The four ASUO presidential candidates each discussed their goals for the student body and for the University.
Name: Cimmeron Gillespie@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Cimmeron+Gillespie@@
Grade: Senior
Major: Political Science
Slate Name: Abolish Capitalism
 
Platform:
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(I stand for) the abolition of capitalism and all other systems of oppression. I’m seeking to deconstruct them in ways of how their influence privileges some and oppresses others, and through this lens of analysis really look at both alternative ways to structure society so that we are less oppressive; we are listening from those who speak from a place of oppression to really sort of create a new society, and to create a new sort of social structures, new systems that are counter valence to those oppressive other structures.
In doing so, we are really looking, in the same way that racism functions we can really sort of see this clearly, this is something that a lot of people understand that racism exists, not in the ways that Bull Connor existed like with beating people over the head like fire hoses and stuff, a lot of racism is very — it’s a more subtle game. I don’t mean to say it’s a game, what I really mean to say it is a more subtle way of operating which moves in such a way that certain groups are privileged and certain groups are oppressed and in the same way we see this functioning through sexism and patriarchy and we see the same systems functioning through capitalism so that you have one group creating a division of classes: one group which is largely poor and one group which is largely rich.
And it doesn’t mean that there aren’t a certain amount of exceptions and there isn’t a certain amount of movement between these groups, but by and large there isn’t movement and within these systems of oppression. What’s sort of happening is that one group is empowered while another group is disempowered. And this plays into a larger social structure and the outcome of which is systematic social deprivation that leads to social inequality.
We see not that women constitute 51 percent of society but make up drastically less in terms of their proportionality and in terms of their representation in governments, there’s a vast wage gap. So we can see these sort of playing out and the same exists racially, again low representation of people of color, especially women of color, in Congress and other institutions of government but also more importantly that socially these structures exist as institutions of oppression and capitalism functions the same way, playing on existing class structures from past times, what have you, and are fundamentally oppressive and are recreating these structures.
And so, my goal is to undermine these through all the institutions that the ASUO has, we have $13 million so really the ASUO could start its own university. There are cooperative models of farming, there are cooperative models of governance and certainly there are cooperative models of education. Evergreen has a similar model, so there are a lot of sort of cooperative models of education and so using the buying power of the ASUO to sort of buy soap from socially leveling organizations, groups that have horizontal money, so instead of moving capital from the workers and the buyers to the owners of production rather, only buying from places where the workers control all means of production.Where you have a factory that is owned by the workers.
These exist throughout the world, also in the United States, so it is possible to buy from places where we are keeping the money horizontal which is keeping social justice and also from local farm institutions and so forth. And encouraging all other universities to use their buying power to support local and nonhierarchical institutions to sort of depose these power structures, and to begin to think about ways to create new countervailing structures to oppose systems of oppression. This is really my platform tenet.
What are your qualifications?
My qualifications for this position are a firm understanding of systems of oppression and how they operate. Also, a deep willingness to understand and listen and desire to really incorporate the views and ideas of traditionally oppressed communities and really place them at the center of student governance. And/or to abolish student governments and return it only to a consensus operating model of governments.
What are you thoughts on the size and purpose of the incidental fee?
I think the size is great, I think it allows students to have more power than any other institution in the nation. I think we ought to use that power more than responsibly, I think we have a fundamental duty to our world and to change the power structures to exist. We have the money and the capacity to overthrow systems of oppression, in our region we have the duty therefore.
What would you like to change in the University?
I would like to change the system of oppression at function. This means working actively for recruitment and retention of students of color, faculty and staff of color. And especially administrators of color. I would really say that we need to eliminate systems of hierarchy here, getting rid of the central administration entirely and replacing it by a coalition body of students, faculty and staff.
With the eliminated costs of the central administration, we can pay faculty and staff higher wages, better competitive wages and also lower tuition at the same time. Most of the waste at this university occurs in athletics and in the central administration. So, really working to dislocate those powers of structure and affirm the powers of structure which are a countervailing force to systems of oppression so really trying to level the social and educational playing field.
What are your thoughts on the EMU renovation?
The EMU has to be renovated, but we have to ask, for whom it is being renovated? If it is being renovated for students, then we need to really focus in on which students are using it and for what purpose. The University has come in and basically dictated. They want to build a large concert hall so that they can host the Oregon Bach Festival as a money-making endeavor. The fact is we don’t know if it will be a money-making endeavor and students haven’t requested this hall.
