ASG leaders to lobby in Salem for student rights

On Feb. 12, Associated Student Government leaders from MHCC will take a bus along with 50 people down to Salem to lobby for the school’s state funding and to increase personal identification options.

Skye Troy, ASG director of state and federal affairs, attended an Oregon Community College Student Association statewide board that supports the advocacy of community colleges.

In a survey taken last year, about 30,000 students from colleges all over Oregon were asked to rank their top ten issues with college life. Troy said the results were similar across the state. Six subjects stood out among the bunch: affordability, public safety, LGBTQA data collection, public safety reform, cultural competency, and sexual assault.

One bill in particular that students will advocate for deals specifically with cultural competence. “This will be centered around getting open communications between colleges and universities,” said Troy.

Another bill they will be pressing is the LGBTQA data collection bill. This would give the option for students and staff to identify sexual orientation on forms used by institutions to collect demographic data. The measure “gives students the right to be called what they want to be called,” said Troy meaning, it would allow students to decide upon a preferred first name, if the name they currently use is no longer desired, going along with the preferred first name policy.

She said this bill doesn’t just apply to LQBTQA members. “This is just for any demographic (individual) who wants to have a different name than their parents gave them,” she said. “With this kind of data information we (campus leadership) can better understand who it is we are serving and how we serve them better.”

The biggest subject that will be breached Feb. 12 is the topic of affordability. According to Troy, $560 million has been put in the annual state budget for Oregon’s community colleges. This is more than the schools got last year, but still not enough to allow MHCC to avoid tuition increases, she said.

There is still work to be done, and community college supporters have much to do on their own campuses, Troy said.

“We (lobbyists) already have a lot of bills for these kinds of issues,” but “there’s no execution, no enforcement, just words,” she said. “We really need to take these bills apply them to our schools and make this a reality for us.”