The Student Voice Bill task force heard testimony from staff and students at Oregon colleges about financial obstacles to higher education as part of a May 19 hearing held over Zoom.

The Student Voice Bill is a result of HB 2590, which passed in summer of 2021. The bill formed a legislative task force with the goal of visiting community colleges and four-year public universities in Oregon to hear testimony from underrepresented students. The members will then form work groups to write policy which will be voted on in the 2023 session, according to task force chairperson and Oregon state representative Teresa Alonso León.

The session began with a presentation on wealth inequality and student debt by Louise Seamster, assistant professor in sociology, criminology and African-American studies at the University of Iowa. She said student debt means education often does not lead to wealth, especially for racially diverse groups.d

“Black households whose head has a college degree hold only two-thirds the wealth of white households whose head did not finish high school,” Seamster said during her presentation.

The presentation by Ben Cannon, executive director of the Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission, focused on the failure of state financial aid to keep up with the rising costs of higher education. 

“Oregon is a low grant funding state,” Cannon said. Oregon state financial aid was $575 per student in 2021, which is almost half the national average of $921.

The task force heard presentations from faculty members at Southern Oregon University and Portland State University. 

Juanita Dominguez, a UO senior, offered her personal testimony to the task force. 

“The day after the UO admissions rep came to my highschool I wanted to barf,” Dominguez said. “I knew I wanted to go to college, but I didn’t think it would cost as much as it did.”
She talked about barriers to higher education as a first generation Latinx student, including the stress of taking out student loans while working close to 30 hours a week in order to afford her education. 

Dominguez said state and federal investment into higher education is important to help underrepresented students who must overcome financial obstacles. 

“I would not be celebrating this accomplishment with my friends and family if it had not been for the fact that I am also a Pell Grant and Oregon Opportunity Grant recipient,” Dominguez said.
The task force also received written testimony submitted by students and faculty and provided by the Oregon Student Association, which has worked with the task force since the bill’s creation.

OSA and the Student Voice Bill task force have already conducted campus visits at many public universities, including the University of Oregon. 

The task force will meet three more times in July to hear student testimony and discuss barriers to higher education for underrepresented students.