It would be less cost-effective than the ballroom. People need a less expensive space, which is large to host large venues for prominent speakers. This concert hall does not serve this purpose and so I really feel we need to critically analyze the system that’s being put in front of us. Also, this University has a history of riots, and building a glass building as they are proposing now seems like a great structure to be smashed and I think that’s just fundamentally dumb.
What are your thoughts on the state of athletic tickets?
I think athletics as an institution has become an oppressive money-mongering institution, and should be abolished. I am very much in favor of student athletics, in terms of the intramural sports and I understand that there’s a certain degree of opportunity through athletics in terms of scholarships and so forth, and I recognize that. It’s a difficult position for me to take, not being in the position of a student whose tuition depends on playing a sport.
This is also a system of exploitation that can be worked out, that we maintain some sort of sports teams without having that be a predominant focus of the University, without it having such an autonomous role in sports that it is able to dominate and control the impacts at the University.
For instance, athletics basically commanded the University to take out a $200 million loan for the new arena, this was only a few years ago and we know that from that loan, which the school took out from the state, that now the arena has gone over budget or rather has not taken as much revenue so really this is an exploitative and deeply corrupt institution. Much of it needs to be simply abolished.
Why should students vote for you?
I’m for the abolition of capitalism, racism, sexism and all other systems of oppression, so if we’re interested in a socially just world which does not focus on lines through which people are oppressed and diminished, I am a choice. There are other candidates who are running who are doing very good work and I think it is worthy to consider what they are doing, but I am really here to say that we must abolish capitalism as a system of oppression, we must abolish all systems of oppression. This is the central tenet of why I am running. Abolish all oppression!
 
Name: Laura Hinman@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Laura+Hinman@@
Grade: Junior
Major: English and Political Science Major
Slate Name: We are Oregon
Platform:
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“We are Oregon” is not running on any empty promises like lowering tuition or something that students can’t actually tangibly give you. What we decided this year is that every decision we make is gonna be made in the best interest in the student experience. That’s what we care about most. It’s bringing your dollars and your experience to this campus.
We believe that student government shouldn’t be about politics. It should be about the students and what their needs are. To keep the $13 million on this campus, the fees that you pay every term, about $600 a year should be going back to you. This means for us, increasing tickets, bringing world-renowned speakers to campus, increasing funding to student programs of every types like club sports and unions and of course renovating the EMU and SRC.
What are your qualifications?
I think any student is qualified to run if they see a need for change in the ASUO. As of right now, I think it’s a problem that only a handful of students understand what the ASUO is and what it does for students. I think that my experience working in the ASUO on Programs Finance Committee@@http://asuo.uoregon.edu/pfc.php@@, working with over 130 different programs as well as working with different years and different majors on campus, has really helped me understand what the need is on our campus. My running mate as well has seen the same challenges working with the Resident Hall Association, seeing what first-year students really need, and we really believe that student funds should stop going to things like lobbyists and stay here at the U of O.
What are you thoughts on the size and purpose of the incidental fee?
I think the I-fee (incidental fee) should stay as low as possible. That students have enough to worry about with tuition and other things like housing and just the cost of living. They shouldn’t have to pay such a high fee. I promise that I will keep it as low as we can. With the size that it is right now though, I think you can keep it lower by just keeping things happening here.
We have a lot of students who do amazing things and by utilizing the resources we have on our campus, we can keep the I-fee down. With the cost that it currently is, $178 a term, we should be using it toward student football tickets and different student programs and keeping our dollars on our campus.
What would you like to change in the University?
I think the U of O is the most amazing campus on the West Coast. I mean, I’m a little biased of course. I think that we have a great university, I think that we are in a place right now where we have the possibility to move towards change, and that the best is just going to get better and that we should strive toward a place of excellence.
I think President Lariviere had a great vision for the U of O, and I hope that the new president this coming year, after Berdahl, will continue his legacy. I think the student government that works with administration and has similar passions and ideas will help us grow to an even better place. I think the University is at a launching point really, to step further and we should be recognized as one of the best campuses at the U of O.
What are your thoughts on the EMU renovation?
Oh, I am all about the EMU renovation. I would love to see students have a voice and an opinion in this upcoming election. I sat through a meeting where we presented until five in the morning in a student senate meeting and made sure that you all had a voice. And the ballot measure that I presented for this upcoming election, I hope is as transparent and clear as possible that we want you to understand what the fee is, what it means and when it will start.
