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Associated Students Presidential Advisory Council (ASPAC) is an 11-member committee that meets at least twice each term with University President Dave Frohnmayer to advise him on matters that concern students. ASPAC is also charged with improving relationships between the student body and the administration.
One at-large member is elected for a two-year term every other year. The rest of the council is made up of representatives from within the ASUO and students who represent various concerns in campus life, such as the Inter-fraternity Council and non-traditional students.
The Student Senate is made up of 18 members, 9 of which represent various majors within the University. Seat 11 represents undeclared majors, Seat 13 represents business administration majors, Seat 15 represents arts and science (economics, environmental studies, international studies, medieval studies, philosophy, political science, religious studies, sociology, women’s and gender studies, and women’s studies) majors and Seat 17 represents graduate and law students. All seats are two-year terms.
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Name: Brandon Sanders
Age: 19
Desired position: ASPAC
Major: Business administration and economics
Hometown: Talent, Ore.
Year in school: Freshman
Criminal charges: None
Platform summary: Sanders said he is hoping to be a bridge between the average student and University President Dave Frohnmayer. His main concerns are parking, the Department of Public Safety and getting the University to be financially responsible for some programs supported by student fees.
Qualifications: Sanders has spent two terms at the University and currently serves as treasurer of his fraternity. He was also valedictorian of his high school.
Reasons for applying: Sanders said he wants to bring the common student voice to the administration.
Role of student government in local, state and federal politics: Sanders said he feels the student government needs consent from the administration to make change.
Three biggest issues with the administration you want to work on and why: Sanders is concerned that there is not enough parking available on campus, he wants to ensure that DPS is holding true to its mission to protect students, and not just focusing on issuing MIPs, and he wants to make the University financially responsible for those programs from which it directly benefits, such as the Career Center.
How will you gauge concerns of average students: Sanders said he considers himself an average student who wants to get involved. He feels he brings a different voice and different reasoning to student government.
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Name: Mary Evans
Age: 19
Desired position: ASPAC
Major: Pre-journalism
Hometown: Portland, Ore.
Year in school: Freshman
Criminal charges: None
Platform summary: Evans said her platform consists of cutting costs, expanding services and supporting the textbook ballot measure. She said she believes in giving back unused enrollment fees. She also said the textbook ballot measure will enable students to buy and sell textbooks at competitive prices. She wants to make services such as the HPV vaccine or the flu shot more available to students. She would also like to see more athletics tickets available.
Qualifications: Evan served as class president during all four years of high school. She said she is very dedicated to the school she is attending and feels her open-minded, well-rounded outlook will help her work with staff, faculty and students.
Reasons for applying: Evans believes she will be able to relay information from students to staff and faculty and back again, to make sure it is understood by both sides.
Role of student government in local, state and federal politics: Evans feels student government should first focus on students at the University and what’s going on in their community. She also feels student government should not ignore those students studying abroad because they are still students of the University.
Three biggest issues with the administration you want to work on and why: Evans stressed the textbook ballot measure as a way to make students happy. She also feels it is important for students to share how they feel with the school. Finally, she plans to keep up with current issues.
How will you gauge the concerns of average students: Evans said because she knows people from all over, she has the skills to talk to many different people.
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Name: Jeremy Ebner
Age: 21
Desired position: ASPAC
Major: Economics
Hometown: Happy Valley, Ore.
Year in school: Junior
Criminal charges: None
Platform summary: Ebner wants to make sure students realize the opportunities they have. He said he would work to bridge the gap between students and University administrators.
Qualifications: Ebner has been a member of the Student Senate, which he said has helped him communicate with administrators. Other factors Ebner listed as valuable include participating in a fraternity and being an older student.
Reasons for applying: Ebner said he wants to stay active during his senior year, and he believes he is the most qualified candidate.
Role of student government in local, state and federal politics: Ebner said student government should continue the battle to reduce tuition. He also believes it should ensure students have the opportunity to get involved in whichever campaign they support, be it climate control or another service.
