Oregon Daily Emerald: I’ll start with Jarrett and I’m just going to ask you a little bit of background before we get to the questions. Your major and year?
White: Business major, and I guess now I’m a junior.
Emerald: And are you involved in any groups or activities here on campus?
McNeill: He’s politically active.
White: Why did you have to ask this question?
Emerald: Are there a lot?
White: No, but I’m very politically active on this campus. I’m the chairman of the College Republicans. Are we going to be printing that?
Emerald: Yeah.
White: Online or in the paper?
Emerald: I can’t say whether, I don’t know whether —
White: We can’t, like, suppress this at all? (laughs)
Emerald: Is that a —
White: I would, yeah, I mean if you’re asking me, I would rather have that — because I just think that just shows — people will tune us out, and I don’t want that to happen. Because being part of the College Republicans and running for ASUO president are totally two different things. I mean, I’m not going to politicize the office, but I think people will look at it as, you know, ‘he’s College Republicans.’ I don’t mind people painting us as conservative, that’s fine. But, when people think of the College Republicans, they’re going to think of it as, you know ‘George W. Bush’ — oh he’s a warmonger. And I don’t want people to look at us as College Republicans. I want them to look at us as just students, and the College Republicans really has nothing to do with us.
Emerald: OK, any other groups or activities?
White: No.
Emerald: Why are you interested in student government?
White: Well, I’m interested in it because, I mean, I’ve been here for– this is my third year now — and, honestly I’m sickened with the ASUO. I don’t like how it’s run. I think they waste our money. They’re not responsible with the things that they do, and the main reason I’m running this year is because I’ve seen in the past where every ASUO candidate says ‘we’re going to change things, we’re going to do things differently or something’ and it’s all just the same every year. Nothing gets changed, and the students get screwed over.
McNeill: It’s usually the ASUO insiders that get elected, so it’s —
White: Yeah, ASUO insiders get elected who are already in the system and really don’t want to change anything. And so, they don’t have — both Greg and I are not ASUO insiders, we’re coming fresh. That doesn’t mean we don’t know anything about the ASUO — we know as much about the ASUO and their dealings and what they do as just about any of the other candidates. It’s just that we’re not stuck in the bureaucracy of it.
Emerald: Greg, year and major?
McNeill: Political science.
Emerald: And year?
McNeill: Junior
Emerald: And your groups or activities here on campus?
McNeill: Member of Delta Upsilon fraternity (and) very politically active.
Emerald: OK, and why are you interested in student government?
McNeill: Well, kind of for a lot of the same reasons as Jarrett. Also, I’m just very interested in government in general, so I’m just looking for an opportunity to help serve my fellow students and try to better the University.
Emerald: What is your legislative agenda, in terms of lobbying at state and national levels?
McNeill: Yeah, that’s kind of the area that I’ll be handling if we’re elected, and basically we want to preserve tuition rates, we don’t want to see tuition hikes, and we want to preserve, you know, things like Pell Grants and everything — things that are germane to all students. We don’t want to get — we don’t want to pit students against other students and things like that in our lobbying and stuff like that, so we just want to focus on making the general University better for everybody.
Emerald: And do you have any specific ideas on how to do that, or experience in lobbying?
McNeill: I have experience in lobbying. I don’t know that we have specific issues that we’re going to be taking to the table necessarily at this point, but, yeah, we do have a lot of — this is the area that I’m handling, and I have extensive (experience). I ran for the House of Representatives — the State House of Representatives — I know a lot of the — I probably know over half of the legislators of the state on a personal, first-name basis. I know both our senators in Washington. I think we can do a really good job of that, and bring a lot of different views to the table, because obviously our elected officials aren’t all from the same party or the same ideology, so I think it’s good to mix it up and try to be students, get representation as students, and not as conservative students and liberal students and things like that.
Emerald: So political stance won’t really play a factor in your legislative agenda?
McNeill: No, it’s — not as far as that. It’s just we want to do what’s better for all students.
Emerald: So what are your campus initiatives?