I encourage all students to get involved in the EMU vote. Not only to vote but educate yourself on what this means. Currently, our EMU and SRC are both under building codes of different challenges that students face. If you walk into the Student Rec Center, you will wait for a machine. You might have to come back, come back hours later. It is overcrowded, we don’t have enough facilities.
The student union is a mess in and of itself in that we don’t have enough student space, (there are) all sorts of problems with that. The renovation we have right now, the plan for it is amazing, so phenomenal. Very cost-effective, very sustainable and I encourage everyone not only to vote yes but to continue to educate yourself around the issues.
What are your thoughts on the state of athletic tickets?
I think that athletic tickets are one of the only things that students recognize that do come from the ASUO, and because of that, we should continue to increase them and continue to provide students with more tickets as best as we can. And it’s really possible. I think people run on the slate often that says we will increase athletic tickets. Well you can, you can easily increase the athletic tickets, by cutting down contracts that exist right now, that send funds to pay for lobbyists off campus. Easily, had that been done this year, we would have more athletic tickets. That’s Nick and my intention in the future.
We also want to revamp the system of athletic tickets to make it more fair for all students and to make it easier to get tickets. So that you’re not having to wait in line to get them, or sitting on your computer until 8:00 p.m. hits and all the tickets are gone in five minutes. We want to make it more accessible and a lot easier as well. We have built a really good working relationship with the athletic department already, and we have a pretty big plan for fall term to increase tickets.
Why should students vote for you?
I think students should vote for “We are Oregon” as a whole, not because it has anything to do with Nick or myself. I’m not running just to be student body president, I’m running because we need to see a change in the ASUO. There’s a problem when students don’t recognize what their student government does, and Nick and I want to change that. Our slate, “We are Oregon,” is some of the most phenomenal students I’ve ever met on this campus from a diverse area of campus representing what we think is the majority of campus.
We really truly believe  that because it has nothing to do with us, it has to do with the students, that we’ll do the best in office. Being both juniors, we’ve seen a lot happen here. We’ve seen the good, we’ve seen the bad, we’ve seen the ugly, and we’re ready to take it to a different place, to a better place. And like I said, the only thing we’ll promise is that we’ll keep our funds on our campus and that we’ll continue to listen every single day.
 
Name: Ben Bowman@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Ben+Bowman@@
Grade: Sophomore
Major: Political Science
Slate Name: Ben and Lamar
Platform:
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There are four main planks of our platform. The first is fighting for a more affordable education. Lamar and I believe that the biggest problem facing students today is the cost of our education. From the cost of tuition, to textbooks, to housing, it is really expensive to be a student today. So we want to use our leverage as a collective voice of 24,000 students and work with decision makers to do what we can to lower those costs.
The second point is an important point for a lot of students, and it is improving access to football tickets. In my capacity, as the chair of the Athletics and Contracts Finance Committee@@http://leadership.uoregon.edu/get_involved/governance/506@@, we did some pretty cool work this year saving students about $200,000 and also increasing access to football tickets. We’re working on an agreement with the athletics department to open up the student section a little bit and get some more students involved because of some data that the athletics department has about how many students don’t come to a game without claiming a ticket. So, we want to continue that work, once we’re in office.
The third is expanding student power and involvement. We want to get more students and a more diverse range of students involved in student government because I think it is important that the government of any institution reflects the people of that institution. So we want to make the ASUO more representative of students and we also want to get people involved in other things. We want to have a 10,000 person voter registration drive, where we register 10,000 new students on campus.
So, there’s a lot of work we want to do to expand student power and involvement. The fourth is supporting sustainability in diversity initiatives on campus. The U of O is a leader in the country on sustainability issues. We did some work, actually, on Wednesday to even improve that further with the Bike Share Program@@https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/10619@@ that we just passed to create a pretty cool bike-sharing network on campus.
We want to continue that work and we also want to make sure that the U of O is a more diverse institution moving forward with more students involved from underrepresented communities. So, we want to work to make sure that happens.
What are your qualifications?
I served on the Executive Staff last year, as the legislative affairs coordinator. My job was to organize students on campus and meet with legislators in the capitol to sort of advocate for students’ needs. Before that, I was involved in high school student government. I started a community service club in high school that got over 400 students involved. And then I ran Ben and Katie’s campaign, last spring. It was a very, very successful campaign. We got a lot of students involved and won by a pretty big margin. Then I have served as a senator this year, and as the chair of ACFC. And have been able to learn a lot from those two positions this year, so I think I am uniquely qualified being in both the executive and the legislative branch of the student government here to get some pretty cool work done next year.
