committee,” April 11, 2007)
Released on March 22nd, the Co-chairs’ budget cut funding for community colleges from the Governor’s recommended level of $483 million to $459 million and reduced university funding from the Governor’s proposed $875 million to $840 million. Capital construction funds were slashed, reducing the Governor’s allocations for universities by 85 percent and leaving community colleges with only enough funds to possibly undertake the very smallest of their 15 project requests.
The budget did however contain an historical victory for students with its support for the Shared Responsibility Model, a new need-based aid model that would reinstate students’ ability to work their way through college. The model was fully-funded by the Co-chairs and has since passed the Senate (see Page 3 of this Internet Digest).
Students were so eager to tell the committee how they felt about the budget that at the community college hearing in Salem, the committee decided to add another day for public testimony due to the high number of people in attendance.
This Wednesday and Thursday, April 25 and 26, students will return to Salem to testify in support of funding for universities (SB 5515). Over one hundred students are expected.
“The Co-chairs’ budget spells disaster for Oregon’s university students,” said OSA Board Vice Chair and Portland State University Student Body President Courtney Morse. “How many more students would opt out of a degree? How many more would struggle through college only find themselves buried under a mountain of student loan debt? Students from across the state will be asking members of the Ways and Means Committee to restore the investment that the Governor made in us.”
You are on Page 2 of this Internet Digest.
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