ASOSU tackles ‘ADA Act’ for final time

The last stage of the “ADA Act” was to be put up for vote by the House or move to a conference committee to re-word or amend the piece of legislation. The House recognized the bill for a second reading and after limited questioning was passed with only one abstention.

President Amelia Harris is now set up to sign the bill. The “ADA Act” will be an official stance against the lack of action by the university to comply with federal ADA regulations regarding external and internal violations of campus building.

Speaker of the House Jacob Vandever had multiple comments regarding future actions of ASOSU and his ideas for upcoming projects. Vandever announced the “Wear the Square” campaign to the House, explaining the purpose of the new-on-campus movement.

“‘Wear the Square’ is a symbol to show that we are fed up with current tuition rates,” Vandever said. He went on to explain the unsustainable tuition increases that have already occurred here on campus.

Vandever also announced his plans for creating a student bill of rights for OSU, a project that will likely take him through the end of his term. He will be examining student bills of rights from other universities and brainstorm with university administration.

“[The student bill of rights] codifies agreements between students and the university, on what we believe our rights are,” Vandever said.

Vandever is hopeful to get this project done this year saying that there are still two terms left and he would like to see it make it through ASOSU.

President Harris reminded the ASOSU representatives to contact her for information regarding lobby visits to close out the meeting. Harris and other members of ASOSU were in the capitol earlier today speaking with Representative Peter Buckley. According to Harris, Buckley was happy to speak with students about future state budgetary decisions regarding higher education.

After the meeting, members of the ways and means committee attempted to hold a meeting of their own. However, after realizing an oversight in Oregon public meeting law which requires a 24-hour posting of any meetings by a governing body making budgetary decisions, the chairs of the committee decided to postpone.

Representative Karli Olsen, who is also a co-chairwoman of the ways and means committee, brought the information to the attention of other members and apologized for the inconvenience. Questions brought up by Representatives Nick Rosoff and Saul Boulanger regarding the time-sensitive material to be discussed were heard, but the decision to postpone was upheld.

Ricky Zipp, news reporter
news@dailybarometer.com