Ben Strawn, a junior economics major and current ASUO Student Senate president, is running for ASUO president. Diana Aguilar, a junior political science major, is running for ASUO vice president.
 
Emerald: Quickly summarize your priorities.
Aguilar: The first has to do with (Eugene Police Department) and (Department of Public Safety). We want to promote a more positive impact on campus and in the community by working closely with them. And, also, with that we want to focus on campus safety. And working with the housing standards — if we don’t finish that up this year we want to finish that up next year. Another one is more unity around campus. I know we’re all in separate areas with the group programs, the ASUO, the residence halls, the greeks … and the more we work together we can use more resources that way.
Strawn: The other issues would be next year will be a legislative year and will be a good time to impact costs on campus, whether that will be tuition or more directly here on campus dealing with student fees and working with the administration and student leaders on the fees, fines and penalties set by the administration.
Aguilar: The last one is the more understandable part of our platform. We want to expand library hours, (Student Recreation and Fitness Center) hours and (University Health Center) hours, and in that way we can be accessible to both undergraduates and graduate students.
Emerald: How will you succeed where other administrations have failed in keeping campaign promises?
Strawn: I think you should make sure you’re not promising too much, obviously, and both Diana and I have done a lot of leg work on the front end of campaigning, contacting administrators to find out what certain ideas cost — what the ramifications are. A lot of these are things that have been considered already and various administrators have a good idea of all the implications. Third, you meet with them so you know what you’re getting into beforehand and make sure that it’s something you definitely could accomplish. We’ve got tangible things that can be accomplished.
Emerald: How will you maintain an open government that keeps students informed about the ASUO and allows adequate media access?
Aguilar: I think that in the past, and in the current administration, there has been a lot of difficulty in getting the right information and talking to the right people. And next year, what we want is to have an open administration. If the press, the media, needed to talk to someone, I think it’s right for them to talk to the source of the issues. I don’t necessarily think they should always have to go through a person. In some cases that might be necessary, but, all in all, in the end, they should have access, at the front line, to whomever is the person that needs to be talked to.
Strawn: Two, you need to take a very proactive approach to getting the information out to who you want to. You can’t expect people on the various publications on campus to always know exactly what you’re talking about if you threw out catchphrases or rules terminology. We need to be very careful to educate people you’re talking to as well as trying to explain it.
Emerald: What’s your fiscal philosophy in regard to the incidental fee?
Strawn: I think what you need to do is frontload the process more than it is right now. You need to focus really on benchmarks, on deciding how much you want the fee to increase. That’s when that decision is really made, and that’s something that gets glossed over a lot of times. To work early on to make sure the (ASUO Student Senators) and Programs Finance Committee members, the EMU Board, the Athletic Department Finance Committee members are all aware of how much you want the fee to grow. How much you want to keep it in check. And to make sure that gets passed on to the student groups. And to make sure that before a PFC group goes to a hearing they know exactly what to expect, that the guidelines are very clear, that they know the PFC bylaws and that they aren’t subject to year-to-year changes in precedent …
Aguilar: I also feel that the programs, and other student unions and organizations, that they should be kept well-informed about any changes and keep more updated.
Emerald: What’s your favorite reality television show, and how does it relate to your campaign?
Strawn: I’d go with something physical, like the “The Real World” or “Road Rules Challenge” or “Fear Factor” — something like that. Something that’s just really about getting down into things and getting things accomplished right here.

— Jared Paben