The Office of Student Legislative Affairs at Bellevue College has begun the hiring process for the position on Legislative Director. OSLA is responsible for taking students concerns and addressing them through lobbying on campus, on a city, county level and national level
The OLSA Legislative Director must advocate on behalf of the students of Bellevue College, represent the students in Olympia throughout the legislative session, as well as develop and implement an annual legislative agenda and guiding principles.
At the end of the last academic year, two of the three OSLA positions were filled, however the Legislative Director Position remained vacant. “We had a small application pool and of that pool one person did not meet the minimum qualification requirements and one person did not show up to their interview,” said Brandon Lueken, Program Coordinator and Advisor to OSLA.
To compensate for the open position, the hours for the two other jobs were bumped up from 10 to 20. They decided to leave the position open. “The school year was going to start and we were going to figure out where OSLA was going to sit,” said Lueken. As the school year started, however, “it became apparent that we still really needed a Legislative Director position.”
“OSLA does not want to wait any longer because the legislative position is important. This person would be the voice of Bellevue College and the bridge between students and representatives in Olympia,” said Community Relations Coordinator Joy Hoang.
Without the presence of a Legislative Director, it became hard to do what was needed of OSLA.
“What OSLA needs to focus on and what Joy and Shawn are doing is campus partnerships and advocacy on campus, but we have an obligation to help represent students out in the world,” said Lueken. “Traditionally what we’ve done is help represent local issues, we’ve helped represent at city hall and around the county, as well as state issues in Olympia. It is still important work and the legislative director spear heads all of that work and makes outside relationships.”
There is also a change this year to the position. The hired legislative director no longer has to live in Olympia. Now, the budget that was spent on rent and utilities will go towards transportation and travel expense. “In the past students have struggled with fulfilling their credit requirements while in Olympia and I didn’t want to keep putting student into that position,” said Lueken.Applications are available in Student Programs, due by Oct. 22, 2013 by 5 p.m.