In the past two weeks two student senators resigned their positions without ever really starting their jobs. The ASUO president is now constitutionally obligated to appoint replacements to the two seats­ — one representing graduate and law students and one on the Athletics and Contracts Finance Committee ­­­— a reminder that while all elections have consequences, the vote that matters most on campus is the one for the ASUO Executive.
Some senators quit without providing adequate explanation, often because one does not exist­, but these two instances might be more credible than most. It still makes for a disheartening trend. Christina Ergas and Benjamin Dodds came from opposing camps within student government and were thought of as
potential heavyweights.
Though each side has now lost a top recruit, the executive will appoint replacements for both. If (or as) more conservatives resign, President Emma Kallaway’s bloc of friendly senators will likely grow throughout the year.
Ergas, who resigned this week from her post representing graduate and law students, is a shop steward and grievance officer with the Graduate Teaching Fellow Federation who said she came with an understanding of parliamentary procedure. In her election interview with the Emerald, she said that along with the progressive platform of the True Blue slate she wanted to push to make HIV and STI testing free for all students. Such campaign ideas from academic senators are mostly fantasy, but they can give a good indication of a candidate’s personal politics and how she may have behaved
in office.
Summer Senate Chairman Nick Gower seemed ready, at times even eager, to clash with Ergas in the fall. Given her resume and her age (28 at the time of the election), she could have been a formidable foe. She said she needed to leave because her job in the GTFF would take twice as much time as she had realized. That seems reasonable. But it should be the job of campaign managers and candidates to consider other time commitments before putting a name on a ballot.
Dodds’ departure is more straightforward: He is disqualified because he will no longer be paying the incidental fee because of his academic standing. A nationally ranked debater on the University’s forensics team, Dodds was Gower’s top recruit on the Students First slate. And unlike Ergas, an academic senator who ran unopposed and was elected with 85 votes, Dodds went through two competitive rounds in the spring election for his finance seat. He eventually defeated Oregon Action Team’s Troy Sterner, 1,523 votes to 1,183. Dodds’ general election runoff victory somehow managed to attract more votes than his primary race, which included a third candidate, Curtis Haley, now Kallaway’s spokesperson.
Almost 80 percent of the students who voted for president also voted for the seat that will now be filled by an unelected senator. Given the ACFC’s role in approving multi-million dollar contracts for services students have come to expect (LTD bus passes, a subscription to the Emerald), it won’t be hard to attract
interested applicants.
Former Sen. Hailey Sheldon lost her bid for another term on the Department Finance Committee (but received 997 votes) and is still a student. Kallaway already gets to fill one seat on the ACFC and her selected appointee could move up to Senate.
Perhaps most intriguing: Elected
at-large ACFC member Phil Gong, who single-handedly postponed the release of general election results for a day because some students in the American English Institute could not vote, could move into the seat. Not only did Gong’s committee seat race garner more votes than any Senate race on the general election ballot including the one Dodds is vacating, Gong also received 17 more votes than Dodds.
The ASUO president does not have to take into consideration any of this, however. And, unfortunately, a two- or three-person panel interviewing qualified students will be more efficient and less embarrassing than trying to hold a special election with low candidate interest and low voter turnout. A pronounced lack of interest may be a problem when trying to find a graduate or law student willing to apply for Ergas’ seat. Former senator and Constitution Court Chief Justice Kevin Parks said he is helping pass the word around of an open seat. (The court ruled in Beranek v. McLain that the ASUO president is fulfilling his or her duties as long as he or she advertises the position, even if none ever applies.)
Whatever the actual value of student government, its legitimacy stems from the participation of voters who should at least be able to expect the people they elect will serve longer than two months. The University administration should not and does not weed out candidates based on GPA or any other criteria: It is the candidates and campaign managers who need to consider a student’s time commitments and academic standing before deciding to make a race.
And when unexpected circumstances arise, the executive should give some consideration to candidates who have
received some student votes in the past.
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