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EDITOR IN CHIEF
Ryan Frank
EDITORIAL EDITORS
Kameron Cole
Stefanie Knowlton
What election?
Low voter
turnout
enables the
ASUO to pass a
new grievance
policy that
may not have
students' best
interests in
mind
In a sweeping victory the
ASUO’s new elections
grievance process was
voted in, earning an
overwhelming 75 percent of
the vote.
The problem?
Only 308 students voted in
last week’s special election
that passed the new grievance
process. The 1.8 percent voter
turnout sinks even lower than
our meager predictions.
It can be argued
that given only five days to
prepare, the ASUO did the
best it could to get students to
the ballot box — but that ar
gument makes no sense.
A few posters scattered
around the University one
day before the election and
two ads in the Emerald does
not constitute a viable educa
tional campaign.
Exactly how many of the
308 voters actually work in
the ASUO office? We bet
there are at least
30 people who work in the
ASUO office, which makes
up more than 15 percent of
the votes in favor of the re
vised grievance process. This
percentage could not have
swayed the election, but it
was large enough to cause
worry about the validity of
the results of the policy
based special election.
But voter turnout is only
the first bone the editorial
board has to pick with the
outcome of the special elec
tion.
Next, the grievance process
voted in by the ASUO with
help from the 200 other stu
dents is suspect.
The grievance process is
set up to handle election con
cems ana vioia
|t tions. Before this
year’s changes,
the Constitu
tion Court
was the first
government
body to
hear the
griev
dllUtJS. /Vllcl
last year’s gen
eral election, the court
received so many grievances
it could not hear them all in a
timely manner.
Fixing this problem was the
ASUO Executive’s main con
cern when it called a special
election this year. The
ASUO’s answer (i.e. the ballot
measure) fixes that problem
but also creates a new one.
The grievance process
measure, which amended the
ASUO Constitution, allows
the ASUO elections board to
create a committee that hears
grievances instead of having
students go to the Constitu
tion Court.
A conflict of interest oc
curs when you consider that
most grievances are filed
against the ASUO, the elec
tions process or candidates.
The committee, hand
picked and employed by the
ASUO, will decide griev
ances against the ASUO and
the election process. In effect,
the ASUO will be able to in
terpret the election rules
whichever way benefits it di
rectly.
What if a grievance is filed
against the ASUO Executive?
How would a committee that
serves directly under the
president decide the issue
without a conflict of interest
arising?
In addition, this new
process takes election power
away from the judicial
branch and concentrates it in
the executive branch. Stu
dents are allowed to appeal
the committee’s decisions to
the Constitution Court, but
the process will have to go
through the ASUO-appointed
committee first. The result
will be a drawn out process
that is more complicated,
confusing and time consum
ing than the last grievance
process.
Instead of giving the ASUO
the freedom to have full elec
tion reign, the Constitution
Court should appoint the
committee members to en
sure autonomy and justice.
If the revised grievance
process is to provide any pro
ductive changes, a branch of
the ASUO Executive cannot
be responsible for reviewing
the grievances.
This editorial represents the
opinion of the Emerald editori
al board. Responses may l)e
sent to ode@oregon.
uoregon.edu
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Thumbs
THUMBS UP
To the sunshine:
Spring is coming
and Eugene resi
dents enjoyed an
uncharacteristic,
sunny March
weekend. We may
not get many more
this month, so we
hope you had time
to get outside and
enjoy it.
ToPac-10tittes:
The Oregon
women’s basket
ball team beat Cali
fornia Saturday to
clinch a shared
Pac-10 champi
onship. This elu
sive title has never
been attained by a
women’s or men’s
Oregon basketball
team.
THUMBS DOWN
To lacked
accountability:
Acquittal of the U.S.
pilot who was in
volved in the gon
dola accident, Wing
20 people in Italy
lastyear.hasled
many to demand
accountability from
the United Sates.
President Clinton,
offering little more
than apologies, has
not changed regula
tions in foreign
training missions
similar to the one
that resisted in the
accident.
To trailing
children:
Oregon fourth
gratters test below
the national average
in reading, accord
ingto recenttest
results. Although
eighth-graders
scored above aver
age in Oregon,
reading readiness
in elementary
school is essential
to success in future
grades. One state
actually determines
the number of
prison beds it will
need in 12 to 15
years by how many
third-graders are
unable to read.