Task force on underrepresented students releases report

Dec. 24—Lawmakers who visited Southern Oregon University and Rogue Community College this past summer to hear about experiences of underrepresented students have released their policy recommendations for the Legislature in its 2023 session.

The Joint Task Force on Student Success for Underrepresented Students in Higher Education, born out of House Bill 2590 in 2021, made site visits to Oregon's colleges, universities and community colleges from March to July this year before hunkering down in work groups to hash out recommendations based on what it had learned. The final report is dated Dec. 13.

"As a first-generation, low-income student, I know how life-changing post-secondary higher education can be for all people, especially our underrepresented students," Rep. Teresa Alonso Leon, D-Woodburn, wrote in a cover letter to House and Senate leadership. "I believe the work of our task force ... will have a positive impact and help transform our post-secondary education system to better serve our underrepresented students."

The task force's policy recommendations touched on financial aid, student support and wraparound services, as well as systematic accountability and continuous improvement.

Rep. Kim Wallan, R-Medford, who hopes to be on the House Education Committee next year, had a chance to review the report this week. In an interview, she said such a document is perfect for the long legislative session because it gives time for lawmakers to "dig into" substantive issues.

At the same time, she believes the task force's finished product is limited.

"It's really just telling that one facet of this story — 'housing is expensive'; 'food is expensive'; 'child care is expensive,'" Wallan said. "It doesn't examine any of the underlying causes of 'why is housing expensive?' 'Why is tuition expensive?' We just sort of act like it's an accident. We forget to look at policies passed by the Legislature ... that have made things expensive, that have not addressed root causes, that have really limited state funding for higher education for the long term."

To Wallan's point, the report contains a lot of paraphrases surrounding what the task force learned about student experiences, such as, "the cost of attendance at higher education institutions requires underrepresented students to make sacrifices not made by wealthier peers" or "dropping out of college can be one car repair bill or a couple of lost work shifts away."

But the report also shares numerous policy recommendations, including revising financial aid programs to accommodate working adults; making campus an "open and welcoming places" for students who don't have homes; and reviewing the "underfunded" state child care grant to help "meet the needs of the greatest number of student parents."

Other recommendations include making mental health services more available and affordable to students; improving outcomes for students with disabilities in higher education; hiring a diversity, equity and inclusion vice president; and renewing the focus on "recruiting diverse educators and staff and compensating them for labor that is currently unpaid."

"(The task force) was only meant to look at one piece of the puzzle," Wallan said. "This task force was partly (formed) to find out, 'what are the problems?' It wasn't meant to be a comprehensive audit of our higher education system that we need to tackle."

Wallan believes the task force report is "a jumping-off point" to solve issues surrounding underrepresented students in higher education.

"I can assure you that other stakeholders would be looking at faculty salaries or faculty housing costs and energy expenses," Wallan said. "So there are a lot of facets of the higher education system that have to be addressed, and barriers for underrepresented students is one component."

Taham Khosroabadi, a nontraditional, military-affairs and higher-education senator with SOU student government spoke at a task force town hall over the summer.

He reviewed the task force's report and was happy it recommended changes to pre-college mentorship, boosting work-study support and more benefit navigator positions.

"I think they did a good job, from the parts I read," said Khosroabadi, referring to the task force members and the report they compiled.

On what might happen next legislative session regarding underrepresented students, Khosroabadi believes lawmakers would "follow through with the work they put into (the task force)."

"Obviously, looking to the past to have a better idea is helpful in some situations. But because of the economic situation that we're in, we kind of have to look with new eyes," Khosroabadi said.

Jana Baker, a 2021 SOU alumna who is a student at Willamette College of Law, was one of a handful of students who made comments during the SOU town hall.

Baker read parts of the report and was particularly intrigued by a passage that suggested the Oregon Opportunity Grant — the state's largest state-funded, need-based grant program for college students — could be increased by the 2023-24 academic year.

"I thought that was pretty quick. I expected that would take longer, said Baker, who utilized the grant to attend Rogue Community College a few years after high school.

Overall, Baker was pleased with the task force's work.

"Ultimately, I think that they did a really good job hearing students and what we had to say," she said.

When asked how she wanted lawmakers to approach the issue of underrepresented students in the next legislative session, Baker invoked the legal term "prima facie," a court's first impression of a case.

"In case of appeals, they won't look at it like the court before looked at it; they look at it like a brand new case that has never been heard before," Baker said. "That's almost what I challenge the legislators to do: is to step out of what they think they know and to listen to what's actually going on. A lot of legislators throughout the state of Oregon, a lot of their constituents are underrepresented students."

Reach reporter Kevin Opsahl at 541-776-4476 or kopsahl@rosebudmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @KevJourno.