White: Well we have two things that we’re mainly running on. One is ASUO accountability with regards to the incidental fee, and making campus groups and incidental fee-funded groups accountable with their money, especially OSPIRG. That is one of our big campaigns, making OSPIRG be accountable to the students, which, in our minds, we feel they’re not by taking money off of campus, and just wasting our money, we believe. And so that’s one of the first things that we will do if we get elected is make, primary OSPIRG, and any other — not just OSPIRG, we’re not just picking on OSPIRG — but that’s the group that one, gets huge amounts of money, and we see abuses that money the most, we’ll make them accountable, and if they don’t change the way they spend their money, we will strip them of their funds and do whatever possible we can to make them obey the rules. And we’re also bringing — our other thing that we’re doing for campus is we’re hopefully — we want to bring to the administration a Students’ Bill of Rights. So, to give students, in print, what their rights are — I didn’t bring a copy with me here, but I have some at home — Students Bill of Rights just to give the students specific rights in the classroom and, you know, at the University.
Emerald: Can you name off a few maybe off the top of your head?
White: I know one, I’m pretty sure one — it’s more like making the classroom not a political forum. I mean, have all political stances be open for debate and things, but not allowing professors to just teach their own ideology. Conservative, liberal, whatever it is, it doesn’t matter, it’s just so students who are on the opposite side of the spectrum as the professor don’t feel that they can’t speak out in class or something in fear of getting a bad grade, in fear of being reprimanded by the professor in some way, so it just — it kind of doesn’t let the professors just, for lack of a better word, brainwash kids into their own political ideology, whatever that may be.
McNeill: Because that’s not education, telling them their ideology. We’re here to learn to think and form our own ideas, and we shouldn’t be told somebody else’s ideas as fact.
Emerald: OK, two follow-ups to those. The first one, to the Students’ Bill of Rights, that’s a pretty large undertaking, sort of revamping the way professors grade and teach. How would you accomplish getting the administration to pass that, or do you know what channels you’d need?
White: Well, we can talk to (University) President (Dave) Frohnmayer and (Executive Assistant to the President) Dave Hubin can work with us on that. We will go and we will initiate the contact to the administration, saying this is something that’s right, this is something that will benefit all students, it’s not, you know, partisan at all, it’s just, you know, right there plain and simple, this is what will benefit all students and we think this should be implemented, and hopefully the administration will work with us on that.
McNeill: It’s
something we have in writing now, too, so it’s something that Day 1 we can work on. We’re not planning to write one and then, you know, give it to the administration.
Emerald: For the first one, you said you want to make the groups more accountable. How will you make them more accountable and what, in your view, is being accountable?
White: Well, for example, OSPIRG, we don’t feel that them, in the last budget that I’ve seen, taking $24,000 for rent in Portland is using our money wisely, we don’t think that’s right. Also, how —
McNeill: It’s also dodging a legality, too. Because they can’t use incidental fee money to go lobby to Salem for various things. So they rent office space that they basically don’t use, basically as a means to fund a group that can go lobby.
White: And also, the way they pay their employees — when I read their budget, it said, like for example, the Executive position gets anywhere from, it said specifically $14,000 some-odd to $21,000. Well, what the heck is it? I mean, that’s 7,000 that the Executive can make. We don’t know. The (ASUO) Constitution specifically states that all positions have, we have to know what these people are making, and in their budget it’s not specified exactly. I mean, 7,000 dollars is more money than a lot of campus groups at the (University) get, and that’s for one paid position, so we don’t feel they’re accountable to students that way, either.
Emerald: And how will you change that? Will you change the PFC process itself or the way that their —
White: Well it’s pretty — it says right in the (ASUO) Constitution that the ASUO president has — reserves the right to stop all funding to a group if they feel that this group is not spending their money under ASUO rules. So we have the power to do that until they change their system. We also have the power to veto a budget that the PFC gives us. That doesn’t mean that it will be stricken — they will overrule us, but we do — the ASUO president does have the power to stop funding to a certain group.
McNeill: I think we should make it clear though that we’re not anti-OSPIRG, we just don’t agree with the way they operate. Strictly a financial basis, not on their politics at all.
Emerald: How will you interact with the community?
White: Are we talking about campus community, or community as —
Emerald: Community at large
White: How will we — what was the question again?
Emerald: How will you interact with the community?
