Tyler Graf, a senior journalism major, is running for ASUO president.
 
Emerald: Quickly summarize your priorities.
Graf: My priorities. Well, I’m running on a pants-optional platform. I don’t know if you knew this, but here in Eugene, everybody can go around shirtless — even women — although people must keep their pants on, and I feel like that’s an oppressive rule because pants — they get in the way of just about everything. I think that we could create more openness at this university if people didn’t have to constrain their junk, pretty much. I’m not saying that people should go around flashing their junk at every opportunity, but I think that there are benefits to — or there would be benefits — to allowing someone like myself to, you know, have his junk showing, swaying in the wind, if you will, like a majestic sausage.
Emerald: How will you succeed in keeping your campaign promises where other administrations have failed?
Graf: Well, that’s easy. I have one campaign promise. I think that people should be pantsless — if they want to. I’m not going to say that people have to be pantsless. It’s really their choice. I’m all about options. And this is just another option.
Emerald: How will you maintain an open government that keeps students informed about the ASUO and allows adequate media access?
Graf: Well, I think there’s been a big problem this year with media access within the ASUO. I don’t think there needs to be a PR representative with as much power as (ASUO spokeswoman) Taraneh Foster. I would like to access the media a little bit more. I think that could engender a little bit more openness and a little bit more trust. The Executive is there to serve the student body, and if they have initiatives that they want to follow through with, then they should be able to articulate why they want those initiatives to be passed.
Emerald: What’s your fiscal philosophy in regard to the incidental fee?
Graf: My fiscal philosophy is that the incidental fee has ballooned out of proportion over the years. OSPIRG doesn’t need to be funded. The OSA doesn’t need to receive the funding it receives. There are plenty of student organizations that are not very fiscally responsible, and I see that as a huge problem because if there are candidates running on like a fiscal platform — lowering tuition costs — I think that they are kind of missing the point. I find it a little hypocritical to run on a fiscal platform while focusing solely on tuition costs because the ASUO can’t do anything about tuition costs, but they can do a lot about incidental fee costs, and they affect students just as much as tuition.
Emerald: What’s your favorite reality television show, and how does it relate to your campaign?
Graf: My favorite reality television show is called “Pants Optional Island.” And it’s about a group of people who — they are flown to an island — have to go around pantsless. They have to cavort around and do little games. They have to eat things off of each other’s loins. It’s a crazy show. It doesn’t really exist yet in this country — it’s German. It relates to my campaign because I’m all about freedom, and that’s what that show is about.

— Jennifer Sudick