The Associated Students Presidential Advisory Council positions are highly contested this year, with six candidates vying for two seats. ASPAC is a 16-member committee that advises University President Dave Frohnmayer on issues concerning students. Candidates are elected for a two-year term and work in collaboration with Frohnmayer, other ASUO representatives and members from various campus groups and publications.
Apart from general questions, candidates were asked two specific questions: What does their committee do and why is it important, and what are the most important issues affecting the students they hope to represent?
Richie Carpenter is a sophomore majoring in biochemistry. He is the coordinator of the Running Club and a member of the Student Government Chemistry Club. He said he has been interested in leadership since high school and that student leadership is important to the functioning of the University because they make students feel they can make a contribution.
Q: What does ASPAC do and why is it important?
Carpenter: You meet with the president, and you talk about contemporary student issues. I know when I go to class, the president doesn’t sit down next to me and understand the circumstances that I’m going through, and so on this scale, he can have committee members explain what the students want and what he can do to accommodate those things.
Q: What are the most important issues affecting students you hope to represent?
Carpenter: I think it’s increasingly important to expand diversity at the University. I think that should be something that should always be emphasized. That should be the goal of a university, to represent the world in a smaller setting. Not to make, like, a big deal about having diversity, but I think it’s something that people need to understand and feel within them in order to be productive members of society.
Alexander Gonzalez is a sophomore majoring in sociology and ethnic studies. Gonzalez said he is involved with the campus activist group Students for Peace and has also worked with the Multicultural Center and community groups. He said he is running for the position because he is an informed student with knowledge of different viewpoints.
Q: What does ASPAC do and why is it important?
Gonzalez: It provides a student voice to the administration. The administration is somewhat separate from the University as a whole, and ASPAC is sort of a check to the administration and also they are a bridge from students and the administration.
Q: What are the most important issues affecting students you hope to represent?
Gonzalez: Tuition, diversity building, students’ rights and accountability. I mean, I think education is by far the most important. It can move you up economically to the next level, and if tuition goes up there will be a certain majority that won’t be able to afford college. The University doesn’t provide night classes, so it’s not like they can work during the day and then go to class at night. And that group is the one who really wants to be in school because they are working for it, too — working one job or two jobs to make it.
Freshman Nick Hudson, a political science major, is on ASUO’s legislative team and the Student Conduct Code committee. He is also the Resident Hall Association marketing and outreach chair and Barnhart/Riley complex president. He said he wants to be able to advise the president on issues such as affordability of education, recruitment and retention of minority students, and building community ties.
Q: What does ASPAC do and why is it important?
Hudson: It’s an 11-member committee that advises the president. It’s not just one idea — it gives him everything, and it does talk about recruitment and things that just face students on a daily basis.
Q: What are the most important issues affecting students you hope to represent?
Hudson: One is definitely affordability. I am an out-of-state student, and I pay $30,000 a year to go here. Not everyone comes from a wealthy, upper-class family, and so that needs to be at the forefront — getting the administration to realize that affordability is a big issue and they need to address it. (Another issue is) recruitment and retention of minority students. I think we have 13 percent minority students. Of that 13 percent, 7.5 percent of them are international students. That gives us 5.5 percent minority students. That’s really bad for a school this size.
Sarah Koski is also a sophomore and is majoring in political science and international studies. She is in the Robert D. Clark Honors College and is a presidential scholar. She is also the vice president of the Presidential Scholars Student Association and a member of the College Democrats. Koski said she is running because she has an “eclectic viewpoint” of the University and represents the interests of many student groups.
Q: What does ASPAC do and why is it important?
Koski: It’s a committee to talk directly to the president — and that is going straight to the source. So if students have any concerns or any needs, working with Frohnmayer is the one way to get those needs solved and resolved.
Q: What do you think are the most important issues affecting students that you’re going to represent?
Koski: I think safety on campus. I think quality of life in the residence halls, and I think just basically interactions between student groups. I think student groups are in their own course, and I think there needs to be more communication between everybody.
Tucker Staley is a sophomore majoring in political science. He said he is currently not involved with any other activities or groups on campus. Staley said he is running for ASPAC because it would put him in a position where he can get involved and bring about changes.
Q: What does ASPAC do and why is it important?
Staley: Basically, we just meet with the president twice a term and discuss things that might be affecting the student community. I think it’s important because with a large university like this, you kind of lose sight of what the students are feeling. I thinks it’s important that the faculty and the administrators understand what we’re feeling, for the most part. This is a good way to get one-on-one action, so the administration isn’t a far-off body, looming over everybody.
Q: What would you say are some of the most important issues affecting students you hope to represent?
Staley: Well, right now, this whole war thing that’s going on is definitely up there. Also, the increase in tuition. The loans are not enough anymore; the price of education is rising. I’d also say the housing situation in nearby campus and all that stuff. A bunch of the communities around campus, you know the main college communities, aren’t really the greatest kept-up places.
David Willey is a sophomore and an undeclared major. He is also a member of the University crew team. Willey said he is running for the position in order to be Frohnmayer’s “eyes and ears” on issues affecting students, and he thinks he can make a difference by making the president aware about what is going on in the student population.
Q: What does ASPAC do and why is it important?
Willey: Basically, we just get together with the president twice a term and just advise him on anything that he’d have questions about or anything that we think that is important we can bring up. He’s a busy man, and he can’t always go out and see what’s going on with the students.
Q: What are the most important issues affecting the students you hope to represent?
Willey: Well there is obviously the issue of, you know, the University’s stance on the war on Iraq, alcohol and drug policies, as well as theft on campus, just bicycle crimes, or theft involving bicycles and so on. I just think that they’re important, and everyone has an opinion on these, and I think that it’s important that the president realizes that student opinions are important and shouldn’t be overloo
ked.