Petkun, Ravassipour want to change tuition rules

Adam Petkun, a junior political science major, is running for ASUO president. Mena Ravassipour, a junior general science/pre-med major, is running for ASUO vice president.
 
Emerald: Quickly summarize your priorities.
Petkun: We have four main priorities. The first is exposing and eliminating what I like to call the sketchy scheduling penalties. Starting on day one of the term, if students have to switch out of a class … they incur a 15 percent penalty on tuition. They only get an 85 percent refund. Not a lot of students know about it, so I’m going to let students know about it and start to work to build some sort of a grace period. This is a policy that’s set by the school. They need to actually renew it every single year with the registrar, so next time it comes up we want to be able to talk about it.
Ravassipour: And then, the second portion of our platform is encouraging these confluences of unique voices on campus. And with that, we mean making the ASUO a better resource. … The third one would be the health and safety platform issue that we’re going to be raising. The health center is … kind of hidden, so they’ve just hired a new architect, and they’re going to be making it bigger and lighter … When you look at education it’s not just about learning, it’s about mental and physical wellness, as well. Petkun: And then finally … is legislative advocacy. Tuition is going up 12 percent next year. In 1987-89, higher education was over 13 percent of the state budget. Now, we’re only six percent. This is something that has to stop right now. We want to lead with a record-breaking voter-registration drive because students don’t have a lot of money to lobby legislators, but we do have votes. We have almost 20,000 on this campus and 70,000 statewide.
Emerald: How will you succeed where other administrations have failed in keeping campaign promises?
Petkun: It differs from issue to issue, but for each issue we really have a plan of how we’re going to do this. For example, the sketchy scheduling penalty … We want to know how the decisions have been made in the past, why the students haven’t been consulted and how we can get into the process in the future. The administration is going to hear what we have to say, and we’re going to make that change. The first thing we need to do is to have a record-breaking voter-registration drive. I’ve done this in the past. I’ve registered over 3,000 students in the 2002 election. I also have a lot of experience in legislative advocacy, winning back millions of dollars to the Oregon Opportunity Grant, winning back money for the Student Child Care Block Grant and also keeping tuition out of the hands of Johnson Hall.
Emerald: How will you maintain an open government that keeps students informed about the ASUO and allows adequate media access?
Petkun: The most important thing is communication — being approachable. I’ve run a staff of interns in the past, and we did a great job of working together… Just allowing people to come to us and feel comfortable coming to us.
Emerald: What’s your fiscal philosophy in regard to the incidental fee?
Petkun: Right now, the average student graduate is over $15,000 in debt, and that’s why legislative advocacy is so important to us. We want to make sure that the student fee is allocated properly and that it continues to serve students. But, right now, the services it provides are immeasurable. In terms of the money saved by not having to buy a bus pass, the money saved by not having to buy a gym membership because you can use the (Student Recreation and Fitness Center) for free — those are some of the services that it provides, and that’s why it’s important to have it.
Emerald: What’s your favorite reality television show, and how does it relate to your campaign?
Petkun: My favorite reality TV show is ESPN’s “Dream Job,” one, because I’m a big sports fan and, second, because I really like the effort the contestants have to put into it as far as thought and planning that goes into it, and then making sure they perform when they’re on the spot.

— Jared Paben