Wow, what an election season. While on a shortened timetable, the race for ASUO president and vice president has been hard fought. The Emerald editorial board predicts a close primary and general election, at least if our own discussion of the candidates is any indication.
All of the serious contenders are reaching out to student groups and fighting, as last year’s U.S. presidential candidates did, for the moderate center. The fact that so much attention is being paid to the issues is a credit to the candidates and has already produced one clear winner: students, who will have an engaged ASUO Executive no matter the outcome.
So far, three tickets have been jockeying for the lead position. Bret Jacobson and Matt Cook are running as the outsiders wh o will represent everyone and bring creative thinking and professionalism to the office. Eric Bailey and Jeff Oliver are self-professed insiders who say they know how student government works, so they know how to improve it. Somewhere in the middle are Nilda Brooklyn and Joy Nair, who currently work in the ASUO office but are not insiders in the traditional sense of student-government wonks.
After much debate, we support Nilda and Joy, in both the primary and the potential general election. They will do the best job on the issues we considered the most important: representing every voice on campus; renters’ rights, which involve more than passing the buck to private interests; reaching out to the administration, while not kowtowing to it; working hard to improve relations with the Eugene police and campus security, as well as challenging city councils who don’t appreciate the students; and fighting for improved access to education for everyone.
Overall, we think the top candidates’ various plans f or most of the issues pan out to about a tie. All three tickets are working to address students’ main concerns, and they all have good ideas. We applaud everyone’s effort and hope it carries through into action for the next ASUO president.
But the iss ue that dominated our discussion, in the end, was diversity and student representation in the ASUO. The candidates have been spending a lot of words explaining how they would open the doors of student government to everyone.
There seems to be some sen timent on campus and on the Emerald editorial board that the current Executive was run by and for a few liberals and minorities to promote their very liberal causes. This description is arguably exaggerated, as the current office has done work on a variety of wide-interest issues, but it was expressed by the candidates and a few students at the debate. Bailey and Oliver, for one, mentioned that some people, and Greeks in particular, don’t feel welcomed in the ASUO office. If true, this certainly needs to change.
Now we get into difficult territory. People will be mad at us no matter how this is written, so here goes.
The notion that the straight white person’s viewpoint is not heard or represented at the University is peculiar. It’s difficult to g o anywhere on campus (or in Oregon, for that matter) without running into the dominant majority perspective. At the University, supposedly a bastion of exploring alternate viewpoints, the dominant majority may find itself confronted with opposition, but i t’s still here and represented.
The point of diversity and multiculturalism is not that you get your views heard in proportion to your population. Under that theory, the minority viewpoints in Oregon would be all but silenced. Instead, every voice must be listened to on an equal footing, regardless of its minority status.
With that said, we feel that Nilda and Joy are in the best position to ensure every voice IS represented. They have worked with a wide range of student groups and understand how to represent the often-silenced interests. They can use that knowledge to engage everyone.
It is imperative that not a few, not some, but every interest has a place in student government. We strongly suggest that Nilda and Joy make sure the Greek syst em and the politically conservative are welcomed in the ASUO office, and we will be disappointed if they embrace the divisive forms of diversity into which University politics sometimes slips. It’s not enough to reach out to only those people one is comfo rtable with or used to. The effort must be made to bring opposing opinions together to talk.
As a final note, we hope Bret and Matt make it to the general election, if one is required. Of all the candidates we didn’t endorse, Bret and Matt have the be st ideas and the most challenging views on issues. The discussion they create is indicative of the entire idea of diversity on campus, and we hope they continue to argue the issues throughout the election process.
We encourage you to vote for Nilda an d Joy, but don’t just take our recommendation — meet the candidates yourself, ask questions, make suggestions and be an active voter. And no matter your choice, please vote. Voting is available around the clock on Duck Web, from today through Thursday. S tudent government makes decisions that affect us all and handles a lot of student money. It pays to be informed and involved.