Maddy Melton is kicking her administration into gear, hiring new staff and shaking up the structure of the ASUO Executive office. The ASUO president said she is looking forward to the challenges presented by the school year, including expanding shared governance, advocating for nontraditional students and changing the University Housing contract.

“We’re right in the process of getting our students collected,” Melton said.
Ensuring a stronger decision-making voice for students is one of the ASUO’s priorities this year, Melton said.
“Students are consulted at the beginning of a subject but not at the end,” she said. “That’s not sharing in governance to me, that’s tokenizing a student voice.”
Melton — a sociology and women and gender studies major — complained that in the past, student leaders have been notified too late in the decision-making process to speak with an educated opinion.
“It’s just not possible to go through all that material and know what’s what,” Melton said.
To address what she perceives as a lack of student involvement in University decisions, Melton has changed the University affairs position, hiring Tim Johnson to focus on shared governance.
Melton has also hired Takenori Momiyama to advocate for international students.
“I’ve been working with international student groups to seek out what international students need on campus,” Momiyama said.
Momiyama said he’s planning a career fair specifically for international students who want internships or jobs in the United States, adding that it is often hard for international students to find jobs. The fair is tentatively scheduled for spring term.
Melton has also worked to recruit international students to work at the ASUO office.
For now, Momiyama is the only international student working in the ASUO office on a permanent basis, according to ASUO spokeswoman Taraneh Foster. A group of recently hired interns may include international students, Foster said.
Melton is also looking at revitalizing a now-defunct council that dealt with international student issues.
For nontraditional students, Melton hopes that splitting the nontraditional student advocate position in two will advocate more effectively for them. Melton has added a separate advocate to deal exclusively with the childcare subsidy, which used to be the responsibility of the nontraditional student advocate.
Melton also hopes to orchestrate changes to the University Housing contract during her tenure. Under current policy, students who break their housing contracts face steep financial consequences. Melton wants to see students granted a two-week grace period to decide if the residence halls are right for them.
“That’s really something that we’re going to have to build a coalition around because there are a lot of stakeholders in that,” Melton said.
Melton is still researching the housing contract, however.
Melton also mentioned the “queer, Greek and multicultural communities” as having interests in housing contract changes.
ASUO Student Senator Jesse Harding said Melton’s relationship with the ASUO Student Senate is going well so far.
“Actually, it’s already better than last year,” Harding said. But “it’s so young it’s really hard to tell.”
Melton has long-term goals as well, including larger hopes for students’ role in the political process.
“Even if I do a fabulous job this year, I will have done the students absolutely nothing if I don’t develop leaders,” she said. “Students historically are the backbone to social movements. Social change happens when student activism is at its peak.”