White: Well, I mean, we’ll be, you know, open for discussion with people around the community, students, if they want to give us ideas and concerns that they have. I think Greg and I will really do our best to have an open ear to all student concerns, whatever they may be, because, I mean, I understand how they feel, because I’ve been a student for three years now and I’ve felt, you know, just manhandled pretty much by the ASUO and the ASUO dictating to us everything, you know, how much we’re going to pay, along with the PFC, and things like that. But we’ll really work on having an open ear and listening to students and people around the campus on their ideas.
Emerald: I guess, how are you going to make it more open to the community? You say you don’t like being dictated to, and you’re going to make it more open, how will you do that?
McNeill: Well I think Eugene is very tied to the (University). I think everything Eugene is stems in some way from the (University). So I think getting involved more with the community is important, you know. There’s obviously issues that — obviously students live in the community, not all of them live on campus here in the dorms. So I think that’s a big issue you know, like housing rights, things of that nature. Also there’s the issue of the University taking land down here on Villard and all that and Moss Street. So I think that’s an issue that needs to be addressed too. And it seems like in the past, the ASUO has kind of not been involved with those things. There’s groups that are out there talking about it and stuff, but it seems like the ASUO hasn’t really ever taken charge and said ‘OK, let’s solve this, let’s get the community in here, let’s get some (Eugene) city councilors, let’s get Mayor Jim Torrey, let’s get community members, students together, let’s talk about this and figure out what’s going on,’ and I think that’s a place where previous administrations have failed, and so I think that’s how we plan to interact with the community, by opening the dialogue about some of these issues.
Emerald: Last question, how would you make the ASUO relevant to students?
White: Well, I mean, I think sort of how we answered before. We would make — I think the No. 1 thing that we can do is help students try and save money, and that’s one of the big issues. And by making student groups accountable for their money and not letting the incidental fee just skyrocket as we had the special referendum this year. I’ll tell you one thing, that is one thing that has made me the most upset about this current administration, is they just let that referendum just slide through. I understand there were some mandatory increases that had to be done, but the way they did that referendum — one by not advertising it at all and the very minimal potion of this student body voted on that referendum — and also there’s other concerns on whether they even did things legally which I’m looking into at this moment. I’ll tell you one thing, we’re not going to let that happen to students and have them just be pretty much raped on incidental fee charges, and I think that’s one of the main things that we can do.
McNeill: I think there’s a balance that there has — there has to be a balance. Obviously, we can do one of two things. We can cut programs completely and just have people save a bunch of money, or we can continue with what we have, but — like what we were talking about — make groups accountable. I have no problem paying incidental fees, but it upsets me when I don’t really see OSPIRG doing anything for me. They’re spending money off-campus, things of that nature, and so I think that’s one way that we can not necessarily cut out incidental fees or making — giving people the ability to save money, that’s great — but also showing them that their money is going to good use.
Emerald: Do you think most students even make the connection between incidental fees and the ASUO? Or is just another thing on their bill?
White: Well, that’s another thing that we can make a case — making the ASUO relevant. Making them understand that this is the process, this is what happens. I mean, don’t just look at your bill blindly and write a check. I mean, this is stuff that the students control. I would probably presume that you’re right, maybe most students don’t even know what the incident fee is, they just kind of just pay it, they don’t know that the students control the incidental fee. And I’ve seen in talking to people, they get pissed off when they understand this stuff. A lot of people, they’re busy, and they don’t look into it themselves, which is — I mean, you can’t blame them — I mean, because I don’t think that the ASUO has been in the past very communicative and forthcoming to students about what’s going on. Like I said with the referendum, that was totally shady, they used Gestapo tactics to friggin’ get that thing passed. So, it was horrible how they did it, and I think it breeds a mistrust to the ASUO, and it should. I don’t trust the ASUO farther than I can throw them.
McNeill: I also think that people might not necessarily get the connection between, you know, the EMU, and OSPIRG, and different clubs and all this, and their incidental fee. But I think they realize it comes somewhere from tuition that they’re paying. They might not realize that this line on my bill is where that money’s going, but I think they have some sort of understanding that it is their money that’s paying for these things in some fashion.