Jackson Hite

• Desired position: Seat 12 (Architecture and Allied Arts, Music and Dance, Psychology)
• Major, year in school, age: Planning, public policy and management and environmental studies, senior, 20
• Criminal activity charges: None

ODE: Briefly explain your platform.
JH: Ideally I’d like to see more transportation provided after-hours for AAA students as well as music and dance. I’d also like to see more student involvement in the 2020 plan.
ODE: What qualities and experience qualify you for the position you’re seeking?
JH: I have plenty of leadership experience. I’ve held two positions in Sigma Nu in the past years. I’ve been on two ASUO committees, the Campus Planning Committee and the Student Affairs Facility Advisory Committee, so I’m definitely aware of what’s been happening on campus.
ODE: What are your thoughts on the purpose and size of the student incidental fee?
JH: I think it is a good percentage of tuition. Everyone has had a hard time paying for college, so I’d like to see the incidental fee stay the same or even reduce. It’s good because it does provide several options for students that are free to participate in, for the most part. I understand that there are several students who don’t really get as much out of the incidental fee as other students.
ODE: How will you ensure that you are representing your constituents’ interests?
JH: I have plenty of interactions with my constituents on an everyday basis because of my class schedule. I’d like to do outreach to every department within my academic seat.
ODE: What are some major issues facing the majors you’d represent and how would you address them?
JH: There’s a lot of diversity in the major. There’s a disconnect, so ideally I’d like to see those students integrate as much as possible. Late studio hours are a difficult thing, so I’d like to see those students get more options to safely get home.

Nathan Howard

• Desired position: Seat 12 (Architecture and Allied Arts, Music and Dance, Psychology)
• Major, year in school, age: Planning, public policy and management, sophomore, 20
• Criminal activity charges: None

ODE: Briefly explain your platform.
NH: My platform consists around three main points: safety, sustainability and community building. One of the most important points of our platform is sustainability. There’s definitely a huge emphasis on sustainability in my life and I’d like to see the University of Oregon adopt a more sustainable policy. Regarding community building, there’s a lot of different ways to get interactions between students on campus; there’s a lot of students who still don’t know what the incidental fee is. Regarding safety, we could definitely expand the amount of coverage, the amount of vans and the amount of service that late-night van services have.
ODE: What qualities and experience qualify you for the position you’re seeking?
NH: In high school, I had leadership responsibilities. In middle school, I was president of our eighth-grade class. In high school, my sophomore year, I was secretary of our school, junior year I worked on the treasury staff, and senior year I worked in the leadership program. As of college, the most experience I’ve gotten has been through Climate Justice League.
ODE: What are your thoughts on the purpose and size of the student incidental fee?
NH: The incidental fee’s aim is to promote the cultural and physical development of students on campus. The size is great. I’m not sure if it really needs to be increased or decreased that much. It’s doing an amazing job of what it’s supposed to be doing.
ODE: How will you ensure that you are representing your constituents’ interests?
NH: I definitely plan on setting up a booth within the first week of next term.

Chris Bocchicchio

• Desired position: Seat 13 (Business)
• Major, year in school, age: Business administration, sophomore, 20
• Criminal activity charges: None.

ODE: Briefly explain your platform.
CB: Our platform is to help keep tuition low, and the portion that we the students control is the incidental fee. We need to use that as a check to ourselves, and say “should we be increasing that every year, or should we find creative ways to fund our services and our programs and not see it increase every year?”
ODE: What qualities and experience qualify you for the position you’re seeking?
CB: I do hold the position at the moment, and I have held that seat for the last four to five months. I know the ASUO, I know how it works, and I will go in knowing the ASUO and how it works.
ODE: What are your thoughts on the purpose and size of the student incidental fee?
CB: The purpose of the incidental fee is to help students put on events that they could not fund themselves or provide for themselves. It gives us a larger buying power, like when it comes to LTD, we as students have a lot of power. It allows different programs to put on big events. It has to be clear that the incidental fee cannot pay for everything, that students have to pay some of it themselves.
ODE: How will you ensure that you are representing your constituents’ interests?
CB: I’ve been trying to make active steps to get closer to the business groups, and to make sure that the business school knows who I am. Getting the information out there and having students know what the incidental fee is is important.
ODE: What are some major issues facing the majors you’d represent and how would you address them?
CB: A lot of our own student groups are not ASUO-recognized, but they are still students and still pay the incidental fee. A lot of decisions will affect the business school students because they pay for it every day. It’s important for the business school to realize they are part of the community.
Edrice Wahed

• Desired position: Seat 13 (Business)
• Major, year in school: Accounting, junior
• ODE: Briefly explain your platform.

