If you ask Ben Fisher why he’s attending law school, he’ll tell you it’s “because my high school friend, Laurie, bet me a dollar I wouldn’t.”
Fisher is the newest member of the ASUO Senate, taking over Seat 17 to represent graduate and law students. He was confirmed to Senate last Wednesday, and he says his calm and go-with-the-flow nature is something that makes him a good fit for the job.
“I’m a pretty laid back kind of guy,” he said. “Not a lot ruffles
the feathers.”
Fisher, a third-year law student, didn’t know going into last week’s Senate meeting that he was up for confirmation. In phone conversations earlier in the week, ASUO Vice President Getachew Kassa had told Fisher that he wasn’t sure if he was going to be elected and that he would let Fisher know. Fisher never heard back, but he decided to sit in on the meeting.
“I showed up planning on only observing,” he said. “It worked out that I went through the whole process. I would have dressed a little nicer had I known.”
A graduate from the University of Utah with a degree in politics of Islam and the Middle East, Fisher has the unusual experience of having worked in another university’s student government.
He said his former position was different, though, in that he was representing the entire state’s schools of higher education.
“I got to see how all schools run, and for the most part it’s all kind of the same, but there’s not so much of a party system,” he said. “It seems that (election slate) affiliation continues even after you’re on the team, even after you’ve been elected, which I’ve never seen before.”
Another difference in government structure between the University and that of Fisher’s alma mater became apparent to Fisher during the debate about whether to confirm elections coordinator candidate Ian Rocker.
“The executive and the legislature are sometimes at odds,” he said, referencing the disagreement at last week’s meeting over the elections board coordinator working under the executive branch.
Fisher is the roommate of Sen. Sandy Weintraub, who also represents graduate and law students.
“We met the first week of law school,” Weintraub said. “He’s quite a character.”
Weintraub, who fills Seat 18, explained why Fisher was qualified for the job at last week’s Senate meeting, saying the mere fact that he applied speaks to his personality.
“Frankly, to get a grad student to be willing and wanting the job says a lot,” Weintraub said. “I’m excited to work with him a lot.”
During his experience with Senate last year, Weintraub said, Fisher was always a good source of advice because he was often able to compare a tricky situation at the University with a similar situation at Utah.
“He is able to take a step back and ask questions in different ways, with different perspective,” Weintraub said. “He would be able to help lead positive discussion during meetings.”
That different perspective, Fisher said, will help him represent both law and non-law graduate students in his constituency. He explained that graduates are more united in vision than undergraduates.
“By and large, graduate students have different needs and focuses than the undergraduate population,” he said.
Krista Schuchard, editor-in-chief of the Oregon Review of International Law, has also known Fisher since their first week of law school — very well, in fact. Their class schedules were identical for an entire school year.
“(Ben) will do a very good job as a senator because Ben is sharp, very dependable, and has great ideas,” Schuchard said. “Also, he is a strong person and is not going to let anybody pressure him into going along with something that he does not think is right. I trust Ben.”
Schuchard described Fisher as one of her favorite people, who is good-hearted and loyal.
“We suffered through our first year together in various ways, and his humor always made it easier,” she said. “In law school, you can spot people you want to be around and people you want to avoid. You separate out those that would sell you down the river and people that would help you bail out water in your sinking boat. Ben would stay with me in that boat and bail water with his bare hands. And he would have a smile on his face while doing it.”
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Calm, cool and collected
Daily Emerald
November 9, 2009
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