Presidential candidate Eric Bailey is an undeclared sophomore and the vice president of the Student Senate. His running mate, Jeff Oliver, is a junior political science major and the ASUO Housing Advocate.
Q: What is your platform?
A: Renters’ rights is our number one issue. We think Eugene definitely needs a housing code. Most major cities do. We think there are some steps already being taken in the ASUO office toward that, and we’d like to continue that process and hopefully have it implemented with student say — student voice needs to be included in this — sometime next year.
Diversity — not just bring diversity to campus, but we have to foster that growth when it gets here. We have to have positions for people to be able to speak. We have to encourage them to use that voice once they get here. Sometimes diversity doesn’t only mean ethnic background and gender background, but it also means political background too, and we feel the ASUO office doesn’t necessarily have the student voice totally represented there. It has a lot of one-sided issues, and it needs to be more diverse in the political sense as well.
Students need to feel safe on campus, but also when they come to and from it. It’s a big issue especially for people who live near Autzen Stadium. It’s pitch black walking there. There’s lights there. They don’t work. They need to work. And it’s the same for everybody who lives around campus.
Campus relations — this is huge. This is the backbone for everything we want to do. The relations right now between the administration, the city of Eugene, the police department, University Housing, Greek Life. First of all, the people don’t talk, and if they do talk, it’s bitter.
Student athletic tickets: Currently the Athletic Department’s basically saying if we can’t pay, we’re going to take tickets away. A lot of people care about going to those games.
Student voice: This is basically the same thing as campus democracy, but we feel the term “campus democracy” has a bad ring to it now. So, when decisions are made, like [the Department of Public Safety] commissioning officers, students need to be involved. In addition to that, we feel that it’s not only our job to promote that student voice but also to educate the people so they can use their voice.
Education access — tuition’s probably going to go up. The biggest barrier to education is money. Going along with that is the incidental fee. It’s an oxymoron that they keep raising the incidental fee, yet the same people that raise incidental fees say the tuition needs to go down. If you have one going down and one going up, it’s still not good. We need to watch the incidental fee more closely, and we need to make students more aware of it because a lot of students don’t even know they’re paying it. It’s like paying your taxes. You should know where your taxes go. It’s pretty simple.
Q: How does your decision to run fit into your ultimate career goals?
A: [Eric] My dream is to be a United States ambassador to a Latin American country. So I think that would fit pretty well.
[Jeff] I feel bad saying this, but I don’t really know what I want to do yet. It’s just something I care about. I’m one of those students who cares where my money goes. I think the experience I’ve already had with the ASUO is going to help me down the road.
Q: What specific campus-oriented initiatives will you champion?
A: Specifically, the renters’ rights issue is pretty is a specific, laid-out thing that’s most likely going to happen in the Eugene City Council next year. But like I said, if we become elected, we’re two students out of 17,000 here, and I don’t think it’s fair for us to go making a decision for everybody. Along with that, we’re planning on having town hall meetings, either bi-weekly or monthly, to hear people’s questions and concerns.

Q: What will you advocate for on the state level for students, and how will you carry out your plans?
A. That’s a little tricky. We’re working to keep tuition down and lobbying with the state Legislature. The tricky thing on this, though, is they do the budget every other year. And this being the budget year, [it means that] while we’re in office if we do get elected, it will not be budget year. So it will be hard and trickier to keep that tuition down. But we can lay the groundwork for the people that come after us.
Q: What is your definition of student activism?
A: Jumping right in and getting involved. Some people think activist always means protests, but it doesn’t necessarily need to be that. We consider ourselves activists just being involved in student government. Whether you’re camping outside Johnson Hall or you’re down in the office writing a letter to your congressman, you’re active and trying to make a change.
Q: How do you define diversity? And how do you plan on bringing together the diverse voices on campus?
A: We touched on that before. All areas need to be touched, and none ignored, and they need to be fostered so we understand all the other views. Like we said earlier, that isn’t enough to say, “Hey, we have this many people enrolled here now.” So what? Are they doing anything? Are they here speaking on behalf of their backgrounds? Are they making a change? That’s what solving the problem is about.
Q: If two student groups were at odds with each other, how would you resolve the conflict?
A: If one student group doesn’t like another student group, maybe they just don’t understand the position of each. The first thing we’d do is sit them both down in a room. We’d be there and be the mediator. People don’t ask why. If people asked that question a lot more, things would be a lot more productive.
Q: If there was one thing you could change about the University instantly, what would it be?
A: If we could fix relations like that, that would be number one, between everyone. And we’re both willing to put in the time and effort.
Q: Recent history shows a tense relationship between the ASUO Executive and University President Dave Frohnmayer. Do you plan on improving that relationship and, if so, how?
A: One example just last week is that Eric went and sat down with Dave just to talk about stuff. We’d be willing to work with him on any issue that comes up and not fight with him. Even if there is an issue where we’re at odds with him, just being able to open that door of communication with him — that’s important. The guy is the president of the University. You have to respect him for where he’s at.
Q: How will you carry out things differently than current President Jay Breslow and Vice President Holly Magner?
A: Jay and Holly are good people, they’ve done some good stuff, but they had a disadvantage when they went in. They liked to label themselves the ‘new kids’ in student government, and that was the biggest disadvantage to them. There are things that need to get done that are traditionally done on time, like the elections thing. We’re all playing catch-up right now. We’d try to be more on top of those things and get them done when they need to be done. Student government this year has turned into the government by the few. There’s a few opinionated people that do stuff — if you want to label it the people who care — but there are a lot of other people who care that just maybe don’t feel comfortable coming in. This is your student government. You should always be able to come in. And that hasn’t been done this year. They’re almost too aggressive at times, and they scare people. It turns people off. It turns students off too.