Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, Oregon’s two U.S. senators, spoke with almost two dozen students Monday as they kicked off their College Affordability Listening Tour with a meeting on campus.
Audience members, from both the UO and Lane Community College, represented student groups that typically struggle with college affordability, including transfer students and Pell Grant recipients. The purpose of the listening session was to open a dialogue with current students about legislative efforts to make higher education less expensive.
“Students are getting hit by a wrecking ball when it comes to paying for education,” said Wyden, ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee and alumnus of the UO School of Law. “Our goal is to have Oregon out in front on this debate.”
Like many of the students in attendance, Merkley, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, was the first member of his family to attend college. He too expressed concern about rising tuition during the one-hour session.
In addition to college costs, students also shared concerns about debt and the uncertain job market. Several students talked about the lack of information on financial aid options available at high schools, showing that even when resources exist they are not always communicated to college-bound students or their families.
“How can students be informed earlier, and how can scholarship information be made available?” asked Haley Scott, a sophomore at the UO who gets financial aid through PathwayOregon.
UO student Melinda Burgett said the information gap is especially true in communities with small populations, where a graduating high school class may be as small as 14 and resources such as guidance counselors are unavailable.
Others raised concerns about the changing college aid landscape. ASUO President Helena Schlegel asked about the future of federal financial aid packages following the sunset of the Perkins student loan program earlier this year.
Ashley Jackson, president of the Associated Students of LCC, also discussed how current measures to address the financial needs of college students ignore community college students, who often take fewer than 12 credits per term and tend to take a longer time to complete their studies.
—By Laura McGinnis, Public Affairs Communications