02/22/2022
The Oregon Senate Education Committee will be holding a virtual meeting TOMORROW (2/22) at 1 PM to hear testimony on the state’s public university governance systems. Largely, this is a result of the pressure that and other organizations have placed on the legislature to restructure and dismantle the Board of Trustees system to replace it with a democratically elected board structure that consists of students, faculty, staff, and community members. 💯💯💯
Recently, the Senate Education Committee hired consultants who were tasked with commissioning a report reviewing the current Board of Trustees system. Unfortunately, the report is largely dismissive to calls for a democratic board and the true needs of students, faculty, and staff. For example, the report states, “…at one institution there appeared to be an organized effort to promote a different way of selecting board members which would involve election of trustees by the faculty, staff, and students. Such a process does not exist anywhere in the nation, and it ignores the fact that trustees individually and collectively represent Oregon’s citizens and the public good rather than specific constituencies.” This is just one example of the bias and dismissive language of the report. We know that the current board structure does not represent Oregon’s citizens OR the public good. 🤬
Tomorrow, we are asking you all to show up to say: 1) this report is dismissive and bias, 2) a democratic board IS possible, and 3) we need more meaningful engagement from the legislature around restructuring our public university governance systems.
Click the link in our bio for a registration link to testify, a link to the embarrassing report, and a link for a template to testify from the Oregon Student Association. Stay tuned to our story for additional talking points and feel free to DM us if you have any questions. See you there! 🗣🗣🗣
Link: www.linktree.com/reclaimuo
