Alyce Chong is 21-year-old junior majoring in business, with a focus on constitution and finance.
Oregon Daily Emerald: So first of all, you did this for a year — why would you possibly want to do PFC again?
Alyce Chong: Well, I’ve been thinking about it, you know, and at the Programs Council meeting and previous years before, concerns that have come up have been inconstancy and I’ve been told that no other PFC members in previous years have run for re-election and I think, you know, there’s some correlation between that — where people don’t run again and there’s no consistency between that because they can’t come back, or they don’t come back, and they don’t know the issues that happened before. That’s really mainly why I’m running again because, you know, I want to help the programs out so next year it will be smoother, so that you know things will be a lot better and so that PFC — you know in the past PFC hasn’t been looked upon as the most or the best committee or like how they run things — so yeah, I want the transition to be better.
Emerald: How would you figure out how to spend the senate surplus?
Chong: How we decide?
Emerald: How would you figure out this coming year if you’re re-elected?
Chong: Well, based on, for instance, like this year we had all those mandatory increases that we had to do and based upon whether that will come into effect next year and the special requests that come in and a lot of things we’ve been working out, for instance, like this year we had to figure out all the building reserves and fill them all up, and so yeah, whatever it comes to based on that.
Emerald: Do you have any specific priorities you’d like to see?
Chong: With the senate surplus? I’m thinking about — I mean there’s a lot of things. No, nothing really, I haven’t really prioritized anything, so we’ll just see.
Emerald: How would you interact with student groups?
Chong: How will we interact? I interact?
Emerald: You interact personally if you’re elected …
Chong: Well, when people submit their special requests, following up and understanding what they’re requesting, like what they’re doing for senate this year, so, yeah.
Emerald: As far as PFC goes, how would you plan on interacting with groups?
Chong: Well in the beginning of the year we’re designated a group like for instance seat No. 1 — senate seat No. 1 has A through B, and so we meet like two or three times before the actual budget and maintain, and because I’ve done it for the past year I have a working relationship with these groups already so hopefully that will continue to grow to build a working relationship with those groups.
Emerald: What student group do you think you have the strongest working relationship with right now?
Chong: Currently I think maybe African Student Association. I worked a lot with Aika and because they were defunded for a couple years, we tried to find ways for them to grow or, like, kind of start on gradually, you know, building up their programs and they’ve been doing such a good job.
Emerald: What are the most important issues facing those student groups you’d represent for this coming year?
Chong: Those groups that want huge growth, a lot of, I mean, we support all groups and I think this year we had to establish, that is, that we weren’t supporting the groups but that we had to find a consistent way of helping them grow without too much … I don’t want to say too much growth, but a reasonable amount of growth — so I think that’s going to be the biggest challenge
Emerald: What’s the most important thing you feel you need to know in order to deal with the budget process — PFC, not senate?
Chong: The most important thing … there’s, like, so many things.
Emerald: Name a few
Chong: OK, I’m trying to gather my thoughts. … OK some of the important things are reviewing your past funding, and I feel like a lot of groups, they didn’t want to be punished for past leadership errors and so I think a really important thing to keep in mind for future PFC members is explaining that we have to, you know, there’s a rule stating in our bylaws that we have to keep them accountable for that. Let’s see, the stipend model, which took into effect a couple years ago, a lot of people don’t understand that it’s based upon the amount of hours you work and how much responsibility you have in the group.
Emerald: You mean for student groups or for PFC itself stipend?
Chong: Both — you know, because it’s especially for PFC, for new members that come in, which was this year everyone, you know just familiarizing yourself with everything and like stipend model, which is relatively new.
Emerald: And, a specific question — who’s responsible for maintaining the senate Web site?
Chong: The senate Web site. Currently I think it’s the vice president, which was Kate, but other than that, I think we hired a Webmaster.
Emerald: You’re the first person to get it right.
Chong: Oh yeah?
Emerald: Yeah, I haven’t seen an updated senate Web site this year, but that’s another issue.
Emerald: What’s the most important part of section five of the student senate rules?
Chong: Duties?
Emerald: Mm-hmm — what’s the most important part?
Chong: Well, I think you can’t really say one’s more important then the other because they’re rules they’re there so that you know so that we’ll, especially with duties, I mean checking your mailboxes and stuff like that, I don’t really think that there’s one that’s more important …
Emerald: You think there’s one that’s harder to keep then the rest? What’s the most difficult duty to constantly maintain?
Chong: Difficult. I don’t really know if there’s a most difficult one; there’s, like, holding office hours. I mean, we’re held to that by the ombudsman and checking your mailboxes, I mean you need to do that because special requests come in all the time and you need to be doing your homework for that.
Emerald: Well, thank you very much.