With just about a week before the deadline to file to run for one of the 19 available positions, few students have taken advantage of the opportunity to run in the spring ASUO elections.
Although there are already several candidates for the ASUO Executive, there are only five people running for the 18 other positions, which include 10 seats on the Student Senate.
Elections Coordinator Dante Vivanco said in his experience working in the ASUO, it is normal for people to wait until the last minute to file for positions on the Student Senate and other committees.
Vivanco said that Executive candidates tend to file early because candidates’ placement in the voter guides and on the ballot depends on when they filed.
If the deadline comes and goes without anyone applying for those positions, elections officials may choose to extend the deadline for filing. In the worst-case scenario, the positions would be left open and would have to be filled by appointees or write-in candidates, Vivanco said.
“Ideally, if anyone even has the slightest inkling that they might be interested in running, they should apply,” he said. “It’s a great opportunity for people to learn new skills and get to know new people.”
Freshman Eduardo Dawson wants to take advantage of the opportunity provided by the ASUO. Dawson, who is running for EMU Board Senate Seat 4, said he thinks electing leaders while they are young will benefit the ASUO.
Dawson said he wanted to run for an EMU seat because he wanted experience working with budgets and with making decisions about where money should go. He works for the Moss Street Children’s Center and said he sees the importance of the programs funded through the EMU Board.
“I want to make this a better place,” he said.
Tyler Scandalios, who is running against Dawson, said he is running for an EMU seat because of the importance of what the EMU does.
“I think that it’s a great building and it really does serve as the social and political hub of the University of Oregon and I want to strengthen and maintain that identity of the EMU,” he said.
Scandalios is currently a Senate intern and said he wants to be a part of the “positive change” the Senate makes on campus. Neil Brown, a candidate for Programs Finance Committee Senate Seat 3, said he chose to run because he wanted to bring more accountability to the allocation of student fees.
Brown said his best quality is that he brings a “fresh perspective” to the ASUO because he has an outsider’s perspective.
“I think that’s something that’s missing from the ASUO right now,” he said.
Nick Schultzis also running for Senate Seat 3 but could not be reached by press time. Matt Rose, who currently serves in a PFC at-large seat, is the only PFC member running to return to the committee. Rose is running for PFC Senate Seat 1. Rose also could not be reached by press time. The deadline for submitting initiatives for the ballot has been extended for the third time. Originally, ballot initiatives were supposed to be turned into the ASUO by March 2, but Vivanco decided to extend the deadline to March 16 because sponsors of the bills have run into roadblocks in the process.
Initiatives must be sponsored by the ASUO Executive, a two-thirds vote of the Student Senate or have signatures of 5 percent of students, but before any signatures can be collected, the initiatives’ wording must be approved by the ASUO Constitutional Court.
Vivanco said he extended the deadline because the court has not approved proposed measures. He said that the sponsors of the initiatives spoke to him about their frustrations and he determined it was in the best interest of students to do what it takes to get the initiatives put on the ballot.
On March 5, the court ruled that the wording of an initiative that would transfer funding of the Student Recreation Center to a newly created institutional fee instead of the incidental fee was unacceptable.
The ruling says that wording of the initiative is “biased” because it does not take into account additional factors that might affect rec center funding. It also says the ASUO has no authority to force the University to create an institutional fee, so the ballot measure would be non-binding.
On the same date, the Court posted a ruling against a measure submitted by Senate Vice President and ASUO Executive candidate Jonathan Rosenberg. This measure would create a “textbook consignment exchange” at which students could buy and sell books instead of going to the UO Bookstore.
In the ruling against Rosenberg’s measure, the Court wrote that the measure was denied because it referred to “prices competitive to the University of Oregon bookstore.” The ruling says there is nothing in the measure to prove prices would be competitive.
Rosenberg submitted a new draft of the measure without that phrase. This draft was accepted by the court.
Contact the campus and federal politics reporter at [email protected]
Open positions on the asuo
The following ASUO positions are available for the 2007-08 school year.
ASUO President/Vice President: Currently, five tickets are running for this position: Sara Hamilton and Athan Papailiou; Jonathan Rosenberg and Avital Ostfield; Ari Lesser and Phil Wood; Emily McLain and Chii-San SunOwen and Ted Niedermeyer (no running mate)
Programs Finance Committee Senate Seat 1 (one-year term): Matt Rose is the only candidate currently running for this position
Programs Finance Committee Senate Seat 3 (two-year term): Two candidates have filed for this seat: Nick Schultz and Neil Brown
EMU Board Senate Seat 4 (one-year term): There are also two candidates for this position: Eduardo Dawson and Tyler Scandalios
As of march 6, no candidates have filed for the following positions:
EMU Board Senate Seat 6 (two-year term)
Athletic Department Finance Committee Senate Seat 7 (one-year term)
Athletic Department Finance Committee Senate Seat 9 (two-year term)
Academic Senate Seat 11 (Undeclared, two-year term)
Academic Senate Seat 13 (Business Administration, two-year term)
Academic Senate Seat 15 (Arts and Sciences, two-year term)
Academic Senate Seat 17 (Graduate/Law, two-year term)
Associated Students Presidential Advisory Council (one-year term)
Student Recreation Center Advisory Board (three two-year positions)
Athletic Department Finance Committee At-Large (one-year term)
Programs Finance Committee At-Large (two-year term)
EMU Board At-Large (two two-year positions)