Here are three of the biggest issues the University community was affected by this fall.
Mallard Madness senate funding
Well, this has been fun. In case you haven’t been following ASUO politics, here’s a quick rundown of the latest controversy. Essentially, what started as a request from the Executive’s office to start an endowment for a yearly concert has turned into an indictment of the way the ASUO Senate hands out its reserves. And recently, they’ve added a committee component to their rules, whose job it is to receive pitches for a piece of the Over-Realized Fund and make recommendations to the Senate.
Protesters attended Senate to argue that these rules should have been followed, and while the Senate technically didn’t follow those rules, it also technically doesn’t have to under the ASUO Constitution. At the end of the day, there wasn’t a committee in place yet, even if the Exec wanted to follow that procedure. It’s a really tricky case and probably won’t be fully solved until an amendment of the ASUO Constitution removes the ambiguity from how Senate appropriates this money.
The Ducks’ sturdy BCS standing
At the top of the Oregon sporting news of the term has been about where the Duck footballers rank among the nation’s elite. Consistently in the top five teams in both the Associated Press poll and the Bowl Championship Series standings, the Ducks tore through their schedule. With the exception of Stanford and the early going against California, the team has simply verged onto unbeatable territory, which has made for a pretty fun season. The team is now likely headed for the Fiesta Bowl to likely play Kansas State, which would be a really interesting game with plenty of storylines, to cap off what has to already go down as one of the best seasons in the team’s history.
Eugene City Council is always interesting
This term has seen the issue of student parties in Eugene neighborhoods hit a crescendo during the second half of the term. The City Council has been debating the idea of large fines in response to the police being called to deal with loud parties. The student reaction to this proposed Social Host Ordinance has been great, though I hope it will continue to be a part of the discussion even if the upcoming council vote on Jan. 28, 2013, doesn’t go their way. We need to be able to find out a way as a community to send a real message that truly out-of-control parties that affect neighbors are not acceptable without the outrageous fine.