ASUO President-elect Amelie Rousseau will likely soon name her staff for the coming year. Twenty-two positions are open, 16 of them on Rousseau’s staff. Among the positions will be five new to the ASUO, while Rousseau is eliminating six positions.
Here’s an outline of what’s new and what’s being eliminated.
New positions:
- Accessibility advocate — The job of this person is to try to persuade the University to build facilities that are more accessible for students with disabilities and to sit on the University’s Planning Committee. Creating the accessibility advocate was an oft-cited part of presidential candidate Jairo Castaneda’s campaign. When Castaneda, who ran against Rousseau, was defeated in the primary election, his slate endorsed her, and she took up the cause of creating the position.
- Graduate & non-traditional student advocate — The position is intended to be an advocate for graduate and law students and ones defined as non-traditional, including those over 24 years old and community college transfers. Graduate and law students were once represented by a separate advocate from non-traditional ones, but the ASUO has historically struggled to fill both positions.
- Housing advocate — The housing advocate will attempt to make finding lodging easier for students, a job that includes putting housing listings on the ASUO Web site. Housing was one of the central issues of Rousseau’s platform. The creation of this position is her solution to concerns over the shortage of housing for fraternities and sororities.
- Political director — The political director will participate in formulating policy with Rousseau and Vice President Maneesh Arora, as well as direct the Rousseau staff’s relations with the media. Previously, much of these responsibilities were practiced by the ASUO’s chief-of-staff. The position advertises for someone with “ASUO policy knowledge.”
- Programs liaison — The programs liaison will take up some responsibilities of the current programs administrator position and run the Programs Recognition and Review Committee.
Eliminated positions:
- Communications director — The communications director served as the ASUO’s spokesperson and dealt with other programs.
- Fundraising coordinator and Web communications advocate — Emma Kallaway created both positions for her staff, but Rousseau will retain neither.
- International student advocate — The position has gone unfilled all year.
- Veterans and non-traditional student advocate and graduate student advocate — Rousseau will combine the two positions.