As self-proclaimed “outsiders,” ASUO Executive candidates Bret Jacobson and Matt Cook have hit the campaign trail with a commitment to professionalism tucked in their pockets.
And promising a civil and respectable executive office, they have built much of their campaign around initiating fellow “outsiders” into the workings of the ASUO.
“We would behave as professionally and with as much integrity as possible to leave the average student with a better impression of the ASUO,” Jacobson said. “We want all students to think that their student government is not only relevant, but also responsive to their concerns.”
A major policy Jacobson and Cook are pushing is what they call an ASUO “public relations hub,” which would aid student groups that need or want help publicizing their events.
The idea came to the pair as they visited a number of student groups while campaigning. Jacobson said the programs were planning a lot of wonderful ideas — from film festivals to culture nights — but that those ideas did not seem to be reaching the bulk of students on campus.
“Very few students who just go to class know about these events,” Jacobson said.
To remedy the problem, the pair decided that within their executive office, they would create a public relations service for student groups. One staff person and a team of public relations and advertising major volunteers would help programs with everything from press releases to poster designs — with an aim of piquing the interest of students and community members.
Jacobson added that messages about program events would focus not only on campus, but on the community — and possibly the state — as well. Targeting the greater community would be a first step in improving campus-community relations, which have encountered rough times lately, Jacobson said, pointing out problems with the Eugene City Council and the Eugene Police Department.

In order to let students know about the available service, Jacobson said, the public relations service coordinator would visit each student group at the beginning of the year.
Dawn Liu, a senior majoring in general science and psychology, said getting student groups to use a public relations resource may not be as easy as it seems. As former co-director of the Asian Pacific American Student Union, Liu said promoting an event is often less of a priority compared with all the planning a group must do.
“Ideally it sounds like a good idea,” Liu said, but “realistically it’s not as plausible as it sounds.”
Jacobson said he and Cook would also like to create a “projects coordinator” position within the ASUO that would help student groups “plan, fund raise and implement” their various projects.
Many student groups face difficulties when approaching the Student Senate for money, Jacobson said, and oftentimes they don’t know or understand the proper procedure. But having a coordinator whose sole job is to help them through it would make the process a little easier.
The coordinator would spend most of his or her time outside of the office, meeting with student groups and finding out what they need help with. The position itself, Jacobson said, demonstrates the fundamental difference between his view of student government and the view that currently reigns.
Right now the ASUO is “fairly reactive,” Jacobson said, and it benefits only a small group of people. A “cliquish nature” and a “tendency toward small-mindedness” plague the ASUO, Jacobson said, but he and Cook could fix such problems by exhibiting a professional and civil demeanor.
“Matt and I think we can go out and talk to average students and speak their language and explain why the student government is important,” Jacobson said.
Senior political science major Jennifer Greenough, who supports Jacobson and Cook’s campaign, said that because the pair hails from outside the ASUO, they can relate more easily to students not involved in student government.
“I think they have the most potential to represent the students as a whole on this campus,” Greenough said. “They’re willing to work hard [and] they’re not doing this as much for themselves as they are for students.”