What do chapters do?

OSA’s approach to organizing is people-centered and based in grassroots relationship-building. Fundamental to our vision are strong and independent chapters led by student-leaders who plan and organize around the issues that they themselves are impacted by and passionate about.

To help us reach our collective goals, our chapters:

• Recruit and train student organizers who are passionate about social justice

• Plan and run campaigns that win concrete improvements to the lives of students

• Conduct voter registration and education with the aim of educating students about what’s on the ballot and how they can use their power as voters to make change on the issues that matter to them

• Build a strong base of organized students who can wield power to make progressive change, both on campus and in collaboration within the broader community

Campus chapters serve as a political home on campus, where students come together to organize to build collective power that will allow them to enact change on campus and beyond.

For example: On campus, our students may organize to push for more funding for mental health services in the university’s budget. Connected chapters may collaborate to plug in on a local ballot measure fight that students care about. Our chapters then work together to fight for increased funding for need-based financial aid in the state budget, and when we work with other student organizations in the nation, we can fight for federal student loan debt cancellation.