OSA structure under review
Portland State University Student Body President Ryan Soto is withholding over $100,000 of his school’s contribution to the Oregon Students Association until it agrees to add a general assembly with proportional representation. In the proposal, OSU would have seven members in the assembly, U of O six, PSU five and the other school would have one – it comes out to one rep per 2,500 full-time students. Specific duties of the assembly will be negotiated. Soto’s proposal says the assembly would choose the board members – there would still be two members from each school – recommend lobbying issues and perhaps set membership dues.
ASUO President and OSA Board of Directors Chairman Emily McLain is against the proposal, wanting to keep the coalition form of the OSA where everyone has the same voice – though I believe there is some sadistic hierarchy within the OSA works (any word on fight club lately?).
Soto said it’s not fair that PSU,
Oregon State University and the University of Oregon pay the majority of the total OSA dues but each of those three major institutions has the same amount of say as the smaller rural campuses that have far fewer students and provide less funding.
“We wanted to make sure we were looking at the model, trying to understand why we pay this much but we’re getting the same amount of voice that, say, Eastern (
Oregon University) does,” Soto said.
The OC’s position, of course, is to get rid of the OSA entirely. Students need to have a voice in legislature, I just believe it is wrong for one organization to monopolize the student voice. Take the Oregon Student Equal Rights Alliance, an OSA affiliate board, for example. How fair is it that
Representatives from both affiliate boards of OSA, the Oregon Students of Color Coalition and the Oregon Student Equal Rights Alliance, spoke at the meeting about problems they had with the proposal. They said they were concerned that they were not referenced in the proposal and not invited to the meeting where it was proposed.
Also those representatives questioned whether the general assembly membership, which would be appointed by each school’s student body president, would be made up of a diverse mix of people.
I’m going to talk to Soto over the weekend and should have an update on Monday.
I think you’ve got it backwards there, mate.
Yes, Ted, because money is the root of all evil, and the world will be better if we suck all the money out of everyone…in the name of the people?
Remember kids, leeches used to be considered a crucial tool of the healthcare profession… politics are just a few centuries behind the curve.
I find it disgusting that OSA is part of the exec budget. This is a clear conflict of interest as people like Brett impose a bias (their OSA salary) on fee paying students
Melinda Grier is a well-known bastion of truth, after all.
Also, son, you need to learn the difference between IS and SHOULD.
Luckily for the others I was “whispering” the same information to the students that the university’s general counsel was. What do you mean OSA is not suppose to be part of the Executive? The OSA board members for the UO are the ASUO Exec President and his/her rep. The OSA budget is part of the Exec’s. The organizer works out of the Exec’s office. If you’d like to get into a pissing contest, I’d be more than happy to. But let’s try to get our facts correct first, shall we?
OSA is such a waste of money, they are supposed to be objective and not really part of the Executive, but I clearly can recall numerous times when I was on Senate and had Brett Rowlett trying to whisper in my ear telling me what I should so while he was the nuetral OSA rep on campus. Luckily for him that year he had plenty of other people stupid enough to listen to him.
Hey Sakaki. I don’t work for OSA anymore. What’s your grip? You’re not even sure who to be pissed at, are ya? I love the OC blog!
Sean – Mostly snarled and tried to eat each other.
[…] President Emily McLain mentioned the Oregon Students Association during her presentation. […]
why does OSA get 100k from U of O to find out if college students want to fund higher ed? what a scam
Haha…I don’t know, what did the dinosaurs do?
The ASUO knocks on the table now? They been spending a lot of time around the forensics kids?
*ASUO knock on table*
Students should not be forced to fund lobbying efforts. Let them donate on their own if they want.
TIm: That may be a very good case against the OSA, though I’d bet the percentage that they keep up the state funding for UO is greater than the cost of the osa to students via the i fee. But I didn’t take issue with the OC’s stop-funding-it-cause-it’s-a-waste stance; I thought it was stupid that the OC seemed to be arguing in general against any sort of lobbying organizaiton that consolidates student (or any) voice.
Why is OSA still around? No one in the ASUO has any balls. Where’s Toby Piering when we need him??? People seem to dismiss OSA’s grip of this campus, and too many other things until they get blown open in the press. Where’s Parker Howell when we need him???
The OC as an institution proposes that off-campus organizations, especially those that don’t actually accomplish anything, ought not get huge piles of money.
The I-fee is, what, $600 a year, which comprises roughly 10% (these numbers are from memory so cut me some slack, it’s 1am central) of the total tuition and fees paid by an in-state student per year. So riddle me this, if it’s so vitally fucking important to lobby against a one or two percent tuition increase, why wouldn’t OSA also want to see a large reduction in a significant fee line-item? Gee…I wonder….
Also, is their budget still buried as a line-item in the Executive? When dinosaurs roamed the Earth and I was in school that’s how they kept it from going through an actual PFC process. Look, you want to reduce the cost of UO? Kill the $2MM or whatever it is for the ADFC and either persuade the Athletic Dept to donate the student tickets OR let the folks who want to go to games actually buy their own tickets. Cut out the money for OSA, OSPIRG, ASUO Executive, whatever. In fact, why not simply take the top 10 or top 20 I-fee expenses and reduce them all 50%? Hell, cut them to zero. Aside from the rec nobody will notice.
OSA helped me run for ASUO Exec; don’t get rid of them
My view is that the OC wants to get rid of the OSA because they are a waste of fucking money.
And I frankly wouldn’t mind seeing Brett Rowlett or some of the others involved tossed out on their asses, and beaten with reeds.
“The OC
Add Drew Cattermole to the list of ASUO Exec hopefuls as well …
add Justin Tandigan to the list of ASUO Exec hopefuls