I am an undergraduate from California.  Although I do not receive the Western Undergraduate Exchange Scholarship — which would allow me to pay 150 percent of in-state tuition at the University instead of full out-of-state tuition — I do have the ability to get the WUE when I apply.
Talented and successful students who have grown up in Oregon don’t have the same option to find affordable tuition as I do as a Californian.  I have not lived in Oregon until a couple of days before I started at the University of Oregon, and I pay out-of-state tuition. But students who have lived in Oregon almost their whole lives, done well in school, graduate and are accepted to an Oregon university also must pay out-of-state tuition simply because of their documentation status. I believe that this is unfair, wasting the investment this state has made in students in Oregon’s K-12 system and hurting Oregon’s workforce.
I support SB 742, and I encourage my elected representatives in Oregon to do the same.  SB 742 deserves to be put to a vote.
Joanna Stewart
University student
@@http://www.wiche.edu/wue@