Richie Carpenter
AY: Why don’t you start with your name?
RC: My name is Richie Carpenter. Its R-i-c-h-i-e. A lot of people want to put the T in there.
AY: OK. And what’s you major and class standing?
RC: My major is bio-chemistry and my class standing as far, I think I’m a sophomore, I think that’s what you’re asking. Yeah sophomore.
AY: And why are you running for this position? Why are you running for student government?
RC: Well, on a general scale, the reason why I’m running for student government I think is that when I was in high school, I started getting into leadership programs, I think around my sophomore year. I took a class with — it was a history class as a matter of fact — but the teacher that was the, we had a program at our school called the Pride Program, and what it did was worked around giving out awards, scholastic awards, and putting on venues for the high school, putting on art shows, putting on theatrical productions, helping aid those with our art department, our drama department, and I really got excited about that. I think that was the start of me getting into leadership and I was elected into what was the Pride chair at the time and what they were responsible for was making sure like awards went out and nominations were counted and ballots and all that good stuff and I got excited about that and I joined the — well I guess it was my freshman year. But my sophomore year also I was elected the president of the FFA of my high school, which was really, you know, really substantial and I really started to learn like the concepts of parliamentary procedure and went to competitions and started going to speaking competitions and stuff. And leadership, you know, the FFA teaches so much about leadership. A lot of people thinks it’s just about agriculture, but I really think a lot of it’s about leadership. Then, for my senior year I went for the FBLA — Future Business Leaders of America — and so and in case you’re wondering what the FFA is, it’s the National FFA Organization, but most people know it as Future Farmers of America, but that’s not what it’s called anymore. It’s just the FFA organization.
And the reason why I came — you know I did so many programs in high school that I just thought I was burnt out when I came to college, and so in my sophomore year, I pretty much didn’t do anything and then near the end of the year the bug started getting me, you know, even though I had all these hard classes and stuff that I wanted to be more involved like I used to be. And so I joined SACS, which is Student Government Chemistry group, chemistry club if you want to do it what way. And our chapter, it was pretty much dead here at the UO and my generation is the one that revived it, with the help of Randy Sullivan, who is the chemistry demonstration teacher, and this, that’s not important but… That kind of kicked it off and then this year, I became the coordinator with club sports for the running club, and brought that club back into acknowledgment. It’s a program that hadn’t been around for a couple of years. It tried to last year, and the coordinator had some difficulties and I being a member, it was kind of hard. So now I’m the coordinator and the program is back in full and I’m really, I was really excited about that. And this is where it comes into play that I found out about the whole ASU, ASOU, Argh. Yeah, you got me. I’m dyslexic, by the way.
AY: OK
RC: And so I was — during the budget hearings for club sports, I went to one of the EMU Board meetings for club sports talking about our budget and talking about staff and it was really of concern to me because I knew that if budgets weren’t passed or something that may be my sport, my club which wasn’t very prevalent in club sports, you know — it’s been there a long time, but it’s been inactive for a long time too — that monies might , you know, might be more likely to come from mine and what not. So I was concerned and you know, and it was mandatory to go to the meeting. And it was really exciting and I got that rush again of what it’s like to have parliamentary procedure and what it’s like to have, like, student leadership, and how important that is to like the functioning of the university and a school for that matter, just, you know, to have student leaders make the student populace feel that they can somehow make a contribution. And so I went into the office and I looked at, and just went and looked into it and found out that the elections were coming and so I you know read through the packets and stuff and decided upon this position, which I was excited about. And then second I went for the EMU Board and, I mean, I didn’t know at the time that I couldn’t go for two. But, I was made aware of that and I did select this position and this position I think is very important. I had to weigh time, like the time I could donate, contribute to the position because I really wanted to go for EMU Board, but I feel that it’s a position that’s very important that I don’t know if I’d have the time to dedicate with my major. And so…
AY: Since you’ve chosen this position, could you tell me a little bit about what the committee you’re running for does?
RC: This committee is really important because it meets with the president of the University. Do you know what the position does or are you kind of just asking me to know?
AY: Yeah.
RC: Well, the position — you meet with the president and you talk about contemporary student issues. There are so many things on a campus level, like on a higher up level, that need to come up, concern to the president. There’s things the president of the United States has many advisers that are specially designed in their area to report to the president and tell him, ‘OK, so we’re having some difficulties, some attention needs to be made there,’ and I see that the president of the university must think that this is a wonderful program. I know that when I go to class, the president doesn’t sit down next to me and understand the circumstances that I’m going through and so on this scale he can have committee members explain and emphasize on a myriad of scales what the students want and what he can do to accommodate those things. And in the case of the committee members such as what I would be applying for, you basically become an ambassador and you know that exponential in importance in a well functioning organization that is the University of Oregon.
AY: So what would you say are some of the most important issues affecting students you hope to represent — that you’ll take to the president?
RC: I think, honest question — and I thought about this question because I had this question with John the other day, and I was thinking how I might explain it for this. And I really — my honest feeling was to go into it almost non-partisan, almost to not have an agenda as to bring up to the president, because I don’t necessarily think that I have — hasn’t been a priority, tried to get out the student body and hear what the vibe is, which is something that’s very important for that position, you know what I mean? I think right off the cuff, I think what’s important is, I think that’s increasingly important to expand diversity at the University of Oregon. I think that should be something that should always be emphasized on and I don’t think that’s that can necessarily be accomplished. That should be the goal of a university, is to represent the world in a smaller setting. So many people here at the UO have, particularly myself, have grown up in such a small, conservative setting. And I grew up in a small city on Oregon. When I came to the UO, I don’t want to say that I was biased, but to see all of it, so many things was exciting, like going to fair, because there were so many different, wonderful aspects of the world that coming from a smaller, secluded place you can’t necessarily experience and I think that represents the student body as a whole. I think a lot of people at the UO come from remote areas, would it be from Oreg
on or the United States, and not to make public mockeries or to make like big deals about having diversity, but I think it’s something that people need to understand and feel within them in order to be productive members of society. And I think that’s something I would emphasize to the president is diversity and not only, you know, racial diversity, but, you know, sexual diversity and all kinds of stuff and all kinds of the wonderful things that are available and really not try to present a bias to the students and let them decide for themselves. Does that make sense a little bit?
AY: Yes.
RC: Am I off key?
AY: Oh yeah, it makes perfect sense. Anything else you’d like to add to that?
RC: I’m not entirely aware how many people serve on this committee and so…
AY: Don’t you think that’s something you should be knowing now?
RC: Well, yes and no. I don’t know how many. I just like, as far as, I don’t think it necessarily makes a difference whether there’s 20 or 30, or 30 or 40, and I’m going to assume that it’s not terribly many. I know how many candidates I’m running against, but I think that it’s important like for voters, like a thing for voters, is to be able to root out who they feel best represents them because that’s ultimately who they’re voting for, is someone to represent them to the president. And you know the president has a lot of power at the university making decisions and what not and so they should really go for the candidate that they feel best represents them.