EW: We want to reduce fees, of course. We want students to have access to the LTD bus. We want to reduce the textbook costs.
ODE: What qualities and experience qualify you for the position you’re seeking?
WE: I’m a student of the business school, and I am part of the honors program, which takes a really vigorous approach to the business school. It shows I have the character to undertake a very challenging workload. I’ve had some experience working at a bank. I just love people. I get along well with people, and I think that’s going to be very important.
ODE: What are your thoughts on the purpose and size of the student incidental fee?
WE: The purpose of the incidental fee is primarily to fund programs that students are interested in. I think it’s a valuable tool to provide things that the students are interested in.
ODE: How will you ensure that you are representing your constituents’ interests?
EW: By remaining in contact with students from the business school. I’m there a lot and I’m just talking to people there and I feel like I’m very well-connected with the people there already.
ODE: What are some major issues facing the majors you’d represent and how would you address them?
EW: I feel like fees all around are the hardest part of all students’ experience, including the business students. As far as the ASUO, the business school is well-represented and I feel like there aren’t many issues there.
 
Douglas Holloway

• Desired position: Seat 14 (Various social studies disciplines)
• Major, year in school, age: History and political science, junior, 21
• Criminal activiy charges: None.

 
ODE: Briefly explain your platform.
AW: There’s three main things: The first one would be environmental consciousness at the U of O. Composting in the dorms seems to be a very practical way of seeing change this year. We’re alsio trying to bridge the gap between student government and the student population. The third one would be fiscal responsibility. The student fee that we pay, which everyone pays, is a substantial amount of money. We just want that to stay on campus.
ODE: What qualities and experience qualify you for the position you’re seeking?
AW: I am brutally honest. To a tee sometimes. It gets me in a lot of trouble, but I’m a person that doesn’t have a problem being honest and tackling hard questions head-on.
ODE: What are your thoughts on the purpose and size of the student incidental fee?
AW: It’s really something that we shuld be proud of, something that should be used. The more students know about the extent of it, the more they can get involved.
ODE: How will you ensure that you are representing your constituents’ interests?
AW: We have actually a blog up that’s on our page. We’ve tried to gauge public opinion. We’ve told people, hey, go to the Web site, drop a post, and we’ll how we can go from there, but that really hasn’t been so successful. We were kind of trying to gauge where we should go from there, but other than that we’re kind of lacking.
ODE: What are some major issues facing the majors you’d represent and how would you address them?
AW: To be honest, I don’t know. That would be something I should look into.
Evan P. Thomas

• Desired position: Seat 14 (Various social studies disciplines)
• Major, year in school, age: Theater arts, junior, 21
• Criminal activity charges: None.

ODE: Briefly explain your platform.
EPT: My platform is pretty much all about responsible spending. We’re about giving the ASUO’s money out as efficiently as possible and to as many people as possible. We also have some topics about student tickets, about football tickets. We also have some great ideas about bringing in some peopel who could be spokespersons for different areas of the campus and different outreach programs.
ODE: What qualities and experience qualify you for the position you’re seeking?
EPT: I have experience throughout my life in leadership. I was on the student council in my high school and I’m on the Pocket council for the theater department. I also know that a lot of the job of a senator is budgeting and budgeting is something that I’ve been doing for many, many years. You don’t necessarily need to be a president of a bunch of different things to be able to budget well. It’s being able to handle money and knowing how to divide money and balance it evenly to a bunch of different people.
ODE: What are your thoughts on the purpose and size of the student incidental fee?
EPT: I would say that it’s too large, but it’s not too large because of its size. It’s too large because we’re not getting enough return off of it. As of now, our EMU is going towards helping the EMU remain sustainable, and 60 percent of the LTD contract.
ODE: How will you ensure that you are representing your constituents’ interests?
EPT: It’s kind of hard for a seat like mine because it covers so many majors. But one of the big things is new group development and we’re all about new group development.
ODE: What are some major issues facing the majors you’d represent and how would you address them?
EPT: For theater students, they still feel like the University theater is overshadowed by a lot of other University departments. For English and history, I think new programs and developing programs that already exist is something that I want to speak on behalf of.

