On August 7, 2014, two members of the Associated Student Government, President Melantha Jenkins and Vice President of External Legislative Affairs Teague Crenshaw, joined other student governments across Washington and Oregon on a call with Kyle Lierman, White House Liaison to Young Americans, and Andy MacCracken, National Campus Leadership Council. The 30 minute call aimed to address the issues of college affordability and sexual assault prevention.
A ranking system is expected to be put in place early 2015. This process has already begun. Ranking will in large part look at affordability as well as value, the relationship between what you put in and what you get out. The hosts made a point to convey that that they did not want to profit off of students’ backs anymore.
Additionally, a national version of the local ‘Pay It Forward’ bill was discussed referring to it as ‘pay as you earn.’ Payments on loans would cap off at 10% of monthly income. After 10 years in the public sector of 20 years in the private sector, the loans would be forgiven.
According to Joy Hoang, former member of BC’s Office of Student Legislative affairs, who was also on the call, “Obama has been working closely with Secretary Duncan at the Department of Education to help find solutions regarding student debt and college affordability.” Notalone.gov has been launched to provide “information for students, schools, and anyone interested in finding resources on how to respond to and prevent sexual assault on college and university campuses and in our schools,” according to their website. Crenshaw points out that this is unique in that it teaches on prevention for bystanders in addition to victims.
In a continuation of efforts seen in the most recent version of the Violence Against Women Act and the SaVe act, numerous cases have been investigated. The call attempted to unify student representatives on the issue, informing them of a program called ‘It’s Not Enough’. The program has a student segment called ‘it’s on us’. The name is not intended to shift accountability away from administrators and on to students but rather to create more support within communities and hopefully even enable students to help administrators, according to Crenshaw. A website will be launched to accompany the program and its segments as of September.