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.