Three biggest issues with the administration you want to work on and why: Ebner said his first priority is to try to find balance in student tickets by working with the Athletics Department Finance Committee to ensure student money is well spent. A second issue Ebner wants to tackle is helping students find a balance at the bookstore by making sure teachers aren’t taking bribes, and that they are making cost effective textbook decisions. A third priority for Ebner is ensuring administrators are less separate from students.
How will you gauge the concerns of average students: Ebner plans to spend a lot of time talking to students, although he said he will still stay active in ASUO and go to some Student Senate meetings.
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Name: Lee Warnecke
Age: 20
Desired position: Senate Seat 11
Major: Undeclared
Hometown: Florence, Ore.
Year in school: Sophomore
Criminal charges: None
Platform summary: Warnecke is interested in establishing communication between the Student Senate, the Career Center and undeclared majors. He will make himself available in office hours in the dorms. He is also running on the “campaign for change” slate and is interested in restructuring the funding for the Student Recreation Center and continuing to make more retail space available in the EMU.
Qualifications: Warnecke said that as an undeclared student, he is the “epitome” of what other undeclared students go through. He has experience working as a Senate intern.
Reasons for applying: Warnecke wants experience working in the student government. He said the ASUO has a great opportunity to be responsible for nearly $11 million and wants the chance to help the Senate decide how to do the right thing with this money.
Role of student government in local, state and federal politics: Warnecke said the ASUO should be involved in political issues relating to higher education funding but is unsure that the ASUO should be involved in things like military conflict.
Should the Student Senate have a clearly defined ethics policy: There should be an ethics policy to hold Senators accountable for the things they do, Warnecke said. He said that some of the Senators are “almost childish” and a policy would hold them accountable for what they sa
y and do.
How to ensure representation of constituents: He would hold office hours in the dorms and make sure that undeclared students tell him what they want.
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Name: Noor Rajabzadeh
Age: 21
Desired position: Senate Seat 15
Major: Political science
Hometown: Eugene, Ore.
Year in school: Junior
Criminal charges: None
Platform summary: Rajabzadeh is running on the “campaign for change” slate. She said any student who wanted to run on this slate was allowed to do so.
Qualifications: Rajabzadeh said that as a student, she needs to be more involved on campus. She said that as a Muslim Iranian-American, she can represent the interests of “those not traditionally represented.”
Reasons for applying: She said she thinks there can be a lot of changes made and wants to make her stay here matter.
Role of student government in local, state and federal politics: Rajabzadeh said that student government should be involved with state politics if the issue concerns students.
Should the Student Senate have a clearly defined ethics policy: She said this depends on the person. She said people should have good ethics but didn’t think there needs to be a clearly defined policy.
How to ensure representation of constituents: Rajabzadeh said she will represent students to the best of her abilities and will be available for people to come to her with their concerns.
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Name: Dan Feldman
Age: 21
Desired position: Senate Seat 13
Major: Economics and finance
Hometown: San Jose, Calif.
Year in school: Senior
Criminal charges: None
Platform summary: Feldman is running on the “campaign for change” slate. They are looking for a proactive way to improve the ASUO. Feldman will focus mainly on working for business students and on working with professors to choose cheaper textbooks. He wants work on other issues, such as electronic ticket distribution.
Qualifications: Feldman was involved in student politics for three years in high school. He is currently a member of the Inter-Fraternity Council.
Reasons for applying: He likes how much power the ASUO has and wanted to get involved to learn more about the process.
Role of student government in local, state and federal politics: The ASUO has a big role in issues related to education at the local and state levels, Feldman said, but should probably not be involved in international politics because the campus is diverse and those issues could “step on toes.”
Should the Student Senate have a clearly defined ethics policy: Feldman said it is tough to define ethics because they vary from person to person but there should be standards.
How to ensure representation of constituents: He will meet with leaders of business groups to make sure they know the proper steps to get funding and will make sure the ASUO knows those groups exist.
