Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 24, 2001)
Wednesday Editor in chief: jack Clifford Managing Editor: Jessica Blanchard Newsroom: (541) 346-5511 Room 300, Erb Memorial Union P.O. box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403 E-mail: ode@oregon.uoregon.edu EDITORIAL EDITOR: MICHAEL J. KLECKNER opededitor@journalist.com Just your average Executive As midterms approach (yes, they’re little more than a week away), the Emerald editorial board decided to take a look at how the ASUO president and vice president, Jay Breslow and Holly Magner, re spectively, have done so far in their terms as student body leaders. We offer a five-part grading system: Staffing Ability, Leadership Skills, Administrative Duties, Diversity Ef forts and Future Goals (since the term is only half over). Each area will be graded and weighted equally, then averaged for an overall grade. According to Breslow and Magn er’s Web site on the Gladstone server, diversity was a top issue for the duo. “As we work to make change at the University of Oregon,” the site reads, “we will consistently work to reach out to all UO students and make sure that the people who work in student government repre sent everyone at our school. ” Be sides noting that they would work to support “students of color” and “traditionally underrepresented groups,” Breslow and Magner said they would improve relations be tween students and the Depart ment of Public Safety and the Eu gene Police Department. Even if not, there’s some more lead ership credit for sitting on the OSA board. One failure: Breslow could not tell us if he had any ideas for ballot measures in this year’s student election — not even any topics that interested him. And after the recent decision by DPS to commission of ficers, Breslow didn’t know how he felt about the issue. He said it was wrong to decide on commissioning without student input, but he had no idea how he felt about the in creased DPS powers. More failure: Relationships with University President Dave Frohn mayer, DPS and the EPD have not improved. Not all of the blame can be placed on Breslow and Magner; last year’s ASUO leaders also spoke of the difficulties of a relationship with Frohnmayer if you don’t agree with him on issues. And local au thority agencies have not exactly cozied up to students. Still, a pow erful leader either bites the bullet and shmoozes opponents into sub mission or presents proposals to blow them out of the water. Bres low has done neither. Grade for this assignment: C Administrative Duties: Last term, two students aimed a recall effort at Breslow, citing unful filled duties. The charges: He failed to produce the notebook of student government rules and regulations that every ASUO Executive is re quired to write, he violated the ASUO Constitution by leaving more than 10 positions unfilled in student government for more than 30 days, and he showed political favoritism in the election by repeatedly helping Democratic supporters speak on campus. Breslow responded to these charges and admitted that he didn’t make some appointments in time. There is still no Green Tape Note book of regulations. But Breslow de nies showing favoritism in the elec tion, saying that support was offered to both Democrats and Republicans, and only Democrats responded. But filling government positions is an important part of the job. And Bres low’s recent failure to get the ASUO Elections up and running on time is worrisome. True, the elections are now on course. But the delay has meant that no serious ballot meas ures are being presented to students, and Breslow himself has no issues for students to vote on. This is bad. Grade for this assignment: C Staffing Ability: Breslow and Magner have done an exceptional job (especially for being self-professed “new kid,s” in student government) of surround ing themselves with hard-working, talented leaders. Legislative Asso ciate Melissa Unger, State Affairs Advocate Brian Tanner and Com munity Outreach Director Christa Shively, in particular, have spent countless hours working for the good of students. Unger is a superi or organizer whose unflagging en ergy helped the University become third in the nation in voter registra tion last year. Tanner can quote higher education budget numbers from memory. And when the ASUO deemed the City of Eugene’s party response fee unacceptable to students, Shively wrote a different version of the code and presented it to the City Council, winning some concessions in the law. One con cern we have is whether the ASUO staff is truly representative of all students, or more representative of the “traditionally underrepresent ed groups” and the activists Bres low worked with prior to his elec tion. Grade for this assignment: A Leadership Skills: Even when talking to Breslow and Magner, it’s hard to tell who has ideas and vision and who doesn’t. Were the efforts on voter turnout, the party response fee and higher educa tion funding the result of these two as leaders, or the result of smart, ef fective staff? In either case, Breslow gets some credit for being the presi dent while these events occurred. When asked if he had an agenda for this year’s legislative session in Salem, Breslow spoke of the agen da of the Oregon Students’ Associ ation. Is that agenda his doing? Diversity: Here we get into a very sticky is sue. If we support diversity as de fined by Breslow and Magner, then identity politics rule, and we’re say ing that the interests of “traditionally underrepresented groups” are all there is to diversity. ASUO staff have genuinely done some good work, having mentors call younger minori ty students to offer support and in formation, supporting student groups that represent ethnic minori ties and organizing the “Weaving New Beginnings” program for mi nority students to explore their fu ture at the University. But we do not Giovanni Salimenatft believe that the sole job of the ASUO is to “help student groups organize themselves,” as Breslow told us. True diversity would be finding ways to get groups such as the Greek System interacting with the Black Student Union and discussing di versity issues on a broader scale than simply isolationist identity politics. Diversity means including everyone at the table, including those groups traditionally over-represented. Oth erwise, it’s not diversity - it’s to kenism and the bad kind of affirma tive action. Grade for this assign ment: C Future Goals: Beyond “building on a great base” and “having a lot of fun in the spring,” Breslow and Magner of fered very little in the way of future goals. They’ll be working on the stuff they said they wanted to work on, we guess. But we like to have fun in the spring, so they earn some points here. Grade for this assignment: C+ Breslow and Magner’s overall midterm grade: C+ One caveat, though: We hear that grade inflation is rampant on cam puses across the country. This editorial represents the opinion of the Emerald editorial board. Responses can be sent to ode@oregon.uoregon.edu.
