A wise old newspaperman once told me that every good piece of beat reporting should give enough background to make an uninformed reader care. In writing about student government that means repeating ad nauseum phrases like $12 million, the amount of student dollars controlled by student government, and “the (dollar amount here) fee students pay each term” to describe the incidental fee. To so-called everyday students — sly populist rhetoric for people who care enough only to be fooled into thinking student government is bad because they have to pay for it ­­— the details of budget benchmarks and surplus requests are difficult to understand, but at least it might affect them.
Trying to explain the significance of an internecine tool known as a grievance filed in a pseudo court requires a bit of context. In order to maintain the facade that an everyday student might be reading this column (hint: your chance of being one increases if you are reading this in print and steadily rises the later in the week you do so), the story thus far.
The Associated Students of the University of Oregon is an academic exercise in representative democracy that gives students a chance to affect policy on campus, create programs and events that the University administration does not and learn to compromise, cajole and backstab. It has an executive branch comprising an elected president, vice president, selected chief of staff and various cabinet-like positions that are filled with some combination of patronage and merit. It has a legislative branch that consists of the Senate and various finance committees, including the EMU Board, which is actually controlled by the University and takes half the ASUO’s coffers.
And it has something like a court. A cryptic, executive-appointed, Senate-approved group of individuals who get to approve all rule changes ­— though few are ever proffered­ — and rule on grievances, which usually start in winter term and run through the week past the spring elections to create news stories unfavorable to particular candidates and, increasingly, try to get people kicked out of office.
Like every other political system, the ASUO is simply a fight for influence and glory between liberals and conservatives. One side is full of over-achievers who learn what the ASUO is as soon as they arrive and become steadily more involved during their quest to save the world, coupled with minority students and activists who want to relive the 1960s. The other side is full of Republicans (mostly), who can also achieve and care about the world, but who also dislike the rhetoric of student power, want a smaller incidental fee and generally feel marginalized on a college campus in Eugene. Nothing irks conservatives more than the left’s insularity, and conservatives find sympathy from unlikely allies who think student government ought not be run by cabals in D.C. hotel rooms.
In the spring of 2007, Senate President Sara Hamilton was running for ASUO president. She was the most powerful conservative on campus next to then-University President Dave Frohnmayer, and she and running mate Athan Papailiou advanced to the general election against Emily McLain and Chii-San SunOwen. On Wednesday of the second week of the election, the ASUO Constitution Court removed her from Senate in response to a grievance charging her with failing to follow Senate rules by not sending public notices of Senate meetings 48 hours in advance. The court found four instances in which Hamilton had followed Oregon Public Meeting Law and sent notice within 24 hours, but not within the Senate’s required 48.
The punishment was harsh, the justices said, but the ASUO Constitution was clear: positions were to be vacated when officers did not fulfill their duties.
In the spring of 2009, after a messy primary fight on the left, the race whittled down to a clear liberal versus conservative contest between now-ASUO President Emma Kallaway, a former resident hall assistant, executive staff member and ASUO senator whose turn had come, and Michelle Haley, a College Republican who helped elect former President Sam Dotters-Katz and, like Kallaway, sat on the EMU Board.
Like Sara Hamilton before her, Michelle Haley lost. And like Hamilton, Haley is not going away. The grievance she filed this week against her former rival reads like a slanted, abridged version of Emerald articles printed since the election. Present are all of Kallaway’s blunders, weaknesses and rightful decisions that conservatives think they can benefit from highlighting.
What’s amazing is the charges outlined are from the only articles written about Kallaway since she took office. The comparable period in Sam Dotters-Katz’s presidency was full of him getting free copies of the New York Times, announcing a new internship program and sending his criteria for fulfillment of duties — not to students, but to Frohnmayer. If there is anything Kallaway needs to learn beyond checking and sending e-mail, it’s how to feed the media beast before it eats you.
If the yet-to-be-appointed judges agree that she did not fulfill her duties, the court could end up removing her from office. In spring 2008, the court tried to give McLain a lesser punishment by taking away one month’s stipend. Vice President of Student Affairs Robin Holmes quickly told them they had no such authority.
Even if the grievance succeeds in removing Kallaway, Vice President Getachew Kassa will become president and things will mostly remain the same. Organizations the ASUO holds contracts with like Lane Transit District and Street Faire vendors might be confused, and the whole process will look a little more silly and illegitimate. But that’s about all that
will happen.
The goal then is not the remedy requested. The goal is the news articles, the time Kallaway will have to spend replying, the worries she will have about her fate, proof that Michelle Haley existed every time Kallaway’s name is Googled.
Kallaway is certainly not the only beneficiary of Concerned Alumni. Though they may not gather in D.C., they can help author a grievance. Old grudges die hard. But this is the last regular Emerald issue of the summer, and it will be two months before the court has enough judges to hear this case. It is an open question how many students will by then care ­— or how many understood to begin with.  
[email protected]