Last week ASUO President Jared Axelrod announced that he will not run for re-election, and two members of the Student Senate threw their hats into the race for ASUO President.
Axelrod said he decided against running for re-election because he wants to focus on academics and “have some fun” during his senior year.
“It’s been great this year, but it’s definitely taken a strain on some of the other things I’ve wanted to do in college,” Axelrod said. “Maybe this is a chance to do them.”
Senate President Sara Hamilton and Vice President Jonathan Rosenberg will be running against each other in the race.
Rosenberg, who is running with freshman Avital Ostfield, said their campaign will focus on three main issues: cutting costs, expanding services and improving education.
Rosenberg, a junior who is finishing up his first year working in the ASUO, said that he has found the ASUO to be a great place to work on issues he is passionate about.
“Over the past year, I’ve really enjoyed serving students,” he said. “It’s amazing how much we can change in the ASUO.”
Rosenberg said that he has enjoyed seeing the results of work done in the ASUO and that the issues he would like to work further on require a strong Executive.
“I’m a student who is in loan debt, I’m a student who struggles to pay for textbooks,” he said. “I believe that there are things you can do in the Executive which you can’t do in the Senate. I had a lot of fun in the Senate representing students and really attacking the issues which I cared about, but I believe we can do better on this campus.”
Rosenberg has been involved with programs in the past, but said he is not now because keeping a neutral stance is the best way to represent his constituents.
Hamilton, who is running with Student Senator Athan Papailiou, said they will be holding a press conference on Wednesday morning and will hand out a comprehensive campaign plan then.
She did say that their campaign will focus on reforming the Programs Finance Committee. They will work on preventing student programs from having to compete with contracts and departments for incidental fee money while still having student oversight over departments and contracts.
“It’s probably not as exciting or gripping as other things, but that’s the problem with the system that made itself clear this year,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton’s campaign is also going to focus on lowering textbook prices.
She said she is running for Executive because it is the best place to accomplish these goals.
“Any effort to reform the process at the level it needs to be reformed has got to be a cooperative effort with all branches of the student government, all stakeholders,” she said. “The exec is really central to the ability to start something like that, to initiate that.”
Contact the campus and federal politics reporter at [email protected]
Hamilton, Rosenberg enter race to succeed Axelrod
Daily Emerald
February 25, 2007
0
More to Discover