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Name: Tom Bode
Age: 19
Desired position: Senate Seat 15
Major: Economics
Hometown: Beaverton, Ore.
Year in school: Sophomore
Criminal charges: None
Platform summary: Bode wants to support reforms to the incidental fee distribution process. He said large contracts and departments compete with small programs, especially when they need large increases just to maintain current service levels.
Qualifications: He said he is qualified because he is a social sciences major (Seat 15 represents these majors). He said he pays attention to the ASUO and has attended multiple meetings.
Reasons for applying: Bode said he thinks he can do a better job than the current senators.
Role of student government in local, state and federal politics: Bode said student government’s role in politics outside the ASUO should be “small” because the ASUO needs to deal with campus issues first.
Should the Student Senate have a clearly defined ethics policy: Bode said the Senate should have an ethics policy because members of the ASUO need to be held accountable for their actions.
How to ensure representation of constituents: Bode said his constituents are people with specific social science majors, so he would talk to student groups that represent those majors. He said he thinks all students just want to know that the ASUO works.
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Name: Jamin Burchard
Age: 20
Desired position: Senate Seat 11
Major: Undeclared
Hometown: Ashland, Ore.
Year in school: Sophomore
Criminal charges: Burchard said he has an MIP on his record
Platform summary: Burchard is running on the campus improvement slate. The slate’s goal is to cut costs by implementing a student book exchange and subsidizing health care, to expand services such as parking availability, and to build community. They want to departmentalize women’s studies and ethnic studies.
Qualifications: He is an undeclared major running for an undeclared seat. Burchard said he is passionate about the University.
Reasons for applying: Burchard said this would be an educational opportunity that would help him build leadership skills.
Role of student government in local, state and federal politics: Student government should play a role in anything that directly affects students, Burchard said.
Should the Student Senate have a clearly defined ethics policy: Burchard said there should be an ethics policy.
How to ensure representation of constituents: He would represent the other undeclared students.
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Name: Max Brockman
Age: 19
Desired position: Senate Seat 13
Major: Pre-Business Administration
Hometown: Kirkland, Wash.
Year in school: Freshman
Criminal charges: None
Platform summary: Brockman is running on the campus improvement slate. He said his goal will be to represent students in the Lundquist College of Business to the best of his abilities. The slate is dedicated to cutting costs, expanding services and creating community.
Qualifications: Brockman said he has been on student government before and is a very energetic and dedicated person who will apply himself to the job.
Reasons for applying: He believes the campaign slate is very strong and he wants to help fellow business students.
Role of student government in local, state and federal politics: Student government mostly pertains to students, Brockman said, but it should lobby at local and state levels to help students.
Should the Student Senate have a clearly defined ethics policy: Brockman said that if an ethics policy is not clearly defined, it is too easy to argue over issues.
How to ensure representation of constituents: Brockman said that as a freshman and business student, he can represent a large portion of the school.
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Name: Dan Barrera
Age: 26
Desired position: Senate Seat 17
Major: Law
Hometown: Dallas, Texas
Year in school: Law
Criminal charges: None
Platform summary: Barrera is running on a platform to improve relationships between different graduate programs and between graduate and undergraduate students.
Qualifications: Barrera held leadership positions in the student government at his former school and served as elections director there for two elections.
Reasons for applying: He said he wants to improve relations between graduate students and the rest of campus. He said graduates and undergraduates can learn a lot from each other.
Role of student government in local, state and federal politics: Student government should not involve itself in things beyond the state level, Barrera said. He said the ASUO should focus on topics that will unify the campus and that many international issues cause division.
Should the Student Senate have a clearly defined ethics policy: Barrera said an ethics policy is necessary to inform potential Senators about their duties to the ASUO and to their constituents.
How to ensure representation of constituents: Barrera would make himself open to suggestions from all students about
what they would like to see implemented on the campus. He would like to be a voice for people who do not have prior experience working with the ASUO.