Alexis White

• Desired position: Seat 14 (Various social studies disciplines)
• Major, year in school, age: Psychology and ethnic studies, sophomore, 20
• Criminal activity charges: None.

ODE: Briefly explain your platform.
AW: There’s three main pillars: safety, sustainability and community. We’re looking to increase the amount of APS and DDS vans and hours. We’re looking to increase the sustainability fund, increasing the amount of recycle bins we have on campus and things like that. Also, community building is really important. It would educate students on the kinds of communities that we have on campus and the diversity that we have.
ODE: What qualities and experience qualify you for the position you’re seeking?
AW: In high school, I was senior class president, and that’s what’s inspired me to seek out student government. Right now I’m an ASUO intern and I’m going to be a lead intern in spring term. I’m also a member of the Black Student Union and Black Women of Achievement.
ODE: What are your thoughts on the purpose and size of the student incidental fee?
AW: The incidental fee is for cultural and physical development by providing unions, and the ASUO is the one that allocates the incidental fee to different unions and different things the University provides for students. It’s really large. I think there is need for increase every year because of things like inflation, but other than that I feel the size of it is good. It reflects things students need.
ODE: How will you ensure that you are representing your constituents’ interests?
AW: Providing transparency to senators’ office hours is really important. By letting students in these departments know that I would be available for them is very important, and by providing more office hours.
ODE: What are some major issues facing the majors you’d represent and how would you address them?
AW: The issues that students are facing across my department are the same across the board. For ethnic studies, it’s still a small department because it’s a new deparment, so maybe expanding that would be good.

Kamal Ararso

• Desired position: Seat 15 (Various social studies disciplines)
• Major, year in school, age: Political science and economics, junior, 24
• Criminal activity charges: None.

ODE: Briefly explain your platform.
KA: I’m running as an independent candidate. One of the things I want to run on is unity. We need to unify our campus, we need to be vocally one. What I want to do is fund student safety services like APS, DDS and LTD. The second point is promoting campus diversity by working with the University administration to encourage recruitment of minority students. The third issue is affordability: It has to be easier on us, so students have to lobby regarding tuition on a state- to federal level. The other one is
sustainability. We need to promote a free bike loan program and install carpool and van pool programs and reduce parking fees.
ODE: What qualities and experience qualify you for the position you’re seeking?
KA: I had the privilege of serving as PFC’s chairperson. I have seen what we all desire to see on campus. What we have done, for me, is one of the greatest positions to hold. I work with student programs, from African Student Union to Muslim Student Association. I know how to work with students from different points of view. If I am elected, it will help not only me, but all of us with similar goals.
ODE: What are your thoughts on the purpose and size of the student incidental fee?
KA: I believe the incidental fee’s really important to us, but at the same time my concern is I’ve seen incidental fees growing to the point where we see students paying almost $600 every year. We need to find a way to reduce the incidental fee.
ODE: How will you ensure that you are representing your constituents’ interests?
KA: If I’m elected to the Student Senate, I’m always working to the best interest of not only my constituency but all the students of the institution. I have to bring what matters to my constituency to the table.
ODE: What are some major issues facing the majors you’d represent and how would you address them?
KA: One of the biggest issues I’ve seen on campus is unity: the students on this campus have to be one. We have to be united and we have to talk about issues that matter to all of us.

Henry Morgan

• Desired position: Seat 15 (Various social studies disciplines)
• Major, year in school, age: Environmental studies, freshman, 19
• Criminal activity charges: None

