I’ve been somewhat disappointed by the recent coverage of ASUO Vice President Katie Taylor’s personal life and marriage status.
Other than it being invasive, gossipy and completely irrelevant to the work she does, it also completely overlooks the things Taylor actually does in her student advocacy.
Just this year as vice president — keeping in mind it’s only the top of term two — Taylor helped lead a campaign with the United States Student Association to collect postcards encouraging a congressional super committee not to make cuts to our education. No cuts were made.@@because of her, though?@@
She also empowered students to push back against attacks on shared governance by University administration. She stood by the student body and the student unions as Student Affairs attempted to reduce student group space in the EMU, charge us $100 per term for a renovation project students rejected as well as dismantle and restructure Office of Multicultural Academic Success without allowing the students who use OMAS every day to have any say in the matter. This year, Taylor has consistently stood by students, protecting their pocketbooks, their voice and their place at the table when University decisions were being made.
She has also chaired a working group charged with setting up oversight for the impending University Police Force — a force that students had serious concerns about. Taylor has been the single voice this year fighting to make sure that the concerns students had around a University police force would be addressed.
And what about the OSPIRG connection?
Ben and Katie ran on a pro-OSPIRG platform, and that’s one of the reasons I voted for them. Students also voted their support for funding OSPIRG. I already knew that Taylor had worked with OSPIRG — as did anyone who pays attention on campus.
Rather than running trash pieces about people’s personal lives, I think that the ODE should seek to inform and empower students — just as Katie Taylor does every day.
Diana Wildridge@@http://uoregon.edu/findpeople/person/Diana*Wildridge@@
University student