Jerad Nicholson is a sophomore majoring in journalism: public relations and psychology.
Oregon Daily Emerald: Why did you decide to run for student senate seat 6?
Nicholson: I actually got into the ASUO because I was interested in student government. And the reason I was interested in finding out how the student government worked was because as a freshman, I noticed a really large gap between the student body, myself and what the ASUO was working for. So, I applied for the intern position in order to kind of get my foot in the door and kind of learn how things work and how it was run. Almost immediately after i got my foot in the door, I realized that the executive side of things was not really my ballpark. So just working with that experience of being around the senate and what they do, sort of the financial side and allocation side, really seemed appealing to me. The reason I chose specifically the EMU finance position is 1) it was a two-year term, which will allow me to complete it while I’m still an undergraduate student here and 2) the EMU seems to be the center of the campus community, especially the student campus community. As an undergrad student, one of the things I really like about the University of Oregon is that we have such a diverse student community and I think the EMU is a really unique place where diverse groups of student can get together and benefit from diverse backgrounds and experiences.
Emerald: How will you figure out how to spend the surplus?
Nicholson: It’s kind of difficult because you kind of have to plan for the whole year with a big chunk of money. Currently, as I understand it, they way they’ve done it is they’ve sort of blocked it off for each term, which is very understandable considering you don’t want to run out at the end, and then they can always make exceptions. I think they’ve actually done a pretty good job of delegating who gets what money with special requests and all different things, from the few senate meetings that I have attended. The main things that are important to me are the student groups. Student groups, in my opinion, are at the center of campus life. If there were no student groups, we would just be students going to school to get an education. But it’s those groups that really allow students to come together and have a little bit more that just an in the classroom education. So those would be my priorities.
Emerald: How would you interact with those student groups?
Nicholson: Sort of the main theme of not only my campaign but, if I’m elected, my tenure as a senator is to get more input from the general student body. That’s what I see as one of the major problems with the current senate is that unless you are filing for money or filing to get something from the senate, I don’t think the average student has a very good idea of what the senate is doing for them and I don’t think the senate has a very good idea of what the students want from them. My main goal is to increase the amount of communication. Senators are required to spend a certain number of hours in the office every week. I think it would be better served that some of those hours be spent actually talking to students, making themselves available so that any student who has a concern or wants something from their student government has the ability to know when their senators are available, how to get in touch with them and what the process is for talking to them, asking them questions, getting suggestions. I think there’s a huge gap between what the senate is doing and what the average student 1) knows about what they’re doing and 2) how much input they have in it.
Emerald: What are the most important issues facing the students you’d represent?
Nicholson: Definitely the most important issues are increased tuition, access to education, which goes right along with increased tuition, and then probably would come just the general experience that students have at the University. I mean, you only have a short period of time that you can be a university student and I think it is our job 1) as students, but definitely as student representatives, to ensure that every student has the opportunity to have an excellent education and an excellent experience in gaining that education.
Emerald: What is the most important thing you should know in order to deal with the budget process?
Nicholson: As a senator, probably the Green Tape Notebook and the rules. One, as a student applying for money from the senate, I was shocked at how if you don’t know exactly what you’re doing and you don’t know the rules of the process, which are extensive and confusing, you can’t get anything done. So as a senator, I think it is probably the most important thing is to understand how things are done because it doesn’t matter what you stand for if you don’t have the ability to implement the programs and get your voice heard. So the rules of the process are probably the most important things for a senator to understand.
Emerald: What is the yearly deadline for senate to establish budgeting benchmarks?
Nicholson: Oooo, I don’t know. My guess would be in March.
Emerald: What’s the most important part of section 5 of the student senate rules and why?
Nicholson: I don’t know what section 5 would be off the top of my head.
Emerald: It outlines what the duties of student senators are. (REPEAT QUESTION)
Nicholson: I don’t know if there is actually a correct answer or if this is an opinion question, but from what I understand of senate duties, the most important part is allocating funds for the major programs, the EMU, the athletic finance and the programs finance. And then allocating the spending for the surplus.
Jerad Nicholson’s Interview
Daily Emerald
April 2, 2003
More to Discover