The campaign for ASUO executive is always fierce. In the 2002 elections, 10 tickets vied for the top elected seat in student government. This year, only six tickets are competing for the student vote in the April 9 through April 11 primary election. Christa Shively and her running mate, Greg Bae, plan to draw from their experience on the EMU Board and in the greek system, respectively, while Maddy Melton and her running mate, Eddy Morales, have worked closely in the current ASUO administration as co-Multicultural Advocates.
The 23-year-old Melton, a junior in sociology and women’s studies, has been involved with student programs since her freshman year. She currently chairs the Oregon Statewide Student Equal Rights Alliance and is active in the United States Student
Association. Morales, also 23 years old, is an undeclared junior.
Q: What are your campus initiatives?
Melton: The first campus initiative would be student empowerment, which essentially means having more student representation in decision-making bodies. So, for example, the general assembly is made up of 1,500 administrators and faculty members, yet there’s only 49 students.
Our second issue is fair housing contracts. This pretty much speaks to there being no term, no grace period for students to get out of their residence hall contracts. For instance, if somebody wants to become part of the greek system and can’t get out of their dorm contract, it’s not giving that student the experience they’re looking for.
Morales: The third issue is graduate and law school student advocacy. (We will) create a position in our office that will advocate for those students. Law school and graduate students pay the same amount of student fees; however, they don’t receive comparable services.
Our last issue is supporting international student issues. As we know, international students pay the same amount of money to go here as out-of-state students, yet don’t receive or don’t have access to the resources that they do.
Q: How would you make the ASUO relevant to students?
Melton: To make something relevant, you first have to make it accessible. I think you can never do enough work around making the community that you serve feel welcome. Then you work on tangible issues that actually affect people’s lives — like tuition, like making sure there’s students representing the rest of the student population in decision-making bodies.
Christa Shively, a 21-year-old senior double major in history and women and gender studies, is chairwoman of the EMU Board and EMU representative on the Associated Students Presidential Advisory Board. Twenty-two-year-old Greg Bae is a senior triple major in mathematics, economics and political science. Bae is a member of Delta Sigma Phi and has worked with APASU and OSPIRG.
Q: What are your campus initiatives?
Shively: To begin with, we want to continue the leadership development center initiative. (That) would be a center on campus where people could receive leadership training in a non-biased, non-political environment.
Bae: The second issue — the point system. Our focus is to increase the quality of life for residence hall students. In instituting a universal point system (for food), we would spearhead a campaign to be able to use those points for EMU vendors.
Shively: The EMU Board has looked at doing this for the past couple years, but we never really had the leverage to get it done. I think it’s something the board is still interested in pursuing. I think if we were able to mobilize enough pressure from a broad base of students on campus then housing could be persuaded.
The third issue is diversity.
Bae: I’ve been working with the MCC and APASU, so issues that pertain to students of color is something that really hits home with me. (We plan) to introduce a new staff position — the student events coordinator. This person would bring the campus at large together by having one place where information on the student union events, greek related events and sporting events can be accessible.
Q: How do you make the ASUO relevant to students?
Bae: Many students don’t have a lot of knowledge of what the ASUO does and how it affects campus. The student events coordinator or a bi-weekly ASUO column in the Emerald would increase the awareness of how the ASUO is relevant to their day-to-day lives as students.
Click below to see the full transcript of the candidate’s interview:
Melton/Morales Interview
Shively/Bae Interview
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