What are you thoughts on the size and purpose of the incidental fee?
I think the purpose of the I-fee is to provide a better experience for students on campus. I think as far as the size of the I-fee, it is the responsibility of the student government to make sure that the I-fee is as low as possible without jeopardizing any of the services that students depend on.
Right now, the ASUO has a $13 million budget about, and that seems like a really, really big number, but it provides a lot of really key services, like bus passes and football tickets and programming budgets and the campus newspaper that you’re reading right now, the Daily Emerald. So, I think it’s important that while we keep that number as low as we can, we’re also still providing the services that students depend on.
What would you like to change in the University?
Like I said earlier, I think the biggest problem facing students today is the cost of our education. I think that is far and away, if you ask any student, that is what they’ll tell you is the biggest problem. So, doing the work that we can in the student government to address those costs, whether it be tuition, textbooks, housing or whatever. I think it’s important that we address those. I am proud to be a Duck. I think we have a pretty great school. Just working to improve it wherever we can I think is the goal.
What are your thoughts on the EMU renovation?
That’s a tough one for me. I support the renovation. I think now is the time to renovate the EMU, but I also understand the financial difficulties that that will place on students. Asking students to pay an additional fee when costs are already so high and it is already tough for students to make it in college, I think is difficult. But I think when I look at the EMU and see the crumbling infrastructure, and I see that we place our student unions in a windowless basement, I think it is time that we build a state-of-the-art building to match our university, and so I think now is the time. And fundamentally, I believe that we as students should leave this university better than we found it, our generation of students, and I think this is a really cool opportunity we have to do that.
What are your thoughts on the state of athletic tickets?
Like I mentioned earlier, I think it’s important that we work to expand that student section. We work to make sure more students can experience football games at Autzen, because I think that’s a pretty cool part about going to the University of Oregon. We made some strides this year, as far as creating a more sustainable agreement with the athletic department, while also expanding access to those tickets. So, I think continuing to do that work, I think we need to do whatever we can to expand the student section, maybe purchasing an additional section if that’s possible. But I think that’s something we should be doing in coordination with the athletic department. I look forward to continuing to build the relationship that I have with the athletic department to work for students.
Why should students vote for you?
I think that Lamar and I bring qualifications and experiences to the table that other candidates don’t. I think there are a lot of great candidates in the race and I think it is going to be a very close race, but I think what Lamar and I can offer is an ASUO Executive that is going to engage students and work hard every single day and work to achieve the outcomes that we can. And this is an important election, the 2012 legislative session is going to have a ton of different bills and legislation relating to higher education. So, it is important that we have good representatives, representing students to all decision-makers on campus and off, while also working to make our experience as students here better. I think that’s what Lamar and I will be able to do.
 
Name: Katie Taylor
Grade: Senior
Major: Planning Public Policy and Management
Slate Name: Katie and Alex: Your School, Your Voice
Platform:
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When Alex and I are in office, we have three realms that we want to focus on. The first: Making education more accessible and affordable. We want to fight tuition increases in the legislature, advocate for more financial aid money, specifically increasing funding for the Oregon Opportunity Grant@@http://www.oregonstudentaid.gov/oregon-opportunity-grant.aspx@@, pushing bills that examine textbook affordability.
This past legislative session, we helped pass a bill that will form a taskforce to look into textbook affordability measures and how students can save money through things like open-source textbooks, and we want to support that task force and also make sure that we’re taking their findings and bringing them to campus and making textbooks for the University of Oregon students more affordable.
Also, protecting campus funding resources for marginalized communities, like the Diversity Excellence Scholarship@@http://financialaid.uoregon.edu/diversity_excellence_scholarship@@. We also want more access to student jobs on campus and workers rights for everyone in our campus communities. The next pillar that we’re going to be focusing on while in office is creating a more diverse, safe and sustainable campus. So, this means we want to work to increase diversity on campus.
So, supporting programs to recruit and retain more faculty and students of color, and also just faculty and students from marginalized communities, upping University building codes to meet LEED requirements@@http://www.inforain.org/kmz/leed.html@@, implementing a green fee or revolving loan fund, a lot of other universities have this for students to work on their own sustainability initiatives. We also want the safety part which is more lighting on campus and blue call boxes, increasing shuttle services like DDS and Safe Ride. Also keeping DPS accountable as a police force, so we want to make sure there is strong oversight for DPS and also that they remain weapon-free.
