Oregon Daily Emerald: Can you tell me your name, what year you are in school, what your major is, that sort of thing.
Sittner: My name’s Chris Sittner, I’m a sophomore and I’m actually a double major. I’m a journalism major with a magazine focus and an economics major. I’m a business minor. I grew up in Eugene. Anything else?
Emerald: Are you involved in any other activities or student groups on campus?
Sittner: I write for the Oregon Commentator. That’s the only group I’m active with right now.
Emerald: Are you a staff writer or just a freelancer?
Sittner: I’m a staff writer and I help do various things on the staff. I basically call myself the copy boy, but I don’t think that needs to be in the paper. Anything else you need for the little bio?
Emerald: Why did you decide to run for ASUO office?
Sittner: It was sort of a group decision, but I’ve been thinking about it since last year. They thought that I’d probably be a good choice for senator and I’ve become pretty politically active with the Commentator lately. I ran for a few student office positions back in grade school and middle school, but that never panned out. Basically I felt that I could make a difference. I’d been going to some of the senate meetings earlier in the year, and thought I could be a good senator myself.
Emerald: Well, what makes you think that?
Sittner: I feel that I have a good view of how things work on campus, that I sort of understand some of the students’ views and I sort of represent some of the unspoken minority of conservatives on campus. I feel that I could be very fiscally responsible and make rather unbiased opinions and votes on whether or not things could be, well not things, but whether or not something should be given the money that we have to vote on or any other issues that the senate has to vote on. In fact, on many occasions I’ve disagreed with the stance of the Commentator just because I feel it was really unfair. I feel that things were in the right and sometimes they took a more conservative stance than I felt was necessary for the paper’s viewpoint. Let me think of an instance. I can’t think of one off the top of my head, it might come to me later on.
Emerald: If you are elected, how will you determine how to spend the senate surplus?
Sittner: I want to spend it with anything I feel is necessary to help benefit the education of students on campus. I’m going to try and be fiscally responsible and I hope student groups are too. I really only want to help fund student groups that are fiscally responsible, and also follow all the guidelines of the student group rules, I guess, laws, on campus. I don’t know the term that you’d use. Basically I feel that a student group of any orientation should be allowed on campus, like the Insurgent — I fully support that. I feel that you should always be open to the other side on arguments so that you can be better educated yourself. I feel that it’s necessary to look at both sides of things and I think that having a diversity of student groups on campus helps students become more culturally and educationally and politically educated. That didn’t really work. Politically and culturally educated. I think that it’s necessary to basically be open for all sorts of student groups and views on campus.
Emerald: How would you determine what constitutes fiscal responsibility?
Sittner: Buying things that there’s a purpose for. Not frivolously buying things. Showing us your purchase reports, is that what they’re called?
Emerald: Purchase orders.
Sittner: Yeah, purchase orders, the P.O.’s. Showing us your accounting charts. Basically letting us see that you are spending the money the way you’re supposed to be and not doing anything improper with it. That’s about it by what I mean by that.
Emerald: If you are elected, how will you interact with student groups?
Sittner: I plan on being very personable to them. In my campaign, I plan on going and meeting with each and every student group on campus that I can, and see if there’s anything that I can help them obtain or attain. Basically, I feel that they’re one of the strongest and most necessary extracurricular things on campus to help educate students on things they don’t necessarily learn in the classroom. That’s about it for that.
Emerald: What are the most important issues facing the students you would represent if elected?
Sittner: I think a lot of it is the financial aid right now, but I don’t know if I have much of a say in that. Do you know? I don’t think as a student senator I have much to say on that.
Emerald: I don’t think you could change the world, but I think you could bring it to the attention of people who can.
Sittner: Yeah, I think that really to stay itself is being very fiscally irresponsible and has a lot of budget issues that they need to fix. I really disagree with Measure 28 for instance. I think that that wasn’t really the answer to rebalancing the budget. I think we need to go deep inside the budget and look at where we’re spending and what we’re spending everything on and reprioritize, and then maybe do something like Measure 28. I think that the state’s having its priorities out of whack. It really needs to put its emphasis on education. I know that was a big thing on the gubernatorial race. But I don’t know, I haven’t seen Kulongoski do as much as he was promising. There was Measure 28 right off the bat, but that was it that I’ve seen from him.
Emerald: OK, well what are the most important issues facing the students you would represent that you could help the most?
Sittner: I hope to bring awareness on campus on issues people might not take notice of, like just show people to be diverse, let them have the other viewpoint taught to them. I was really disappointed with this campus when they started protesting Michael Savage. I felt that having someone like that on the radio, I’ve never listened to him so I can’t say that I’d support him or not, sort of gave people the other viewpoint, and there’s the First Amendment, and you should be supporting free speech. In fact, a lot of people in this campus who usually would support free speech, I was disappointed, were supporting the protest of Michael Savage. I think I would try to make more people aware of the alternative viewpoints out there, a lot of people, to see all sides of the issue they’re arguing against. I think that’s something very necessary when you’re politically active, which this campus tries to be a lot. I just hope to educate the campus on things they don’t usually do on their own. Which is sort of harsh to say, but I think it’s sort of a pattern with a lot of people on this campus.
Emerald: And how would you accomplish those goals?
Sittner: That’s a good question. I guess just going through to the student groups, maybe trying to hold meetings of some sort through the campus to help, maybe debates on both sides of the issue. Try and write letters to the editor to the Emerald, just have them print out my other viewpoint, which a lot of times opposes those on campus, but that’s sort of self-centered to say, I guess. Basically try and get people to be aware. I can’t think of a general way to say it, so I guess just whatever issue it is, try and think up a way that would help get people see the other issue, see the other side of the issue. I answered that very clumsily, very poorly.
Emerald: What is the most important thing you should know in order to deal with the budget process?
Sittner: I think that people should be very educated on how accounting and finance works, not necessarily that they have to take an accounting class or something, but I think that they should sort of be taught when they become a finance senator the system and shown how everything works and given a little tutorial on how everything’s budgeted and how everything’s prioritized. Yeah, I think that’s about it for that.
Emerald: What kind of accounti
ng or financial background do you feel you have that will make you a valuable candidate?
Sittner: Well, I’ve always had business throughout my life, my dad’s a financial planner in town. I’ve always just sort of been around money and around business and around the economy. I’m an economics major and a business minor right now. I’m going to be taking accounting next term, which I hope to help utilize that to my full advantage as a senator. I feel that I am pretty strong in my understanding of how everything works in the business world, in the sense of how everything flows, and how money’s transferred and the standard uses of spreadsheets and things like that.
Emerald: Do you have any experience with the Programs Finance Committee process of allocating student incidental fees?
Sittner: The only really experience I have is going to a few of the meetings, not any firsthand experience myself. Just a few firsthand witnesses of the meetings of allocating funds like this year. That’s about it for my experience on that.
Emerald: What two ways can the senate call a special meeting? It’s directly from the student senate rule book.
Sittner: I know one of the ways is … I guess, special meeting. That’s a good question, I haven’t read that yet. I don’t know.
Emerald: Have you read the student senate rule book at all?
Sittner: I haven’t had the chance to read it fully.
Emerald: What would you say the most important part of section five of the Student Senate rule book is and why?
Sittner: I’m being quizzed. Section five, I think that was the one on receiving funds. I don’t remember the order in which things came out.
Emerald: Well, section five actually was listing the duties of the student senators.
Sittner: That’s a good question. I guess that it’s necessary to have guidelines so they things go in order and they don’t get chaotic, but that isn’t really much of an answer. I can’t really say right now off the top of my head.