The EMU Board is a 15-member committee comprised of students, faculty and EMU staff. The board is responsible for allocating $5 million to student programs and service areas, as well as managing the 200,000 square feet of the EMU.

EMU Board representatives are elected to two-year terms. When a representative leaves office early (often because of graduation), a fill-in is elected to serve out the remainder of the term. Students have three choices to fill the two-year midterm EMU position — the only other open position is uncontested. Candidates for the midterm fill-in position are Omid Kianersi, Slade Leeson and Josh Rapp.

The Emerald asked each candidate two general questions about his prospective office: What does the EMU Board do and why is it important; what is the most important issue facing EMU programs and the EMU itself?
Kianersi is junior psychology major from Agoura Hills, Calif. He is a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity and serves as the chapter’s risk manager.
Q: What does the EMU Board do and why is it important?
Kianersi: I’m not too familiar with the position, the details of the position, but from what I understand it’s important in regulating the administrative aspects of the EMU. I believe there’s a finance committee, and they just work hand in hand to ensure the smooth operation of the EMU.
Q: What is the most important issue facing EMU programs and the EMU itself?
Kianersi: I don’t see that there is a tremendous issue at hand immediately, but there’s always room for improvement. I’m a firm believer in efficiently organizing any sort of administrative (activity). There’s nothing in a state of disrepair or anything like that. There’s obviously room for improvement, but I don’t see any one key issue that looms larger than the rest.
Leeson, 19, is a freshman from Portland. He is currently undeclared.
Q: What does the EMU Board do and why is it important?
Leeson: They oversee how the EMU operates, but I think the most important thing they do is assign all the student fees. Really, I think they’ve done a pretty good job of it. The biggest problem is there’s less money to go around now, and so they have to assign it in a way that helps all the students. I guess I’m not so much concerned with keeping student fees small as I am with making sure they maintain all the services people want. If we have to have more student fees, then OK, I guess that’s what you’ve got to do.
Q: What is the most important issue facing EMU programs and the EMU itself?
Leeson: I would have to say it’s what we talked about — making sure the money is distributed evenly. I think we also ought to pursue outside revenue-generating possibilities, like — it was talked about a while back — equipment rental should be expanded to include the general public.
Rapp is a junior studying political science. The Medford native is also active with the ROTC program on campus.
Q: What does the EMU board do and why is it important?
Rapp: The EMU Board, what it does is, it makes decisions regarding general policy and long-term plans for the EMU and allocates funds from a multimillion dollar budget and does things like designating office space to various student groups on campus.
Q: What is the most important issue facing EMU programs and the EMU itself?
Rapp: One problem, for example, that I see, is that there’s a significant number of student groups who would like to have office space in the EMU, and that space is just not available, so it’s pretty competitive and a lot of groups are kept out and kind of put at a disadvantage because that space is not available for them to have an office in the EMU.