Nick Popenuk, a sophomore planning public policy and management major, is running for ASUO president. Joseph Giannetti, a junior history major, is running for ASUO vice president.
 
Emerald: Quickly summarize your priorities.
Popenuk: Our major priorities are going to be to get the students involved — in general the entire student body. As it is right now, the ASUO is not very well known by the student body — there’s not a lot of effort to make the students realize what the ASUO does for them. We feel that our biggest priority is making sure the students have a voice.
Emerald: How will you succeed in keeping your campaign promises where other administrations have failed?
Popenuk: We’ve looked at the ASUO Constitution and we realize that we have limited power, and so during our campaign, we’re not making bunches of promises that are beyond our jurisdiction. There’s a lot of things that would be great to have happen for the students. If we could get better housing standards, if we could have lower tuition, (but) that’s not within our direct powers. And so certainly if we have a forum where next year as president I could advocate for these sort of things to happen … then yeah, we would definitely express that point of view.
Emerald: How will you maintain an open government that keeps students informed about the ASUO and allows adequate media access?
Popenuk: Well, that’s one of the things we are promising for me and Joe is that we want it to be an open government, we want people to feel that the ASUO is there working for them, listening to their concerns. We’re going to go to as many meetings as we can, listen to as many students as we can, and see what issues they’re concerned about and how we can help them out. And as far as for providing adequate media coverage, we absolutely have no problem with speaking to representatives of the media and giving them as much information as possible.
Emerald: What’s your fiscal philosophy in regard to the student incidental fee?
Popenuk: I haven’t actually looked at the budget. I understand there’s a lot of clubs that need funding, and that’s what all the money goes to … certainly if there’s any way that we can see this budget and see that a lot of it is spent inadequately or just inefficiently, then yeah, if we could spend less and get the same result that would be fantastic. But, we just want to make sure that whatever money does get spent gets spent responsibly and benefits the largest number of students possible.
Emerald: What’s your favorite reality television show, and how does it relate to your campaign?
Popenuk: My favorite reality television show would be … “Most Extreme Elimination Challenge”. It relates to our campaign because it’s a little out there, it’s a little bit different than other shows you might have seen. At the end of the day, some people get hurt, some people are having a great time. But overall, everyone just really enjoys the show.

— Parker Howell