Oregon Daily Emerald: Why don’t we start with your name.
Hudson: My name is Nick Hudson and I am a freshman, political science major.
Emerald: And why are you running for ASPAC?
Nick Hudson: Well, currently I am an intern with ASUO and I work on legislative issues. And so I thought that there’s three things that I was interested in advising the president about. One that I’ve been working with is legislative issues, more so toward affordability of education because Oregon received an F for affordability in education and I think that some of the issues such as the Oregon Opportunity Grant, which just got cut even further — like affordability such as financial aid for students, child care for students — these things need to be brought up to. I know that they’re up up to his attention already, but I think coming from students who actually know the issues would be beneficial towards that. And another thing that I was interested in was recruitment and retention of minority students. Oregon unfortunately does not have a lot of minority students. And I came from a city in Wisconsin that had half of its population was minority. And so coming from there to the University of Oregon, it was a big culture shock and so I was unable to — I’ve been unable to see the minority students on a daily basis. And so that’s what I was interested in, doing like, maintaining minority students.
Emerald: Are you involved with any other activities on campus right now?
Hudson: Well, what I’m involved in — I’m involved with ASUO, I am on the Student Conduct Code committee, I am the RHA marketing and outreach chair, I am the complex president of Barnhart/Riley. Some of the other, like not on campus, but some of the other things that I am involved with are OSA. I’ve attended a couple of their meetings. I just came back from the legislative conference with USSA in Washington, D.C., dealing with legislative issues. We went and lobbied on behalf of all students for the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. And let’s see, we just lobbied on behalf of like appropriations for higher education. What else did we — the Dream Act and the Student Divestment Act, where if you’re immigrant student who doesn’t have his green card yet, you can — currently you have to pay out-of-state tuition even if you’ve graduated high school, even if your parents pay taxes, you have to pay out-of-state tuition. So, we lobbied on behalf of those students who have lived in-state for five years, lived in the country within five years and they graduated from state high school they should be able to get in-state tuition for that state. So that’s another thing that — I know about all these issues because I do work with the legislative team and because I am involved with the ASUO. I don’t just stick with legislative issues. I deal with the community issues, multicultural issues, public relations issues, such as, couple of weeks ago, we had a press conference on the Higher Education Act and the reauthorization of it. And so that’s one of the things. And there’s one other thing that I was really interested in, like we were talking about earlier with the riots. And the community’s not — there’s like a lack of community ties with the University of Oregon and so I want to be able boost that up, especially with Student Conduct Code I can realize that there’s something such as off-campus jurisdiction, which are necessary. So we have just finished doing off-campus jurisdiction so now I’m able to bring that up to the attention of the administration that you know we need to base these, we need to strengthen our ties with the community. That way there isn’t such an outrage over university students because yes we are part of the community.
Emerald: OK. So you could you tell me exactly what ASPAC does and why its important?
Hudson: Well ASPAC, from my understanding, it advises the president, it’s an 11-member committee that advises the president about issues facing students and is also a vast, vast, can’t think of the word, vast amount of of ideas. It’s not just one idea — it gives him everything and talks, and it does talk about, like, recruitment and it talks about things that just face students on a daily basis. And it meets twice every term, once or twice every term depending on what goes on.
Emerald: OK. And why do you think it’s important to have such a committee here?
Hudson: Because they have open dialogue with the president of the university who does make the decisions along with the students. I think that’s a great, like a great stepping stone to moving up so students can have a better voice to put it that way. Instead of just ASUO Exec being on the committee, we have everyday students. And even though I am part of ASUO Exec and I realize they that work hard with the administration to, you know, set up good relations with the University, I think it’s also better to have some outside students also go out there and speak on behalf of all students, representing all 22,000 or 20,000, no matter how many there are.
Emerald: So could you tell about me what you think are the most important issues affecting students you’re hoping to represent?
Hudson: One is affordability. One is definitely affordability. I am an out-of-state student and I pay $30,000 a year to go here. That’s really expensive and I think that there needs to be some, more of a push towards — acknowledge that there’s a need for financial aid, such as Oregon Opportunity Grant, Pell Grant being increased. You know just, you know Perkins Loans, all these issues that, you know, students do need. Not everyone comes from a wealthy, you know, upper-class family and so they — that needs to be at the forefront, you know, getting students to, getting the administration to realize that affordability is a big issue and they need to address it an a certain way. And they have already addressed it in some aspects, but…
Emerald: OK. Anything else in terms of important issues?
Hudson: Well, like I was saying earlier, the recruitment and retention of minority students. I think that’s we have 13 percent minority students. Of that 13 percent, 7.5 percent of them are international students. That doesn’t — that gives us, what, 5.5 percent minority students? That’s really bad for a school this size to have that much. When you look at other demographics, of PSU, you know, they have a wide amount of minority students versus University of Oregon.
Emerald: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Hudson: No. I mean, like the last one was community ties, working with the community. I just really wish there’d be some ties between the president and everyday students. You know, there are issues that do face students on an everyday basis that I just can’t project what’s going to happen that I would be glad and willing to represent those students who often don’t have their voice heard through the ASUO Exec or because they don’t know that’s a route. They don’t know, you know, some students don’t even know who their own president of the student body is and that’s something that unfortunately happens and so they can go to this, you know they can raise their, you know, I’d be able to represent them.