ASUO’s student outreach committee, one of the senate’s three new internal committees this fall, is taking center stage four days out from the election. Like the food security and Black Lives Matter committees, the group is working towards creating actionable change in the University of Oregon community, with emphasis on increasing ASUO’s accessibility and fostering civic engagement.

“We want to inform students about what ASUO is and what we do,” said Ginni Gallagher, a member of the committee. Gallagher said she didn’t know what ASUO was at the beginning her college experience, and only got involved after receiving an email from them. 

“We see that as being a big issue, since we are a group for the students,” she said.

Although the executive branch is taking its own steps towards student engagement, committee chair Noah Savage hopes the two groups can coordinate in a productive way. He doesn’t want the senate’s engagement committee to just be just a weaker version of what the executive branch is doing. He feels they’ve been successful in this so far. 

“If they’re working on a project, we’re at their disposal to help,” he said. However, Savage also pointed to the fact that the senate has their own projects they hope to take on this year.

With outreach limited to virtual platforms, the first order of business was launching an Instagram account for the ASUO senate and utilizing it to break down the different parts of ASUO’s legislative branch. “Using the online platform is the best way to put it out there,” said Kriti Ganguly, a member of the committee. “Every single group and club have made Instagrams, which just makes it way more accessible to students.” 

The group also hopes to collaborate with the executive branch’s student outreach team to create a video on ASUO that incoming students will watch as part of IntroDUCKtion. 

The committee’s efforts don’t stop there. “It’s not just giving students more access to our student government,” said Savage, “but also bigger, real government.”

To further this second goal, members of the committee have tabled across the street from the EMU the week of Oct. 26, offering “I voted” stickers to people dropping off their ballots on campus.

The student engagement committee’s plans to encourage civic engagement only continue from there. “I think it’s important that we, as students, are connected in other ways besides just casting the ballot,” said student outreach committee member Ella Meloy, “especially in the state elections.”

Meloy said a number of ASUO’s senators have some form of legal training — either through interning for the Oregon Student Association or elsewhere. She personally has trained people in lobbying and writing testimony to present to legislators. Meloy sees herself as a resource for students looking to build those skills themselves. 

“I think it’s really important that we, as student leaders at ASUO, are using that training for things like going to the state Capitol if it’s COVID-safe,” she said.

Beyond offering skills broadly, Meloy said she was interested in providing resources to student groups that do advocacy work. “Do you need this type of training?” she asked. “We can get you this type of training, because we’re connected with OSA, or we’re connected with ASUO. You need to know how you can get people vans and busses to wherever to go lobby? We’ll help you with that or provide resources.”