ASUCC Lobbies Against Grant Cuts

By Rena Bjerke · The Mainstream
Published Fubruary 22, 2012

The Oregon Opportunity Grant system may be set to receive 3.5 percent less than originally forecast, a deficit which would potentially cut 1,150 proposed grants. This would negatively impact students in need in our community.

The Oregon Community Colleges and Workforce Development system is also facing the same 3.5 percent holdback.  This money is essential to fund community colleges across the state. In fact, a lot of career and technical classes fall under this umbrella. 

A group of UCC students visited the state capitol on Monday, Feb. 13 to object. The five students met at the UCC campus and headed to Salem to lobby for needed changes in education funding overall.

At the capitol they were joined by other community college students from around Oregon as well as members of The Oregon Community College Students Association (OCCSA), which advocates for community college needs across the state.

Chris Harwood, ASUCC Vice President, was one of the students who participated.

“I believe that with about 1,400 signatures of solidarity for the OCCSA town hall meeting and hundreds of stories from students across the state, our collective voices rang like a Sunday morning church bell.  We may have changed a few minds, or at least planted the seeds of awareness,” said Harwood.

The best sign yet of progress in higher education funding is the likely passage of HB 4058, informally known as “The Textbook Bill.” The bill directs the Higher Education Coordinating Commission to convene a work group to study strategies for and make recommendations on reducing higher education textbook costs.  If adopted, the bill could make text books more affordable in most community colleges across the state of Oregon. 

“The fact that we may have changed a few minds on this issue is a testament to the power of the student voice!  Students are the ones who make the ultimate difference,” Harwood stated.

In March, OCCSA has another board meeting and members of the board will be updated on the status of the funding levels and will learn more about the possible adoption of HB 4058.

Carrie Palmer, a senator with ASUCC, also participated in the visit to the capitol. Palmer wanted to learn how the capitol ran and to learn more about theTimber Net Safety Act.

“Basically, our counties will disappear if we don’t start harvesting our greatest resource. We originally went up there to talk about money for schools, but, if we don’t start harvesting more timber locally there will be no more schools to fund,” said Palmer.

The group of UCC students met with Co-speaker of the House, Bruce Hanna, Oregon State Senator Floyd Prozanski and Oregon State Representative Tim Freeman, as well as other Oregon representatives.