Nick Hudson: 20
Major: Political Science
Year in school: Junior
Hometown: Beloit, Wisc.
Allison Sprouse
Age: 20
Year in school: Junior
Major: Human Physiology
Hometown: Aloha, Ore.
Emerald: What do you believe qualifies you for this position as president and vice-president?
Hudson: What qualifies me to run as president is, during the three years that I’ve been here at the University of Oregon, I’ve been involved in many facets of student life whether it was an ASUO legislative intern my sophomore year through the entire year, an IntroDUCKtion leader that summer, and then the year after that I was the (Athletic Department Finance Committee) executive appointee, and then this year I’m the ASUO social science major

senator. Through my involvement in ASUO, but as well as in other facets of student life — for example, I’m president of Delta Sigma Phi fraternity and I’ve been involved in the International Student Orientation; I was the recruitment director. I’ve work in the Office of International Programs for three years. Just the numerous amount of activities that I’ve been involved in has just been inspired me to become more involved and put forth something that we believe can change the campus.
Emerald: What about you?
Sprouse: I actually was an intern for the multicultural advocates my freshman year for two terms and then I was also intern for the programs coordinator. My sophomore year and my junior year partially, I was a student fundraiser for the annual giving program and so I learned a lot about programs and the need for funding at the University, which I think is a very important part of being a ASUO executive member because obviously because you are working with funds and working for the students and budgeting is definitely a major concern.
Emerald: And why do you want this job?
Hudson: I think one of the reasons why we wanted this job is because we want to provide tangible benefits to students. A lot of students have come up to me through my major, through my interactions whether it’s been with the student government or OIP or whether it’s been Greek life. A lot of students have come to me and said well they don’t sometimes see a lot of the tangible benefits that the ASUO provides to students. And so that’s one of the reasons why we wanted to run and why we want this position is to actually provide those tangible benefits to students so that everyone else can realize that the ASUO is doing something for them.
Sprouse: Yes, and also we wanted it, when we talk about our platform you’ll see that a lot of the things we want to do are very feasible, which is something that’s very important to us in making promises to students that actually can happen. And that’s another reason why we decided to run.
Emerald: In light of the ASUO retreat to Sunriver, what do you feel is the best way to ensure proper accountability on all levels with student leaders next year if you get elected?
Sprouse: My opinion is making sure that there is a strict code of conduct with how you act on retreats and if anything is violated, there will be consequences that will be reinforced and also just making sure that we have — that we make sure that the point is that we’re going for a retreat for purposes of training and not for having fun.
Hudson: It’s not to say that we don’t want students to have fun, but we also realize that as student leaders we all have the responsibility to actually do what we were elected for and continue with the promises that we made towards to students and that’s something that’s very important to us and to our supporters as well. It’s really important that student leaders go there to be trained regarding the incidental fee as well viewpoint neutrality. That’s something that in our opinion this past year as one can see with all the problems that have happened with viewpoint neutrality, (the Programs Finance Committee), and just some of the other benchmark questions that have been there — I think if there had been the proper structure of training and the importance placed on the benchmark, such as for instance frontloading and making sure that all student groups and all the major programs follow the guidelines set forth, as well as the executive follow the guidelines set forth and the benchmark — that could be something that could be there.
Emerald: How would you organize your staff next year to reflect your priorities?
Sprouse: We are planning on adding an additional member — or with our changes we will provide a liaison to the Career Center, to the Multicultural Center and what…
Hudson: Just to the UO mentoring program and basically what it is is it coincides with our — the opportunities that we want to create for the ASUO to produce for students is to have a career and networking advising and that will be that position. Some of the additions that we want to add is still having a focus on the legislative and having a focus on past ASUO executives, but also a major focus of the executive which would be done would be focusing like you had said our platform and our lot of our platform revolves around running to change things. And so we hire individuals who are highly motivated and highly committed to the University of Oregon. The stipends were reduced this year and so like the financial incentive is no longer there so that’s why we need to do it, but we also plan to have an executive that represents the University of Oregon population, the diversity that does exist, and hiring the most qualified individuals. I think that’s something that’s very important.
Sprouse: Especially for our budgeting, we want to make sure we have an accounting advisor that is extremely well-versed in everything with that so that we can have budget recommendations, benchmark recommendations that are accurate and can be held — for all the programs to be held responsible for.
Hudson: As well as having an actual programs administrator. This past year, the ASUO executive has not had a programs administrator the entire year and that’s something that — who’s supposed to run the Programs Council meeting? (ASUO Vice-president) I mean Mena’s been doing a good job. She’s been trying to. (ASUO Programs Administrative Assistant) Brandy Ota has been doing so as well. Unfortunately, it’s supposed to be a student — this is a student government. And to overbear Mena, in my opinion, with all the extra things that she has had to do because there hasn’t been that programs administrator to deal with the grievances that were filed, to deal with all these other responsibilities that the programs administrator — I realize that’s something that we really want to do and that’s on of the things that’s in our platform, is providing support to groups and that’s one way we do plan to provide support to groups.
Emerald: Summarize your platform in a couple of sentences and what exemplifies what you hope to accomplish?
Hudson: It might not be two sentences but I can go very fast. Our platform is basically “Ride the Wave of Change.” And we plan to do a lot of change. CHANGE is an acronym. It stands for Community collaboration; Health and safety; Affordability; New Opportunities; Group support and Educational and Student rights. So what we plan to do is — a lot of our platform revolves around providing tangible benefits to the University of Oregon. For example, in the “New opportunities”, we are going to be focusing on providing leadership opportunities for students, partnering with the Eugene 4-J school district and providing a leadership conference here at the University of Oregon. A
nother thing in the “New opportunities” is working with the Alumni Association, the student alumni relations board as well as the Eugene City Council as well at the UO administration to create homecoming activities, something that all students can feel pride about a
s well as the career networking as we have previously said. And health and safety…
Sprouse: Yeah, health and safety is very important. We want to be able to put more lighting on campus, including the Pioneer graveyard, which is extremely dark as well as the Autzen footbridge. Students are going to be walking back and forth in those areas and it’s important to have well-lit areas so they feel safe walking in these areas, as well as more emergency call-boxes in these areas and also having a cohesiveness in our alcohol policy. Right now students on campus call in alcohol poisoning, (Department of Public Safety) tickets them for minor in possession and we feel that that is not necessarily a good policy because students may hesitate in calling in, in fear of being penalized and that could put someone’s life in jeopardy.
Hudson: We also plan on focusing on the students’ educational rights and among those are we plan on doing a students rights’ campaign where we get out there and tell students their rights. I’ m on, I have been on the Student Conduct Code committee for two years and Student Conduct Code is going up for hearings this upcoming fall in front of the University Senate. We want to get all students out there to educate them one about the new changes that we have been putting through as well as talking about the new housing standards. There’s new people moving in, there’s new people moving in next fall and there’s going to be — we’re going to try to do all that. Another thing is affordability, accountability with the incidental fee as well as working Salem with the legislators to work towards the tuition freeze, carrying on what (ASUO President and Vice-President ) Adam (Petkun) and Mena (Ravassipour) have done so far in the legislature.
Sprouse: And also with affordability we’re making sure — and also with education we’re making sure that the incidental fee is maintained, so we can maintain the accurate, the current level of service because right now students are having a hard time with the tuition and if tuition increases this is the one thing we can control. And making sure — we can’t cut it obviously because it’s a very important fee, but we need to make sure that it’s maintained and affordable for all students.
— Ayisha Yahya