Toby Piering is a freshman majoring in pre-public policing, planning and management political science.
Oregon Daily Emerald: Why are you running for PFC at large?
Toby Piering: Well, I want to have kind of a way to serve my fellow students here at the U of O and also I think it’s a certain amount of responsibility that needs to be taken up by somebody and I’d like to see, you know, some various things change because I think there have kind of been some miscommunication between the programs and the PFC this year and I’d like to re-establish as a student organization, you know bring it closer to the students.
Emerald: How will you interact with student groups?
Piering: I’m already attending the meetings of some of the various programs to kind of get an idea of a feeling for all of the individual programs. I think as a person on the PFC, it’s important to know who you’re representing and so I have planned to attend a majority of student program meetings at least every now and then so I can get a feel of where they’re standing and where they’re going and direction they’re heading so I can represent them on the PFC better. I also plan to make myself available to any student feedback open to all the programs if they, you know, to hear the input, whether it be at a PFC meeting or on their own time or whatever.
Emerald: What are the most important issues facing the student groups you would represent?
Piering: I think one of the most of the important, well, I mean, obviously it’s about money. I think the most important thing of the PFC is to make sure they represent the students unbiasedly and not take a side and look at the organization for what they’re doing for the students on campus whether they agree or disagree with what they’re doing or not and so … what was the question exactly?
Emerald: What are the most important issues?
Piering: Yeah, I think the most important issue is just basically that PFC and the student programs become united together, and also I’d like to see no further raises in the incidental fees, no further increases in the incidental fees, or if there is keep it as low as possible ’cause that, you know, with the current budget crises and the economic downturn, it’s going to be hard for students to fund college as it is without an increase in fees.
Emerald: OK, you said you want to have a better communication between PFC and student groups — would you say the communication is not as good as it should be?
Piering: Not necessarily as good as it should be, it’s not as good as it could be — it could definitely be better. I think — but I don’t think PFC has done anything wrong this year, I just think that it can also be taken to a point of even higher communication. I mean, there was the big snafu with the whole OSPIRG, with the budget, and I think that could have been avoided maybe with a little bit more communication and didn’t the Oregon Daily … was it the Emerald or the Commentator?
Emerald: The Emerald
Piering: The Emerald, you know something that they missed a little, they did something wrong some minute aspect, whereas if the PFC had communicated easier or on a regular basis, maybe with the Emerald, that could have been avoided before coming in front of the PFC committee and getting involved in that whole situation. I think a lot of the little road bumps, the bumps in the road, could have been avoided with better communication between PFC and the student groups.
Emerald: OK, what is the most important thing you should know in order to deal with the budget process?
Piering: I think the most important thing is knowing that obviously how much money you have and how it can be allocated and knowing where the student groups are going, what they’re planning to do with the money you give them — you want to be able to know exactly where your money’s going, where the money’s going, and making sure it’s going to the right places because this is a finite set and finite amount of money and it’s very hard to distribute it, you know, when everyone wants a piece of the pie and how big of a piece to make sure everyone gets — you can’t say something overall, you have to look at each program as an individual case and judge how much you know should be appropriate.
Emerald: Who does the PFC submit their budgeting benchmark to?
Piering: That’s a good question. What do you mean by that question?
Emerald: Do you know about the budgeting benchmark PFC sets for itself and then it submits to another group?
Piering: No, I don’t.
Emerald: You don’t know?
Piering: Nope, I’m not going to comment on something I’m not fully aware of.
Emerald: OK, what would say is the most important part of section 4 of the ASUO PFC bylaws?
Piering: Will you read section 4?
Emerald: It’s in the Green Tape notebook, section 4.
Piering: I left the Green Tape notebook at home.
Emerald: Section 4 is about duties.
Piering: Well, I can’t fully comment on it without having it in front of me to comment on, but in general, I think it’s the job of the PFC to represent the students at large in an unbiased unpolitical stance on anything you’re there to represent the student body and you have to do a good job of representing the student body as a whole that represents every single student, you know, from the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Alliance, ASUO to club sports, everything you have to take each individual case as it comes know what’s involved with that program know where it’s coming from and then judge your appropriation based on how you see fit and you just have to have the knowledge of every program.