This year, the ASUO grappled with funding crises and faced one of its most bitter elections in recent memory. Here, the Emerald looks back on the year in ASUO.
Libraries
After Sam Dotters-Katz took office as ASUO president, among his first initiatives was to secure funding for all-night library service on Sundays through Thursdays. The program proved popular and each presidential candidate in the 2009 election proclaimed support for it. The program will continue next year from the third week of each term onward.
Buydown
The major political turning point of the school year came Oct. 29, when Dotters-Katz unveiled changes to ASUO governing documents that allowed him to redistribute the ASUO’s $2 million over-realized fund to decrease the student incidental fee by $100 in spring term. The ASUO Senate, which controls the allocation of the over-realized fund, was shocked and angry, and Dotters-Katz’s relationship with the Senate was strained thereafter.
Late-night bus
The ASUO responded to Lane Transit District’s plans to cut several routes by paying to preserve the 79x route and extend its hours until 2 a.m. six nights a week. The initiative proved popular among students but irked bus drivers, who complained that riders were too loud and unruly. The drivers’ complaints moved LTD to reconsider continuing the service, but the transit district relented in the face of indications student behavior had improved.
Appointments defeated
Dotters-Katz appointed his former chief of staff, Athan Papailiou, to a vacant Senate seat on Jan. 9. Papailiou’s appointment met heavy opposition in the Senate, where he served for two years, one as president. The long-time ASUO insider was defeated during an emotional meeting that brought several senators to tears. The Senate also defeated Dotters-Katz’s subsequent appointment of Oregon Commentator editor CJ Ciaramella.
Campus Recycling
The ASUO agreed to fund a $34,963.65 composting program on campus, then faced a political firestorm when its budget for the 2009-10 school year did not include money for the compost program. After groups ranging from the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation to the Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group mustered massive support, and Dotters-Katz threatened to veto the Department Finance Committee’s budget if it did not include money for composting, the ASUO voted to increase Campus Recycling’s budget by $104,272.
OSPIRG
Long a point of contention in ASUO circles, the political research and advocacy group OSPIRG will meet its end in 2009 after strong opposition from Dotters-Katz and many across the political spectrum in the ASUO, who convinced the Athletics and Contracts Finance Committee to cut OSPIRG’s contract. An attempt to revive OSPIRG through a ballot measure was defeated by an even broader coalition.
Elections
Five executive candidates and nearly 80 others ran in an ASUO election that began with its coordinator questioning the legitimacy of the current president’s campaign and ended with bitterness and confusion as the results were postponed to explore the possibility that fewer than 300 students in the American English Institute be allowed to vote. The University administration stepped in to provide corrective advice four times during the election.
Ryan McCarrel
The ASUO’s most unexpected presidential candidate was Ryan McCarrel, a University junior with no experience in the ASUO. McCarrel and his running mate Ian Baldwin argued that the ASUO’s budget processes should be scrapped in favor of direct allocation through online referendum – they called it iGov. McCarrel finished last in the primary and now serves as head of the College Democrats.
Carina Miller and Students First
ASUO Sen. Carina Miller ran a campaign that claimed to be non-partisan – she was a passionate advocate for program funding, who reached across the aisle to select outspoken conservative Nick Gower as her vice-presidential candidate. Candidates on her Students First slate came from diverse backgrounds, and though Miller ultimately finished fourth and was eliminated in the primary election, her slate won more senate seats than any other.
Nick Schultz and True Blue
ASUO Sen. Nick Schultz brought campaign organizing to new levels, going door-to-door in campus neighborhoods and setting up an extensive campaign Web site. It was no surprise, considering that Schultz and his running mate Lidiana Soto plucked most of their high-ranking staffers from Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. However, their performance in the election did not match their organization, and they won only six races.
Michelle Haley and Oregon Action Team
EMU Board Chairperson Michelle Haley worked on Dotters-Katz’s campaign in 2008 and revived his slate’s name for the 2009 election, selecting former Dotters-Katz staffer Ted Sebastian as her vice-president. However, Haley’s campaign was marred by controversy after the elections board ruled in favor of removing her from the ballot, only to be overruled by the ASUO Constitution Court. She won only 30 more votes in the general election than in the primary.
Emma Kallaway
Though they ran without a slate, ASUO Sen. Emma Kallaway and her running mate, Black Student Union President Getachew Kassa, received support from Schultz, Miller and McCarrel after beating them in the primary election. The two won by more than 600 votes and will be in office until May 25, 2010.
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