It’s morning in Corvallis and as the sun rises over Oregon State University, more students will go to classes than ever before in the university’s history. It is in between this hustle and bustle, the meetings, the classes, the organizing and the studying, that we find the Vice President of the student government Zachary Kowash.
The position of vice president for the Associated Students of Oregon State University rests between the duties of the legislative branch — more specifically, the Senate — and the duties of the executive branch.
“In my executive branch role, I assist Audrey (Schlotter, ASOSU President) with leading the executive branch and completing the initiatives that we ran on along with providing support and leadership to our executive cabinet, and being able to complete initiatives that they came here for as well,” said Kowash.
In his position in the legislative branch, Kowash acts as the president of the Senate and is the head of the legislative branch. As such, he is the face of the Senate to the rest of the university and to the shared stakeholders in the ASOSU’s shared governance model.
Kowash is the overall organization piece of the Senate, from setting agendas to directing meetings.
“In my role, I have to remain impartial as the chair, not leaning one way or another on a piece of legislation, a bill or a resolution,” said Kowash.
The only time in which the enumerated powers of the chair grant the vice president partiality is if or when the Senate comes down to a split decision on a piece of legislation. In that case, Kowash would become the tie-breaker.
Though Kowash’s position as the ASOSU vice president is relatively new, his experience in leadership is quite the opposite.
“I started off my leadership in Greek life and I did a lot of that. I started to expand out into agriculture and research and do leadership there in the College of (Agriculture),” Kowash said.
“Then it was kinda just a funny happenstance, I ended up running for (The Interfraternity Council), not getting that but Leslie Schacht Drey, the associate dean of student (belonging), she said ‘I think you should stay in student leadership.’” Kowash continued, “She gave my phone number to Carissa (O’Donnell, former ASOSU President) and said ‘Hey Carissa if you have anyone who wants to run, talk to Zach,’ and that’s how I met (Schlotter) and we hit it off instantly.”
Kowash got his start in agriculture during his youth, growing up in southern Oregon. “I grew up … in a pretty rural area, my high school had a farm on it so I did (Future Farmers of America), raised animals and all that fun stuff. So combining agriculture and chemistry was a big thing, those are my two interests, and so I found that in the College of Ag’ through toxicology,” said Kowash.
As for the 84th Senate, Kowash’s biggest goal is making sure student voices are heard and nurtured, being their biggest supporter and increasing student engagement with the ASOSU.
“That’s my personal biggest goal for the Senate, to increase our student engagement, get more people talking about ASOSU, get more students at these meetings to share their student voice since that’s what the legislative branch is, that’s where the student voice is housed,” said Kowash.
Kowash said that a lot of work is being done within the Senate this year.
Senator Emerson Pearson is spearheading the effort to increase funding for non-athletic competitive clubs such as forensic science or gaming clubs and more, so they are able to be funded to attend events or tournaments.
Another major priority of the Senate, headed by Senator Donovan Morales-Coonrad, is bringing greater sexual health awareness as well as practices into places on campus. More specifically, Morales-Coonrad is working on bringing PrEP to campus, which is a medication used to help prevent HIV. This also happens to align with the executive branch’s efforts to bring free at-home STI testing and readily accessible Narcan to OSU’s campus.
Pearson and Morales-Coonrad were unable to be reached by The Barometer to speak on their efforts in the Senate.
As for students who may wish to have their grievances addressed in bringing issues to the Senate, the ASOSU has a public comment form on their Senate meetings website. Students can also email Senators directly by finding their contact information listed on the ASOSU website.
The ASOSU Senate meets every Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. in either room 104 in the Memorial Union or room 354 in the Student Experience Center. These meetings are open to the public and any student can sit in the gallery to observe and participate in the legislative process.