And then our last pillar that Alex and I are going to be focusing on while in office is protecting student rights and resources. So, shared governance has been under attack at this university, and students are all too often being left out of decisions. We saw this a lot this year through EMU, mandatory reporting, the restructuring of the OMAS office. Alex and I are going to fight to make sure student voices are heard in all decision-making processes. We want to fight to repeal this year’s changes in mandatory reporting policies and empower survivors of sexual assault to seek help by reinstating mandatory report forms. We also want to protect I-fee funded resources.
So, since I’ve been here, I’ve seen students within the ASUO try to make cuts to things like LTD bus passes and also the childcare subsidies and the childcare co-ops. This is absolutely not acceptable, we need to make sure we’re fighting to protect these services and increase them for students. So, our three main pillars are: making education more affordable, creating a diverse, safe and sustainable campus and protecting student rights and resources.
What are your qualifications?
Well, I have experience being in office. I’ve been vice president this whole year. I’ve also been doing student organizing since my first year in college, so that’s four years now. I’ve worked on multiple different campaigns for students and I continue to do that work within the realm of the ASUO now. And, I’ve built a lot of relationships here on campus that one needs to advocate for students, and I also have a lot of life experience that has allowed me to really appreciate why working as ASUO president matters.
I know what it means to be struggling to afford to go to school and I know that resources that the ASUO provides really impact me and impact other students in a way that we just can’t get anywhere else. Especially when prices are continuing to go up in tuition, and financial aid is continuing to go down. So, I understand the need for more student voice and decision making on this campus, and I’m willing to fight for it.
What are you thoughts on the size and purpose of the incidental fee?
I got into this a little bit previously, the I-fee I think is a really amazing thing we have on this campus. Throughout my experience being involved in national organizations that work with student governments, the United States Student Association, I go and I talk to students from all over the country and no student that I’ve ever talked to has anything quite like what we have here at the University of Oregon.
When they say we are one of the most autonomous student governments, it’s absolutely true. That’s because of our budgets, because of our I-fee and through the I-fee, we are able to provide resources for students that again, they can’t find elsewhere. The purpose of the I-fee is to fund things that administration doesn’t necessarily want to fund or they don’t even know to fund because students know best what they need, so it makes sense for students to have control over a budget to provide resources for their peers.
I think that it’s also one of the most transparent funds that we have on campus. We don’t really control where our tuition dollars go, but we control where every dollar of our I-fee goes, and that goes again to support things like free LTD bus passes, football tickets, childcare subsidies for student programs. Funding for student parents so they can organize their communities and organize events on campus. Every single dollar of the I-fee I’m extremely confident goes to amazing causes and things that students really need and also that really improve students’ lives while on campus.
What would you like to change in the University?
Well, I would like the University to place more value in shared governance. So, shared governance has definitely been under attack at this university. Students are being left out of decisions, also other stakeholders, classified staff, faculty and we have the potential to run this university in a way that builds social capital and builds community and relationships. We’re only going to be able to do that if we listen to one another and I would like to see shared governance be much stronger and I would like student voices to be heard and included and respected at a much higher level than I see currently.
What are your thoughts on the EMU renovation?
I support a renovation for the EMU. I want the project to be student-centered, and I want it to be affordable. Students voted down the $100 fee last term, and some didn’t hear that message, but I did. I’m ready to go back to the drawing board to help students get the project they deserve at a price they can manage. So, Alex and I are committed to bringing down the price for students of the EMU renovation.
What are your thoughts on the state of athletic tickets?
I think that we’re all Ducks and that anyone who wants to be there on game day should be. The games just aren’t the same without students. Because of unprecedented agreement that the ASUO Executive negotiated this year, the ASUO will be in a better position next year to negotiate more tickets for students and it will be more affordable. This year, we delivered on our promise to get more tickets for students, and I’m ready for round two next year.
Why should students vote for you?
I think I’m definitely a unique candidate. I have an interesting background, I’m the first person in my family to go to college. I think that a lot of the overarching issues that impact students definitely impact me the hardest in some ways. When there are increases in tuition, it definitely hits my pocketbook hard. When we have increases in student fees, I struggle to think about how I’m going to be able to pay for things, so I really understand that. I am the candidate that won’t tolerate tuition hikes. I’m the candidate that won’t stop until every single student on this campus feels safe, included and respected.