Coming to the Table

On Tuesday, 10 UO students went to Salem and testified about concerns about funding the bonds to build a new arena. That might not seem like a huge deal but let me give you the details. We found out that we could testify at about 11:30. I got the voice mail at noon and was in the office by 12:45. From there, 6 of us frantically typed testimony, called students who cared about the issue, and managed to organize by 1:30. At this point, I ran to my car as did Senate Ombudswoman Kate Jones. We were on the road with full cars by 1:30 and in the capital by 3.  This might seem like a lot of time but to organize students in the middle of the day and create cohesive messages that are intelligent and persuasive is pretty much a challenge if you have a day. We had a little under two hours. Our representative from the Oregon Student Association met us and I began to organize us. We revisited our messages, prioritized them, and began made sure we were one unified group while Tami, the executive director for OSA, secured our names on the list and we filed into testify before the joint committee on Ways and Means for the Oregon Senate and House.Ten students sat together in school clothes with written testimony in a room of politicians, aids, and reporters. We stuck out but it made a statement. I was the first to testify which was more than nerve racking but a better learning experience than anything I’ve gotten in a lecture hall or discussion section in the past four years.In the end, we were only able to sway two votes. One of those votes was directly influenced by student testimony which is more than we could have asked for. Most of all, we just wanted to be included in a discussion about our fees. 

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