Candidates in ASUO elections promise big things, but often fail to deliver when in office.
Emily McLain and Chii-San SunOwen ran on six major points in 2007, but an Emerald article written a year after their election determined that they had met only two by the time they left office. McLain’s successor, ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz, has yet to enact some of the initiatives he ran on with his term set to expire next month – a foundation endowment to lower textbook prices, for instance.
So what about this year’s candidates? Michelle Haley and Emma Kallaway have proposed broad menus of projects for the 2009-10 school year, and students must now decide which looks more appetizing. But are they realistic?
Michelle Haley – “Increase UO athletic tickets”
A much-touted aspect of Haley’s platform is her desire to buy more student tickets for University football games. During the executive candidate debate, Haley’s running mate Ted Sebastian called for the maximum allotment of student tickets for all six home football games in 2010.
Haley says she would do that by using the funding freed up by the absence of a seventh home game that year.
However, ASUO Sen. Tina Snodgrass, who helped negotiate the contract to buy student tickets from the athletic department this year, said that would be impossible without severely curtailing the amount of funding available to other contracted services.
“It will cost about $200,000,” Snodgrass said, adding, “There would not be room to keep the LTD (bus service) contract.”
The Lane Transit District contract is administered by the same finance committee that controls student tickets, and increases in the two budgets must be kept below a total of seven percent.
Asking for the maximum number of tickets was not unreasonable, Haley said, but she added, “I can’t promise that it will happen in the next year.”
Snodgrass’ sister Kerry is running against a candidate from Haley’s Oregon Action Team slate in the upcoming election.
Emma Kallaway – “Gender-neutral floors in University housing”
Kallaway currently serves as a resident assistant in University housing and said her experience there has pushed her to advocate causes that affect those in dormitory rooms.
Among those is a proposal for gender-inclusive dorm rooms. That is, rooms in residence halls that contain residents of different genders.
However, Assistant Director of Residence Life Grant Schoonover, said the University is already planning to integrate halls starting Fall term of 2009 with two wings of the fifth floor of Carson Hall.
“There are sort of plans in progress and it’s something we’ve been looking at for about five years,” Schoonover said.
Kallaway said she was aware of the plans.
“What we’ll do is to continue to support that,” Kallaway said.
[email protected]