ASUO
continued from page 1
hires people that he thinks have good
ideas and are going good places,” Sul
livan said. “Then he backs off and lets
them go.”
Breslow even said that he “fol
lows their lead a little bit.”
Following footsteps
But giving such freedom to the
staff has resulted in Breslow and
Magner failing to pursue a major
campaign of their own.
Last year at this time, former ASUO
President and Vice President Wylie
Chen and Mitra Anoushiravani had
made headway on their campaign
promises, including improved rela
tions with the Eugene Police Depart
ment and better campus lighting.
Since their run for the Executive
office, Breslow and Magner said,
their focus has evolved into contin
uing the campaigns Chen and
Anoushiravani initiated, such as
campus democracy.
“In some cases we wanted to keep
the momentum going,” Breslow
said. “We didn’t want to reinvent
the wheel.”
But Breslow did say he wanted
the ASUO Executive to become a
politically active organization dur
ing his term, and has dedicated en
ergy to that end, specifically around
issues involving campus-communi
ty relations and campus democracy,
concerns that gained considerable
attention during last year’s push to
join the Worker Rights Consortium.
But Sullivan, who has been in
charge of filling the empty student
seats on several University commit
tees, said he feels as though the
worker rights issue has “been
dropped from the slate entirely.”
Campus democracy has had a little
more attention: 90 percent of the
empty committee spots have been
filled, a rate Breslow said is a record.
Even so, some staff members have
felt they lacked a main direction
and have wished there could be
something more central coming
from the Executive leaders.
Although campus and communi
ty relations and diversity are “burn
ing issues” for Breslow, Tanner said
last term he would have liked to have
seen a push for “something new —
something to unify the staff around. ”
He said that to some extent there
was unification around the special
response fee and Weaving New Be
ginnings, the annual diversity re
cruitment and retention banquet.
Tanner said he understood why
that big push hasn’t happened.
“When you’re a president here,
you really can’t do all this stuff, be
cause you have all these tasks you
have to do just because you’re presi
dent,” Tanner said.
Though the lack of a big push is
by no means detrimental, Tanner
said, it would be nice for Breslow
and Magner to have something to
call their own.
“It’s what makes you stick out,”
Tanner said. “It’s their legacy.”
Sullivan also said that while all the
small tasks Breslow and Magner have
to get done make it hard to focus on
one main campaign, he wished they
would contribute more as leaders.
“They could be more produc
tive,” Sullivan said. “Their position
is like diving into bureaucracy,
more or less. Still, I would like to see
more proactive ideas.”
Having fun, staying busy
Even though they haven’t stood
solidly behind a single campaign,
Breslow and Magner have played
their parts in the major campaigns
of the Executive office.
“I’m going to blush when I say this,
but one of the things I loved was
building the really big ballot box,”
Breslow said of the 19-foot green box
that stood outside the Executive of
fice last October and November.
Breslow added that it was one of
the only things Tanner and ASUO
Legislative Organizer Melissa
Unger would “let him do” in a suc
cessful voter participation drive
that enveloped much of fall term.
The box is representative of what
Breslow and Magner have found to
be their greatest strength this year:
coming up with “crazy ideas” to put
a new spin on an old campaign.
During fall term, Breslow and
Manger rode a tandem bicycle
around campus wearing red capes
with gold trim—their giant first ini
tials plastered on the back — and
they dug out an old sno-cone ma
chine from EMU storage and used it
during the voter-participation drive.
“I think we’ve been anything but
boring,” