Office of Student Legislative Affairs or more commonly known as OSLA is the legislative branch of the Associated Student Government (ASG).
The OSLA lobbies students’ rights, such as financial aid, tuition fees, work study program and others. As we all know, the new school year is just around the corner and it is time to introduce some of the many new faces in the Student Programs and some of their plans for the upcoming year.
Thuy Ngoc Pham is the new Organizing Director of OSLA. Pham is dedicated to helping students so she volunteered at various different opportunities before applying for a director position at OSLA.
She has been volunteering for the Peer2Peer program, International Student Association (ISA) program, Bellevue College UNICEF and many others. Pham wanted to devote more time and play a bigger role in helping students and others in need so she applied to become the Organizing Director of OSLA. Her position requires her to research the problems students face at school and work on improving the problem through working together with her partner.
Kristin Velez is the new Legislative Director of OSLA. Together with Pham, Velez joins the OSLA director team and works together to improve students’ lives. Velez’s position requires her to deal with the problems outside campus, in Olympia, lobbying about problems students face.
This summer, the OSLA officers are preparing for big events that will take place during the next school year. The first task OSLA officers have to do is to find out students’ needs through conducting a survey. The survey is planned to be held at the beginning of fall quarter as it will contain questionnaires that will figure out what students need and hope for.
The student survey is conducted every year by both ASG and OSLA to figure out what is the most concerned problem students face.
Aside from the student survey, OSLA is also planning to invite as many students as possible to register to vote for the 2012 presidential election. OSLA is targeting a minimum number of 1000 students to register to vote through them. “I am positive that we can accomplish it but in order to achieve that goal, we will need the help of ASG, clubs, and programs,” said Pham.
OSLA plays an important role in students’ lives at school. Because one of the student surveys that was conducted several years ago showed that students want a student representative on the school board, the Student Trustee bill was created and passed last year to ensure that the students will have a voice on the board.
One of the goals Pham set for OSLA this year is to increase its awareness. Pham claimed, “OSLA is fighting for students but most students don’t even know they have a representative.” According to her, the more OSLA is connected to the students, the more precisely they can represent students at a state level.
Each year, OSLA invites students to go to Olympia to rally about issues that students face.
According to Pham, bringing more students to rally next year is one of her goals set for OSLA.
To know more about OSLA and to volunteer or be notified when students are able to join the rally in Olympia, students can e-mail Ms. Pham at oslaorgdir@bellevuecollege.edu or check out their Facebook page by typing: Office of Student Legislative (OSLA) at Bellevue College.