ASUO President Adam Petkun has been selected to head the Oregon Student Association — a statewide organization that lobbies for easier student access to higher education — as the 2004-05 board chair of its board of directors.
The board, which comprises representatives from Oregon’s seven public universities, Lane Community College and the Oregon Health and Science University, oversees the OSA’s legislative agenda and paid staff.
Last year, the ASUO spent approximately $90,000 of student money to maintain its membership in the organization. The OSA uses this money to fund its paid staff, which works with student members on lobbying for higher education issues, Petkun said.
As board chair, Petkun said he will primarily work to foster communication within the board of directors, and also between board members and the organization’s full-time staff.
“(My goal is) to do a good job of facilitating communication between board members because you have a lot of members coming from different campuses. And it’s important … that we realize that we have so many common needs on our campuses, especially related to things that we address at the state Legislature, like the costs of education, that we can unite behind the Oregon Student Association, but at the same time stay true to our constituencies.”
He will also act as chairman of monthly board meetings and give testimony before the Oregon Legislature as it enters its 73rd session this winter. Petkun said his duties as board chair will not overload his schedule because he had planned to be involved with the OSA regardless of his position.
“I’ll be the primary person for delivering testimony often at legislative hearings and then also at State Board of Higher Education meetings,” Petkun said. “At the same time, though, we always have lots of other students testify as well, especially students who are most affected by a specific issue.”
Petkun said he was honored to be elected by the board.
“I was hopeful,” Petkun said. “It was something I’ve been thinking about for a long time because state legislative work and advocacy for students is so important to our administration.”
Petkun said his position will allow him to represent students beyond the University.
“A lot of people think that these are issues that students can’t have an impact on,” Petkun said. “When Mena and I were running for office, there were people who said that students couldn’t make a difference at the statewide level, but it’s definitely not true. The list of victories that students have made through OSA is outrageously long.”
Kristen Downey, president of the Associated Students of Oregon State University, was one of the board members who nominated Petkun for the board chair position. Downey said Petkun has a clear vision for representing students and will lead the OSA to “concrete victories” on student issues.
“He’s the strongest leader in the State of Oregon right now,” Downey said. “We’re a strong student organization poised for victory, and Adam is going to lead us to it.”
Ben Sappington, president of Associated Students of Western Oregon University, also nominated Petkun. Sappington said Petkun clearly understands the board’s mission.
“He’s going to be an effective leader, and he will take the board where it needs to be and do great things for Oregon students,” he said. Petkun said the OSA will be working on several key issues during the upcoming legislative session. First, the organization will ask state leaders to allocate more funds for higher education.
“State funding of higher education has been plummeting over the last decade, while tuition has done exactly the opposite, so we’re going to be working toward the budget hopefully investing in higher education,” Petkun said. “Actually, our goal and our task is to invest an additional five million dollars over the current service-level budget for student tuition…for the next two school years.”
Petkun said OSA will also promote the Student Child Care Program, which helps cover the cost of childcare for students with children, because that cost can prevent these students from accessing higher education.
“It’s a huge barrier for them because it’s so expensive,” Petkun said.
Increasing Oregon’s need-based financial aid is another priority this year, Petkun said.
“The state has not been investing enough, either, over the last few years,” Petkun said. “Right now, it covers 11 percent of the cost of education, and about 70 percent of students who are eligible for the grant actually receive it, and so our goal over the next legislative session is to see that 100 percent of eligible students are getting the grant.”
The OSA will work with the Oregon Students of Color Coalition to push for undocumented students who have met certain criteria to
receive in-state tuition.
Petkun added that the OSA will address other higher education issues as necessary.
Petkun said students can get involved with advocating for higher education by helping with the Student Vote Coalition’s voter-registration drive.
“The most important thing, if we want to have strong victories once the legislature opens, is to get students registered to vote in a non-partisan manner,” he said.
Petkun said students can participate in lobbying trips to Salem beginning winter term.
OSA Executive Director John Wykoff said Petkun, who was in involved with OSA during the last legislative session, brings skill and experience to the table.
“I suspect that what a lot of folks were looking at was Adam’s legislative experience as we enter a legislative session, and one that will be tricky,” Wykoff said.

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