SALEM — A group of approximately 25 University students expecting to influence state legislators on the Oregon University System budget Wednesday will have to make another trip to Salem to accomplish their goal.
The University students, along with students from Portland State University, Southern Oregon University and Western Oregon University, traveled to the Capitol to show their support for higher education funding. The OUS budget is facing cuts that will likely lead to an 8 percent tuition increase over the next two years.
Five students, including ASUO President Jay Breslow, were scheduled to speak before Oregon legislators on the Ways and Means Education Subcommittee.
But the legislators only had time during the two-hour hearing to listen to testimony from one college student — the vice president of the student body at Southern Oregon University, Erin Watari.
During a March 29 legislative work session geared toward discussing the budget, legislators directed questions about the student incidental fee to Breslow. It was those concerns Breslow said he wanted to address Wednesday, but wasn’t given the time to speak.
Breslow said he has three “guiding fundamental principles” about incidental fee distribution that he plans to speak about when given the opportunity, which could come Monday. He said the fee provides for a marketplace of ideas, is an integral part of the mission statement of the University, and supports campus democracy.
“The incidental fee is a small, localized democracy,” Breslow said. “We just want to maintain local control.”
But Breslow said students will still have the opportunity Monday to voice their concerns about the budget.
“There are a lot of people who care about the issues, and everyone will probably get their chance to talk,” he said.
Sen. Cliff Trow, (D-Corvallis), said although members of the college panel did not get a chance to speak this time, he was glad to hear they would be coming back today and Monday to participate in and listen to the proceedings. Thursday and Monday are work sessions for the committee, and the first hour of Monday’s session has been set aside for all those who wished to speak Wednesday but were unable.
“I think [Wednesday’s hearing] would have been enriched to hear from the students,” Trow said. “They are important customers to what we do.”
Some of the students and University representatives who attended Wednesday’s hearings expressed frustration that the panel did not have the chance to speak.
“It certainly should have been [Wednesday], but they would have rather heard from businessmen instead of the people who are actually benefiting from funds that they are allocating,” Multicultural Center Director Erica Fuller said.
But University student Matt Swanson said even though the panel of college students did not have a chance to speak, the number of students at the hearing did make an impression. The hearing room was so full that many students were forced to wait outside, and Swanson said such a showing validated the issues the students wanted to address.
While the majority of higher education students did not speak to the committee, the legislators did hear from a student panel consisting mostly of middle school and high school students. MEChA Director Eddy Morales said he was impressed by the content of that panel, because it was important for the legislators to hear the voices of younger generations.
“We shouldn’t only be worried about us in our short-term effects,” Morales said. “But we should be worried about our long-term effects.”
Morales said he is still motivated enough to return for Monday’s session.
Andy High, the student body president at Western Oregon University, said he was surprised to see so many business leaders testify, but he stressed that the hearing isn’t over yet.
“I am excited that they extended it to Monday because then they can actually hear about what students have to say,” High said.
And while Wednesday’s meeting was in part intended to allow students the chance to voice their opinions on the OUS budget, it was also for business leaders, concerned citizens, and any other students who wanted to speak about the budget. With the exception of Watari, the two-hour period was filled with testimony by such parties.
ASUO State Affairs Coordinator Brian Tanner said despite Wednesday’s college panel “shut-out” and the initial disappointed reaction, students will still have a chance to affect the legislators.
“We got a dose of the reality of how politics work,” Tanner said.