Editor’s note: This story has been updated.
The planned reinstatement of the Associated Students of Oregon State University is progressing, with a meeting scheduled for Aug. 25 between the ASOSU Senate and the OSU administration.
However, the meeting has been rescheduled in the past. The current date is tentative and ASOSU President Kayla Ramirez and Vice President Masha Mogylevsky do not feel confident that the current shutdown will be lifted in time for fall term.
“I believe we might be getting somewhere,” Mogylevsky said, “but it’s hard, because we’ve had timelines before, and they’ve not been followed, and it’s been postponed multiple times.”
According to Ramirez, the OSU administration gave them and Mogylevsky a list of expectations for ASOSU to meet in order for the student government to be reinstated. Ramirez believes that this feels very transactional and feels like ASOSU is being held hostage by the administration.
“It’s because of our unique position as students, that there is this present gray area in the treatment of us,” Ramirez said.
There were initially plans to end the shutdown on May 2, however, the reopening was postponed indefinitely. ASOSU shut down and as of Aug. 11, it is still in effect.
ASOSU was initially shut down on Feb. 28 after Dan Larson, vice provost for student affairs, and former ASOSU President Audrey Schlotter sent out a letter to members of ASOSU.
Larson is currently attempting to restructure ASOSU by having a consultant and two lawyers draft a new constitution. Even though ASOSU is not allowed to meet normally, they are still able to meet together to suggest changes to the constitution.
Ramirez and Mogylevsky are not confident in this drafted constitution, stating that they have found some issues with it.
“Some of the craziest concerns in this was that they removed mention of independent offices and the independence of the student fee committee from the president, which is concerning for the precedent we’re setting,” Mogylevsky said.
According to Ramirez, this is important so that archivists don’t favor one branch of government over the other when record keeping.
While ASOSU is allowed to make suggestions, there is no guarantee that any of the suggestions made by ASOSU will be implemented. Ramirez and Mogylevsky are pushing for the ability for senators to be able to amend the constitution through voting.
Ramirez and Mogylevsky also said that hiring the people to rewrite the constitution is costing $100,000 out of ASOSU’s yearly budget for 2025-26. The total budget is approximately $34 million dollars.
There are no specific plans for the budget if ASOSU is not reinstated by the start of the fall term.
One of the other ways that ASOSU is being reformed is through working groups. So far, working groups have been hosted for employment, governing documents, and culture and well-being. These meetings are permitted despite ASOSU not being allowed to meet otherwise.
One of the problems that has arisen from ASOSU not being able to meet is that a new student fee committee chair will need to be elected. Since Dylan Perfect, former SFC chair, was fired and has now been suspended, there is a need to fill the position. Usually, the process would entail having the SFC vice chair take over the role of SFC chair. However, since the SFC cannot meet to make any votes and they vote on their own vice chair, there is no SFC vice chair and no one who can fill the position of SFC chair.
According to a letter sent to Perfect by various members of the OSU administration, Perfect was suspended on eight different charges, including “harassment and misuse of computing resources.”
Perfect claims that these specific charges were applied because he accidentally ended an office meeting to grab a poster and clicked on a calendar invite from his school email.
Perfect believes that he is being treated unfairly. “I’ve kind of had an impact on university policy for longer than probably any other student at this level, so I’ve kind of become a thorn in the side of some people. (When) you’re around long enough, there’s people who don’t like your presence or influence there,” Perfect said.
Ramirez and Mogylevsky both said that the state of ASOSU has taken an emotional toll on them.
“I would rather be a president who is known, you know, for accepting the consequences because I did the right thing,” Ramirez said. “I know that when I walk into these rooms, when I speak prominently, I carry that risk of retaliation, of being removed from office, of losing my job, but ultimately, as long as I serve the student body to the best of my ability, that is what is most important to me.”
The Barometer will follow this story as updates become available.
