Oregon Student Association

Oregon Student Association

Founded	1975
Type	Student organization
Focus	Making Oregon higher education more affordable and accessible.
Headquarters	Portland, Oregon
Members	88,000
Executive Director	Joseph Cruz
Employees	3
Website	www.orstudents.org

The Oregon Student Association (OSA), a non-profit organization, was established in 1975 to represent, serve and protect the collective interests of students in post-secondary education in the U.S. state of Oregon.^[1]

OSA focuses on issues such as tuition, financial aid, and student rights.^[2] OSA also provides a collective voice for students in state government, public universities overseen by the Higher Education Coordinating Commission, and other state boards and commissions.

Operations

The Oregon Student Association currently consists of three governing boards and two programs.

The governing boards are:

• The Board of Governors - contains student body presidents and their designees.
• The Oregon Students of Color Coalition (OSCC) - contains two members from each campus representing students of color.
• The Oregon Students Equal Rights Alliance (OSERA) - contains two members from each campus representing LGBT students.

These three boards meet at the end of each academic term as the General Assembly. The General Assembly is the main decision-making body of the Oregon Student Association. From the GA, a small group of students is elected to be the Executive Committee which is responsible for the day-to-day leadership of OSA.

The two programs are:

• Council of Legislative Advocates (COLA) - one student from each campus is hired as an intern legislative advocate. These students are the principal lobbyists for OSA.
• Student Organizer Coalition (SOC) - one student from each campus is hired as an intern campus organizer. These students manage on-campus organizing for OSA.

Member schools

There are currently five member institutions of the Oregon Student Association. Each of OSA's three boards (The Board of Governors, The Oregon Students of Color Coalition, and the Oregon Student Equal Rights Alliance) consist of two student voting members from each fee-paying member campus:

• Lane Community College - Associated Students of Lane Community College (ASLCC)
• University of Oregon - Associated Students of the University of Oregon (ASUO)^[3]
• Southern Oregon University - Associated Students of Southern Oregon University (ASSOU)
• Oregon State University - Associated Students of Oregon State University (ASOSU)
• Portland State University - Associated Students of Portland State University (ASPSU)

Legislative agenda

The OSA supports House Bill 4163 in the 82nd Oregon Legislative Assembly, require the Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission to establish a grant program to expand the scope and community reach of college access and success programs.

See also

• United States Student Association

References

1. Vanguard Portland State University Archived 2008-03-09 at the Wayback Machine"OSA lobbies for student issues every other year to the Oregon legislature. It was heralded in 2007 for helping to bring hundreds of millions of dollars more in higher education funding to Oregon."
2. Students should use Oregon Opportunity Archived 2015-12-22 at the Wayback Machine Daily Astorian 2008-02-28 retrieved 2008-03-08
3. "Student Leadership".

External links

• As Support Lags, Colleges Tack on Student Fees New York Times article covers OSA lobbying legislature on behalf of students.