The ASUO Executive will submit a resolution in support of the Student Aid Fiscal Responsibility Act to Senate at its meeting this Wednesday.
The resolution gives three reasons students support the act: It would reconstruct student loans under a more cost-efficient and lender-friendly program that will save taxpayers $87 billion by ending bank subsidies; it would help more low-income students attend higher education institutions by increasing the Pell Grant; and it would improve degree attainment and thus, the future workforce.
ASUO Legislative Affairs Coordinator Robert Greene wrote the resolution with the help of the U.S. Student Association.
“The overall goal is to support and raise awareness for this federal bill that will have a drastic effect on students,” Greene said. “Students don’t usually have the means, meaning the time and money, so this is how we get stuff done.”
Greene’s favorite part of the proposed bill is that it would not initiate any new taxes — it is simply a reallocation of money.
“There are no new taxes, no new revenue, just funds coming from the private lending sector to the students,” he said.
Sen. Nick Schultz, who is one of the sponsors of the resolution along with Sen. Mercedes White Calf, said resolutions are important to the Senate because they are a chance to take a stand on an issue.
“It’s very important, the power of resolutions for Senate,” Schultz said. “In the past, there has been a perception that it’s a finance body — set the incidental fee and allocate budgets — that it’s the executive’s role for student issues,” he said. But it’s also “important for Senate to discuss these issues.”
Schultz said senators are an important factor in resolutions because they represent the
entire student body.
“It’s important to solicit input from senators, especially academic senators, who have a closer relationship with their constituents,” he said. “They have connections with students in a very unique way.”
The intent of the resolution is for students to urge U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) and Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) to vote for this legislation and for Congress to pass the act.
In terms of what the act does, Schultz said the changes to the Pell Grant are the most important component of the resolution’s changes to the cost of higher education.
“It is applied to so many students on a need-based aid — that’s the key,” he said. “A high school education doesn’t cut it anymore, and an associate’s degree doesn’t give very much job security. When talking about education, the first thing that comes to mind is the barriers, and this act takes a lot of initiative to do anything and everything possible to make it so that education is affordable and reasonable.”
Schultz said he will also write a resolution to show student support of the removal of the Pacifica Forum from campus, and he is the sponsor of a resolution supporting the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act. Both resolutions will be ready to present at next week’s Senate meeting.
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