ASUO Sen. Ian Fielding is taking on a new role to involve students in issues that directly affect them.
Ducks 4 Liberty officially kicked off when school started and, since then, they’ve tried to make a splash at the University by trying to spark student involvement outside the confines of the ASUO.
While Fielding happens to be a finance senator and a member of the Athletics and Contracts Finance Committee as well as the Ducks 4 Liberty president, he said he hopes Ducks 4 Liberty take a more active role in making changes than other political student groups.
“We’re not an official UO group, just part of the campus community,” Fielding said.
The group is holding several events throughout the term, including an event Tuesday afternoon outside the EMU Amphitheater that called for reform of University Catering. At the event, they provided free pizza and had a petition for students to sign. Fielding said they received 77 signatures in the hour they had reserved. He also said the group financed the pizza and will finance other events from an in-group pool of money. He plans to write to local businesses to try to fundraise but said the group will not try to obtain funds from the student incidental fee.
“We don’t want to use the I-fee, we’re a non-profit,” Fielding said.
They met with Director of Food Services Tom Driscoll Tuesday after the gathering to discuss their concerns about the restrictive nature of campus catering.
“It went well,” Driscoll said. “I think we’re going to continue to discuss this.”
Ducks 4 Liberty Coordinator Daniel Scott said his primary objective at the moment is to coordinate events, but more specifically to engage speakers to visit campus.
A major event Scott hopes to hold before the end of fall term is a panel discussion with University President Richard Lariviere. Other speakers he wants to bring to campus include OUS Board of Higher Education President Paul Kelly, Jr., Oregon Representative Peter DeFazio and a member of Seattle-Northwest Securities, which reviewed Lariviere’s white paper that asks for an $800 million bond from the state.
Ducks 4 Liberty want to generate discussion about how politics work in the real world.
At the free pizza event, Scott said it went “surprisingly well,” citing a low amount of advertising for the event before it happened.
Ducks 4 Liberty Public Relations representative Charmaine Ng  said the group is a new opportunity for its members.
“None (of us) have run an organization like this before,” she said. “It’s a trial run.”
A major group goal is for students to hear about the events and participate in them, Ng said.
“We can’t do it without students paying attention,” she said.
Ng said Fielding approached her during the summer with the idea for the group. She said all of the people involved in the organization are involved on campus in some way and the group started with members just discussing various campus issues.
“It’s been in the back of (Fielding’s) mind for a while,” she said.
Scott said that although they don’t have many events planned this term, they hope to get more students involved and hold larger events in the future. “We’re thinking big for winter term,” he said.
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