ASUO plans to focus on student involvment in elections
LAURA GOSS/Emerald
Vice President Morgan Cowling (left) and President Geneva Wortman say they have the skills to fulfill
their campaign promises.
The University's new
campus organizer is
only one of two in
the entire nation
By Peter Breaden
Oregon Daily Emerald
Gov. Kitzhaber’s “year of rein
vestment in higher education”
has begun in Salem, Congress re
cently reautho
rized the Higher
Education Act,
and with the start
of classes, students
will set up their
own campaigns for
everything from
medicinal marijua
ASUO
na to outreach programs for dis
advantaged students.
Student government officials are
turning their attention to the fall
elections, where prominent issues
for voters will be a forestry ballot
measure, a governorship and a U.S.
Senate seat. Student voter registra
tion will enable or disable any
campaign for change, said ASUO
President Geneva Wortman.
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“[What] we’re working on, on a
statewide level, [are] tuition
freezes and faculty compensa
tion," Wortman said. “It gives us
that many more guns in our war
chest to have students regis
tered.”
Though their goals for voter
turnout are standard for an elec
tion year, ASUO will begin its
campus programs with a fuller
spread of tools than earlier years.
The executive’s campaign slogan
goals of tuition freezes, better fac
ulty compensation, and concerts
at McArthur Court, though they
were also arguably unimagina
tive, were realistic, given the lob
bying experience and ability of
vice president Morgan Cowling
and herself, Wortman explained.
“All the skills necessary to get
those goals, Morgan and I have
those,” she said.
One ASUO tool of note will be
the new full-time position of
ASUO Campus Organizer. Joelle
Lester holds only the second
campus organizer post in the
country. The first was at the Uni
versity of Wisconsin at Madison,
from where Lester hails.
“Campus organizer, basically,
is to do leadership develop
ment,” Lester said. “I’ll do a lot of
intern and volunteer recruitment
and development.”
The campus organizer position
operates through the Oregon Stu
dent Association, a statewide,
student-lobbying group, Wort
man explained.
“Her position will change the
face of student government,”
Wortman said. “Someone who’s
been trained by OSA, she has
that campaign mindset.”
"They say, ‘We want 6,000
voters, and I help them do that,”
Lester said. “There’s a science to
organizing.”
Dealing with the organization
of national student representa
tion, the United States Student
Congress convened in Boulder,
Colo., this summer. The Univer
sity was represented by Cowling,
federal affairs coordinator C.J.
Gabbe, Hispanic and Chicano
student union representatives
Mario Sifuentez and Sarita
Amaya, and YWCA representa
tive Mercedes Cruz.
“We had to choose our three
main campaigns, which were ap
propriations, affirmative action,
and campus democracy,” Gabbe
said.
The University’s delegation
was instrumental in bringing
about the campus democracy
campaign which addresses the
right to collect student incidental
fees, Gabbe said.
“We’re taking a pro-active
stance,” he said. “It’s necessary
to have the incidental fees be
cause it supports such a wide va
riety of options. While you may
not personally benefit from each
group [that is funded by inciden
tal fees], you will benefit from
having the debate on campus.”
Gabbe was elected to the vice
chair of National Students of the
Jewish Community Caucus,
Cowling won the vice chair posi
tion for the Northwest region,
and Amaya was elected chair of
the national Hispanic and Chi
cano Coalition.
But back in Eugene, Cowling
stressed the new student govern
ment’s campus focus.
“We’re really committed to is
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