About OSA

The Oregon Student Association (OSA) is a statewide advocacy and organizing non-profit, was established in 1975 to represent, serve, and protect the collective interests of students in post-secondary education in Oregon.

During the past 30 years, OSA has focused on issues such as tuition, financial aid, recruitment and retention of students underrepresented on campus and student rights. A cornerstone of the organization’s work includes educating students, other members of campuses, and the greater community on issues relevant to post-secondary education, developing and training student leaders, and organizing students around student issues. OSA also provides a collective voice for students in state government, the Oregon University System, and other state boards and commissions.

OSA is led by students for students. The eighteen-member Board of Directors consists of two students from each member campus, the student body president and the president’s designee. Current member campuses are:

• Eastern Oregon University
• Lane Community College
• Oregon Health & Science University
• Oregon Institute of Technology
• Oregon State University
• Portland State University
• Southern Oregon University
• University of Oregon
• Western Oregon University

The Board identifies issues, directs research and advocacy efforts, and employs a full-time staff. Specifically, the Board is responsible for setting OSA policy, employing the OSA Executive Director, and carrying out the directives and activities of the board.

Priority Issues

Representing over 100,000 students, in April 2006 the OSA Student Board set its Priority Legislative Agenda for the 2007 Oregon legislative session. The decision came at the end of an eight-month process initiated in August 2006 when students began brainstorming and thinking critically about the issues that impact students’ ability to access and afford a quality postsecondary education. Upon returning to campus in the fall, students surveyed campuses across the state as to what issues were most important to Oregon students. Students then underwent a scrupulous process of research, dialogue, and debate to develop a comprehensive, winnable, and innovative package of legislative issues that will increase access to a quality postsecondary education for Oregon Students.

Funding & Tuition

Oregon’s college and university students are paying more and getting less: at the same time tuition has increased over 50 percent over the past six years and students are in record levels of debt, students find themselves at institutions facing impending funding crises and are already starting to experience the affects of these shortfalls on campus. Students are working towards a collective solution to the funding problem by seeking an investment in our colleges and universities substantially greater than that of last biennia that will give our institutions the money they need to provide a quality education while also keeping tuition increases to no more than increases in the median family income. It’s time to reinvest in Oregon’s colleges and universities!

Oregon Opportunity Grant

The Oregon Opportunity Grant is Oregon’s only need-based financial aid program for students. Last legislative session, students won an historical victory when the Grant was fully funded so that all eligible students could receive the Grant, including for the first time ever part-time students. OSA is asking the legislature to not take any steps backwards by increasing their funding for the Oregon Opportunity Grant to continue to serve all eligible full and part-time students.

OSA has also been working in a coalition to develop a long-term solution that will assist low-income, moderate income, and middle income Oregonians in attending college, or the Shared Responsibility Model. This innovative model provides an end point to the question of affordability.

ASPIRE

(Access to Student assistance Programs in Reach of Everyone)

ASPIRE is a unique program that matches high school students with volunteer mentors who give their students the tools they need to access a postsecondary education. This effort helps to bring those students underrepresented at Oregon’s colleges and universities-- low-income students, students of color, first generation students, and rural students-- to campus. ASPIRE has proved itself successful at bringing more students to college without a single dedicated dollar of state funds. OSA is asking the legislature to fund ASPIRE with $3.1 million so that the program can expand.

About OSCC

The Oregon Students of Color Coalition (OSCC) is a statewide coalition of students advocating for equal access to education by empowering students and strengthening communities of color. Students unite through activism and mentorship to provide resources and strategy development to students of color at all levels of education. OSCC is an affiliate of the Oregon Student's Association (OSA).

Oregon Students of Color Coalition (OSCC) joined OSA in 1997. Over the last decade, Oregon and other states have continued to grapple with attacks against programs benefiting students of color. In 1997, when administrators in Oregon proposed the elimination of the Underrepresented Minority Achievement Scholarship Program (UMASP), students from across the state came together to fight for students of color as a unified voice.

While the elimination of the UMASP was a single incident, continual attacks throughout the region on policies benefiting students of color, such as affirmative action, opened students to the realization that a strong dialogue and focused action on issues affecting students of color in Oregon’s post-secondary educational system was lacking. As a result, at the 1997 Northwest Student Leadership Conference, students formed the Oregon Students of Color Coalition.

Priority Issues

Representing over 100,000 students, in April 2006 the OSCC Student Board set its Priority Legislative Agenda for the 2007 Oregon legislative session. The decision came at the end of an eight-month process initiated in August 2006 when students began brainstorming and thinking critically about the issues that impact students’ ability to access and afford a quality postsecondary education. Upon returning to campus in the fall, students surveyed campuses across the state as to what issues were most important to Oregon students. Students then underwent a scrupulous process of research, dialogue, and debate to develop a comprehensive, winnable, and innovative package of legislative issues that will increase access to a quality postsecondary education for Oregon Students.

ASPIRE (Access to Student assistance Programs in Reach of Everyone)

ASPIRE is a unique program that matches high school students with volunteer mentors who give their students the tools they need to access a postsecondary education. This effort helps to bring those students underrepresented at Oregon’s colleges and universities-- low-income students, students of color, first generation students, and rural students-- to campus. ASPIRE has proved itself successful at bringing more students to college without a single dedicated dollar of state funds. OSA is asking the legislature to fund ASPIRE with $3.1 million so that the program can expand.

Tuition Equity

Recognizing that immigrant children have no control over their immigration status and deserve the same educational opportunities as other youth, Oregon and all other states invest in primary and secondary education for undocumented students. Many of these students overcome substantial barriers to excel in their studies and graduate from high school with dreams of going to college. However, after working hard to earn their high-school diplomas, they are effectively shut out of a postsecondary education because they do not qualify for in-state tuition rates and cannot afford to pay non-resident tuition. Pricing undocumented students out of college represents a lost opportunity for both the affected students and the state of Oregon. Many of the students have grown up in Oregon and have participated in our state’s education community for as long as they can remember. By denying them the chance to continue their studies in our state, Oregon loses promising students who would contribute to an educated workforce, a healthy economy and a repeating cycle of success.

Our state already recognizes the importance of investing in primary and secondary education for all of Oregon’s students, regardless of their immigration status. Oregon should continue investing in its students beyond high school by providing in-state tuition rates for all college-qualified graduates from Oregon high schools. Tuition equity would accomplish this goal by extending in-state tuition for high-school graduates who have attended an Oregon high school for at least three years, graduated or earned a GED, and shown that they are starting a process to gain residency. By allowing more hardworking and capable students to reach their educational potential, a tuition equity bill would ultimately provide economic returns to Oregon. An educated workforce is essential to economic health and growth. Further, college-degree holders earn up to 75 percent more than high-school graduates and thus provide increased contributions to the state economy.

Policies similar to the tuition equity proposal have already passed in California (2001), Washington (2003), Texas (2001), Utah (2002), New York (2002), Illinois (2003) and Oklahoma (2003). At least fourteen other states are considering proposals to expand educational access for undocumented students. Legislation has also been introduced at the federal level to address barriers to postsecondary education for undocumented immigrant students. Oregon has the opportunity to join other states in ensuring that all college-qualified students in Oregon have access to in-state tuition rates, regardless of immigration status. By enhancing access to college, tuition equity will benefit all Oregonians.