ODE: Briefly explain your platform.
HM: The first thing I’m concerned about is furthering the campus community within the ASUO and all its affiliates. Sustainability is something that I’m very concerned about, so one thing that I have concerns about is the UO’s recycling and entire sustainability effort, so it can always be furthered and strengthened so I would like to see more efforts for that. One means of furthering our capabilities for this is called a green fund, where every student pays a small fee like the incidental fee and it gets put into an account where we can directly fund sustainable efforts on campus.
ODE: What qualities and experience qualify you for the position you’re seeking?
HM: I have spent the first two terms as a freshman working with the Senate. Nick Schultz and Nick Gower and Sandy Weintraub and Alex McCafferty have done an amazing job this year and by just attending the meetings and working with them, I’ve learned so much. I’ve benefited from just watching them debate and act as senators should with great viewpoint neutrality, because this year the freedom of speech and human rights have been so, I don’t want to say vulnerable, but very close-to-heart topics, and being able to see people talk objectively about these topics is a good learning experience.
ODE: What are your thoughts on the purpose and size of the student incidental fee?
HM: The student incidental fee is not too much to ask a student to pay for each term, because of the effects that the ASUO has. The ASUO has a budget of nearly $12 million and we completely change the climate of campus. Everywhere you go, you see effects of the ASUO: The Knight Library is open 24-5. Student programs hold events every day, every week, so I feel like the ASUO funded by the incidental fee, completely makes the UO campus what it is today.
ODE: How will you ensure that you are representing your constituents’ interests?
HM: As seat 15, my constituents are all key constituents to the campus community, and the Three-C’s platform, we strive to emphasize campus community, so I can use my constituents in the academic field to benefit everybody in our program.

Brian Powell

• Desired position: Seat 15 (Various social studies disciplines)
• Major, year in school, age: Political science, junior, 20
• Criminal activity charges: None

ODE: Briefly explain your platform.
BP: The overriding theme is fiscal responsibility. Right now the students at the University of Oregon pay the highest incidental fee per student in the country, and my slate’s position is that, at least for next year, we don’t need to raise that fee. We’re going to have more students coming in and we’re going to work to negotiate contracts with LTD and other organizations so that the same student fee can be used to provide more services.
ODE: What qualities and experience qualify you for the position you’re seeking?
BP: I’ve held a number of leadership positions both in high school and in college. I’m on the executive board of my fraternity. I do a lot of stuff with money and finances there. I do a lot of decisions about how to direct a large body, where you want to move, and what decisions you want to make in the future. I think that’s a real valuable skill-set for a position like this.
ODE: What are your thoughts on the purpose and size of the student incidental fee?
BP: Right now it’s really large and the nice thing about that is that we have a lot of clubs and activities we can distribute that to. That being said, I don’t think it should be expanded beyond where it is, at least for the next two years. Our money isn’t being spend necessarily the best way possible. There are certain programs the administration should be taking hold of rather than the incidental fee.
ODE: How will you ensure that you are representing your constituents’ interests?
BP: As a political science major, I feel I’m someone who will understand the department. I know a lot of professors in the department and, as someone who understands the department, I feel that if there’s some concerns, some grievances someone wants to file, I feel more than capable of representing them.
ODE: What are some major issues facing the majors you’d represent and how would you address them?
BP: Probably the biggest one about political science is one unfortunately the Senate doesn’t have a lot of power over, but Ken DeBevoise, he’s a really good teacher in the department, but he hasn’t achieved tenure status, but because he hasn’t done enough research, the administration’s looking to let him go next year. I think that’s a really big issue. Additionally, on top of that, just maintaining funds for the political science and other social science departments.

Samantha Wiggins

• Desired position: Seat 15 (Various social studies disciplines)
• Major, year in school, age:
• Criminal activity charges: None.

ODE: Briefly explain your platform.
SW: I have a huge platform for environmental issues. Any issues with faculty or student issues that people will be interested in, such as the non-tenured faculty that will be kicked off. Also, I’m on a platform of reducing costs for students. I feel that needs to be addressed. And also health concerns for students. I feel that’s a big issue with smoking on campus and what should be dealt with to make that more of a health concern. I’m with the non-smoking effort. I would really like to create a smoke-free campus. I was a part of the effort at Portland Community College where I helped to make that a smoke-free campus, and I was kind of hoping to do the same thing here, whether it be d
esignated smoking areas away from the buildings so students don’t have to walk through a cloud of smoke.
ODE: What qualities and experience qualify you for the position you’re seeking?
SW: I was on student government at PCC for a year and a half. I ran on academic committees. I was on a financial committee as well. I was a student athletes director, where I organized events for clubs to participate in and also helped coordinate athletics on campus. I worked in the position. I was a part of student government. I was also a minutes-taker for the DFC at PCC, which is the district student council. I’m really involved with student issues and I care and I’m really involved with them.
ODE: What are your thoughts on the purpose and size of the student incidental fee?
SW: I believe it’s too large right now. I know that it’s one of the highest ones out of all the campuses in Oregon. And if it can’t be reduced, I at least don’t want it to be raised more than it is right now. I know just in the last year, it’s skyrocketed compared to where it was. And I think in this economy, students need to designate what they do with their money, rather than the school saying, “Hey, pay us an incidental fee and we’ll designate it for you.”
ODE: How will you ensure that you are representing your constituents’ interests?
SW: I will listen to students, first of all. I’ve already had friends who have raised concerns to me about things they’re concerned about, such as the water bottle effort here on campus, how they want to remove all water bottles to make it more environmentally friendly. I’ve also had some students talk to me about the bike issue, people running over people. Bikes are supposed to act like cars and not really listening to regulations of bikers. I’d just make sure I was listening to the students. I think a lot of my constituents would be talking through the Daily Emerald, so that helps me also.
ODE: What are some major issues facing the majors you’d represent and how would you address them?
SW: There’s a teacher being kicked off of campus, Ken, and he’s going to be kicked off of campus specifically because he’s not a tenured teacher. I believe even though this is a research-based university, we need to be more focused on the quality of the teaching, rather than the 40 percent of research that teachers are supposed to be following, also.

