Toby Piering
Age: 21
Major: Political science
Hometown: Dallas, Ore.
Year: Junior
Emerald: If you had to summarize your platform in, maybe a couple of sentences, taking it down to the core, what would you say is the summary of your platform.
Piering: My primary issue is continued work on the no-show factor. I worked on the ADFC this year, so I’m pretty familiar with a lot of the problems and student issues that need to be addressed. But the biggest issue is that students aren’t using these tickets that they’re paying for and student money is being wasted, the problem needs to be addressed and I have a couple of ideas to help solve that. One is I’d like to advertise more the waiting list. There is a waiting list involved with the ASUO, perhaps get students better access to that waiting list and advertise it so they know it’s out there. Also, I’d like to propose, and I’ve already talked to the Executive about getting funding for this somehow for next year, having drop boxes, so students if they’re not going to use their tickets, can drop them off at designated areas across campus that are pretty easy to access, like in the dorms or outside the ticket office or at the bookstore, like metal drop boxes. And then those tickets can then be picked up and delivered to people on the waiting list. Also more advertisement of these drop boxes. Also awareness that students realizing they’re paying for these tickets, a lot of students view them as they’re free. And it’s not, it’s a privilege. And, like, making them more aware of that, I think they’re more apt to use the tickets if they know they’re spending however much money on them, one-point-something million dollars. And then also I’d like to increase student awareness of the non-revenue generating sports such as, you know, softball, volleyball, soccer, etcetera. And try to get more students to attend those to support athletics here at the University of Oregon.
Emerald: What would you say is the background you have that qualifies you to be on the ADFC?
Piering: I have a pretty great knowledge of student government here at this University. I worked as an intern at the executive office for my whole freshman year. After that, I was elected to the vice chairman of the Programs Finance Committee, so I have a strong financial background. I’m also very familiar, since I worked with the executive, how the executive interacts with the senate which interacts with the financial groups, like the PFC. Also, I was on ADFC last year as an executive appointee, so I think it would be very beneficial to students to have someone who’s aware of the issues already because the entire ADFC is going to be gone next year. That’s why I decided to run for election again, to hopefully give students, you know, the knowledge and experience they need. I have a strong background in finance and just representing student interests instead of my own.
Emerald: Why would you say, you kind of touched on this but if there’s anything you want to add, why would you say that you want the job?
Piering: I feel in the past that student interests are not always consistently represented. The average — I’d like to represent the average student as well as the minority student and I think in the past, looking at especially how the ADFC budget was criticized this year, the overall student interest on this campus wasn’t represented, I think. A lot of students do attend these games and view that they’re student tickets are a big part of what they’re doing here at the University of Oregon. A lot of that was overlooked and the process was made incredibly difficult. Also just further to address the no-show factor, which is an incredibly difficult problem and a lot of people don’t really have an understanding. And that was made fairly difficult through the Senate this year and trying to increase communications between the Senate and ADFC and maybe getting a larger group because I think the problem goes beyond the ADFC’s power to, you know, fix it. So work on that, and that’s about it.
Emerald: In light of the ASUO retreat to Sunriver, what would you say is the best way next year to ensure proper accountability for student leaders.
Piering: First of all, I want to make it clear that I didn’t attend that retreat and I’ll leave it at that. But I think student leaders need to realize that, you know, they are dealing with money, large amounts of money. And this money comes from my pocket, your pocket and all the students on campus. And I think that student leaders kind of lose perspective on representing the average student. People get caught up in their own agendas and such. And I like to be very accountable to students and, you know, get my e-mail average out there. When I was on PFC I worked very closely with students and I just think you need to keep in mind you’re representing every student on campus. And it is a constituency representative, you have to put aside your personal beliefs and have viewpoint neutrality. I really learned the essentials of that on PFC. I’m a real numbers guy, you know? I look into numbers you set your personal issues aside. I think that really needs to occur in order for student leaders to be accountable to students. And also just acting with ethics and morals, which I think, you know, I really tried to push that in my leadership style and I think that needs to be a focus of every student leader on campus.