Chris Haak and Peter Flier, President and Vice President
Ages: Haak, 19; Flier, 20
Majors: Haak, sociology; Flier, History
Years: Haak, junior; Flier, sophomore
Hometowns: Haak, Lafayette, California; Flier, Corvallis, Ore.
Emerald: What is your platform summary?
Haak: I don’t know what our platform is really. We’re trying to get some more lighting around campus and along the path to Autzen footbridge. At night it’s really dark and a lot of people have been actually complaining that we’ve talked to. They say it’s really dark out there. We’re also trying to keep the student tickets to games at the same level they are instead of defunding them, because a lot of people keep wanting them and they keep selling out. We just have to encourage more people to attend the games somehow. The programs for the

leadership retreats, we’re trying to cut back on those to maybe one or zero because anything that can be done on a leadership retreat really can be done at a meeting. You don’t have to go somewhere to do it. I’ve been on a couple leadership retreats and other activities and not a whole lot gets done at them. Anything that can, can easily be done here.
Flier: Long and short of it is spending a little bit more wisely, doing programs that I think will be much more popular because some of them that are done I see as sort of a waste of money when nobody shows up for the actual program itself. Having programs for the sake of having programs, I feel a lot of money is squandered that way. So my hope is to encourage more programs or provide more funding for programs that have a likelihood of more people showing up.
Emerald: What programs would you want to cut?
Flier: I can’t say for sure, but I think it’s more of a situation, case-by-case basis. I am entirely for cultural diversity and I understand that it’s an important thing that the University has been trying to work on as of late. But you know, it would be great if we got programs that more faces were at, and instead of having as many programs as we do, possibly funding more for the other programs so they can advertise more. I was outside talking to some people about some programs that are here now. They had no idea about half the ones I listed off. Movie night, all those sort of things that they were interested in, genuinely, not even realizing that they existed. Half the people I talked to in the past hour didn’t even know there was an election. So, I feel something’s wrong there. More money should be spent on, like getting the word out. People were telling me that too. They were like “we didn’t even know that any of this was going on.”
Emerald: How would you like to get the word out?
Flier: Well I know the paper does it, but I feel like the ASUO office, they are trying more, because I didn’t realize there was any process at all until I got involved with it. But they are trying more, they’re getting the word out with posters, having people stand out there, but it seems like it’s not enough, people just aren’t interested. That’s sort of the trend I guess.
Emerald: What qualifies you for this position?
Haak: I’ve had some leadership positions in the past. I was a member of Boy Scouts of America and held several leadership positions there for the lodge, their service advice chief so all of the service projects for most of the states. That was a lot of fun.
Flier: I’ve been involved in leadership throughout my life. I was heavily involved in scouting and through that I learned a lot of leadership. I put forward a lot of the stuff to do projects, helped out in the community where I was from.
Emerald: Did you make it to Eagle Scout?
Flier: Yes. I’m an Eagle as is my running mate. It sort of set us up for working with people. Trying to get stuff done, the determination that I think a leader should have.
Emerald: Why do you want this job?
Haak: Because we thought we’d be good at the job and we don’t have a ton of experience so we figured we can come in here without knowing a lot and be able to do it because we don’t have any other perceptions about how it’s supposed to be run. We can go in and do it how we like.
Flier: A lot of it has to do with my platform. The importance of not spending money as I see frivolously. The ASUO in general could be spending the money a lot better. Spending it on programs. I was mentioning, a lot of people are worried about safety. In terms of the campus being lit up at night, they don’t feel like there’s enough presence of either being lit up, because security, they don’t see security guards walking around. I’m not so concerned about that, but people would feel more at ease if the area were lit up. A lot of them discuss that with me and they felt “yeah that would be a great program to put on.” I don’t know, I think it is within my power somewhat to encourage programs like that or at least talk to the administration about it, and it’s something I’d like to do.
Emerald: In light of the ASUO retreat to Sunriver, Oregon, what do you think is the best was to ensure proper accountability from student leaders next year?
Haak: Really we just have to regulate ourselves. Do what you think is right, honestly. Don’t spend student money on that kind of stuff. If anything just spend your own.
Flier: In terms of the Sunriver incident, I would encourage actually cutting that program for the sole reason that I feel like leadership can be attained on campus just through meetings and as far as I’m concerned, there should be more communication anyway. You don’t really have to go away on a retreat to get that done. I mean, I want my officers to be friends, people that I just run into, say ‘hi,’ exchange a few word with. And it seems like that might have been the case with the people that went on Sunriver, but I feel like the funding, I know they weren’t provided with the substances through funding as far as I know. They could have used their pay, but yeah, it’s sort of a shame that that happened that way.
Emerald: How would you organize your staff to reflect your priorities?
Haak: I don’t know. All we want to do is put new activities on that students haven’t really seen. So we’d probably make a lot of our hiring would be for new activities. Chairs on how to promote new activities that people haven’t seen and get a lot more of the student population involved in them.