Grace Hochstatter

• Desired position: Seat 19 (Journalism, National Student Exchange)
• Major, year in school, age: Journalism, freshman, 19
• Criminal activity charges: None.

ODE: Briefly explain your platform.
GH: We’re advocating responsible spending and also advocating for student interest. It’s time to keep the incidental fee as is or decrease it. By being responsible for our money, we will be able to do that. And then the idea of student interests. As a journalism student, very excited about keeping the Daily Emerald informed, giving them a weekly update, that sort of thing.
ODE: What qualities and experience qualify you for the position you’re seeking?
GH: As a freshman, I’ve had a shorter period of time to be involved. I have managed to take part in DuckU. I’ve also been on the Daily Emerald as a multimedia reporter. I’m kind of an outsider, but I look at that as an opportunity to kind of look at things from the outside and maybe address things that haven’t been addressed in the past. I’ve also played a part on my high school student government. I was the speaker, so communication is something I’ve always been good at. I’ve always been a Type-A person.
ODE: What are your thoughts on the purpose and size of the student incidental fee?
GH: It needs to remain as is. Increasing it is just not responsible. As is, it is a little spendy.
ODE: How will you ensure that you are representing your constituents’ interests?
GH: That is key, crucial. I will most definitely be holding office hours and always available to talk. If J-students do have any issues, any ideas, concerns, I will most definitely be involved. I sense an overall excitement and I hope to bring that excitement to Senate.
ODE: What are some major issues facing the majors you’d represent and how would you address them?
GH: The field of journalism is changing dramatically. Probably a majority of the professions we will be going into are not yet around. It’s a matter of just embracing the broad array of possibilities that are out there.

Mike McInerney

• Desired position: Seat 20 (Education, Community Education Program)
• Major, year in school, age: Family and human services, sophomore, 20
• Criminal activity charges: None.

ODE: Briefly explain your platform.
MM: Our slate is running on the ideals of fiscal responsibility and trying to expand growth overall in the University, but in a fiscally responsible way.
ODE: What qualities and experience qualify you for the position you’re seeking?
MM: In high school, I was very involved in student government and student activities. I’m a member of Delta Tau Delta fraternity and I’ve held two positions on our administrative council since I came in as a freshman. I think it’s really important to hold others accountable.
ODE: What are your thoughts on the purpose and size of the student incidental fee?
MM: We are doing everything in our power to expand growth on the University campus without expanding the incidental fee as it is. I feel that it is expensive and it does a lot of great things, but it should remain where it’s at.
ODE: How will you ensure that you are representing your constituents’ interests?
MM: I’m really closely tied with a lot of individuals in the Education and Family Services program. Basically working with them and seeing what they need to have worked on. Also, just actively listening to both students and faculty and kind of playing the middle-man between student government and the programs itself.
ODE: What are some major issues facing the majors you’d represent and how would you address them?
MM: A major issue that’s facing a lot of education majors is budget cuts. Many teachers are losing their jobs and are being required to have more credentials to be a teacher. I feel, due to these budget cuts, it puts a lot of pressure on people to gain more access to higher education. Due to how the economy is right now, it’s extremely hard to get a job. It’s kind of a difficult one considering that I don’t have as much control over education. Really just working with the education program itself.