The United States Student Association held one of its semi-annual board meetings at the University this weekend to nominate the legislation USSA will push for in the upcoming Congressional session.
USSA is a national advocacy organization that lobbies for student issues in Congress. This year, it received $10,000 in membership payments from ASUO student fees, and the ASUO budgeted a further $7,569 to register board members at meetings.
The University traditionally has a strong presence in USSA. Of the USSA’s 61-member Board of Directors, three are from the University – seniors and former ASUO officers Jory Card, Carina Miller and Chii-San SunOwen.
USSA employees ascribed the University’s prominence in USSA to the ASUO’s and student body’s tradition of political organizing.
“Because the campus is so big and because this is a college town we have the opportunity to organize and politicize (students),” USSA President Carmen Berkley said.
Berkley and USSA Field Director Bill Shiebler said the University also has a tradition of activism and has been involved in student legislative advocacy organizations since it began in the 1960s. Berkley also praised the quality of student leaders produced at the University.
“There’s this history that we’ve had with student leaders,” SunOwen said.
However, some on campus criticize USSA’s role. In particular, fiscal conservatives have decried the expense of travel for USSA board members. ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz pushed to eliminate money set aside for out-of-state travel next year. Former ASUO Chief of Staff Athan Papailiou accused SunOwen of “gouging students’ wallets” when she travels to USSA meetings.
“I’m disappointed (at) how, in the past, from what I’ve seen, that student leaders have obtained student money to advance their interests and build their resumes,” Papailiou said.
At its meeting, which took place in the Living Learning Center on Saturday through Monday, the USSA board designated two policies it will recommend the USSA lobby for. The USSA will decide whether to adopt those issues at its July 21 organizational congress, where representatives from USSA-member schools will vote on them.
In Eugene, the board recommended that USSA pursue advocacy on behalf of the federal DREAM Act, which allows students who are not legal residents to become U.S. citizens after going to college and enables states to pass tuition equity laws. The board also recommended that USSA push Congress to put more money toward financial aid and use the same procedures to allocate money for financial aid grants as it does federal Social Security and Medicare programs.
Miller said she also pushed the board to lobby against American Indian college athletic mascots, but that the board did not support putting the issue on its legislative agenda.
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