PSU student government representatives are asking that the Oregon Student Association alter its internal processes so that larger schools, such as Portland State, will have greater voting power than smaller schools. The proposal has been met with some criticism.
PSU student body President Rudy Soto and his senior policy adviser Ryan Klute presented the proposal to the Oregon Student Association last week. If OSA accepts the proposal, it will add a new board to the organization, called a general assembly.
The new board would alter the power structure of OSA by giving more votes–votes that decide how OSA will set membership dues, pick which issues to lobby to the state, and elect officers to the OSA board of directors–to larger schools. It would give votes to schools based on enrollment: One vote would go to a school for every 2,500 full-time students enrolled.
OSA members have responded negatively to the proposal, Klute said.
OSA board chair and president of the Associated Students of University of Oregon, Emily McLain, said she disagrees with the proposal because it would give too much power to larger schools.
“At this point, if you were to base it on population, then PSU, U of O and OSU would be able to dominate the conversation,” she said. “It’s not that we really lose anything anyway.”
OSA works primarily as a lobbyist group to the legislature for student interests in the state and is almost entirely funded by student fees. OSA is a part of the United States Student Association, and similar organizations to OSA work under the USSA in states all around the country.
In the proposal, the new board would not replace the existing OSA board, which is currently made up of two students from each school in the state, but work alongside it. The general assembly would meet once a year and be filled with student members who represent the population of their school.
“It’s a more equitable model to serve all students in Oregon and it’s long overdue,” said Klute, who is also the vice chair of the board of directors.
There are 14 members on the current board of directors. The new general assembly board would have 41 members, nine of whom would be PSU students.
PSU pays significantly more dollars in dues to OSA than schools such as Eastern Oregon University, Klute said, but smaller schools currently have the same number of votes and equal voice.
The OSA board will meet again and discuss the proposal at next month’s meeting, but McLain said she doesn’t think it will be successful because of disagreeing views from other OSA board members.
Klute said he thinks there is a misunderstanding about the proposal.
“I think that people think that this is a power grab, which it is not,” Klute said.
[Editor’s note: Ryan Klute writes a column for the Vanguard‘s Arts and Culture section.]