Many leadership-oriented students have flocked to the ASUO office this year to run for positions in the University’s student government. Although ASUO elections can seem less important to the average student than studying or playing sports, the people who are chosen to lead the ASUO next year will be working on issues like the cost of tuition — issues that impact students’ lives.
President and vice president are two of the most visible positions within student government, and this year there are six tickets running for ASUO Executive.
John Drake, a junior and psychology major, is running for president with Joe Boyd, a sophomore and journalism major, as his vice president. Drake is a member of Chi Psi and vice president for event planning in the Interfraternity Council. He’s also an intern for the Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group and helps coordinate the University Hunger Clean-Up. Boyd is president of Sigma Phi Epsilon.
Q: What are your campus initiatives?
Drake: Three primary things that we’re going to focus on is student voice, community building and diversity. If I’m elected, I would immediately have a position on the OSA, which is the student voice of the University. With that I would just want to representeveryone and be a means for the students to project their needs, desires.
(With) the community building, I just want to strengthen ties between students, professors, faculty, as well as the neighboring community outside of the University. Also, part of the community is involvement in organizations. I’d like to see more students become involved in organizations, and part of the diversity thing is allowing or just helping facilitate the different student groups working together — which I think makes every student group more effective.
Q: How will you interact with the community?
Drake: I think the most effective way to do that is using already established groups who have contact and ties with the community.
Q: How would you make the ASUO relevant to students?
Drake: My goal is to allow each individual student to have their voice heard — the collaborative effort makes them feel like they can actually approach our student government with concerns or any ideas that they have.
Jeremy L. Jones, a junior majoring in journalism, is campaigning for executive office without a vice president. Jones said he is running for president under the title “Emperor of Destiny, Hope for Mankind.” Jones is a staff writer for the Oregon Commentator and has grand designs on how to reshape student government at the University.

Q: What are your campus initiatives?
Jones: Well, my biggest plan, and this is the most exciting — you might not know this, but (Oregon State University) is historically part of the University. It’s been taken from us, and so I think we should expand to our natural borders, and the first thing we’re going to do is declare war on them and take them over.
Q: How will you interact with the community?
Jones: Being an emperor, you know, being in my position that I will be in, interaction will be mostly through parades, and I will be seen everywhere. But I’ll also be very visible to the campus in other ways. For example, I promise not only drug problems, I promise sex scandals, I promise the whole nine yards. You’ll have to even hire a reporter just to tag along just to make sure they don’t miss anything.
Q: How would you make the ASUO relevant to students?
Jones: Well, I’ll be expanding it of course, so therefore it’s already better. It’ll finally be a part of their lives, and not only a part of their lives, it will be their lives.
You know, there’s a lot of problems around here because there’s no control. I’m talking about control, I’m talking about control of their dressing — I mean, they’re going to have to have a book on them at all times, just to tell them what to think. This is the kind of control. It’s going to be a major part of their lives. And they will respect me for that, I think.

Click below to see the full transcript of each candidate’s interview: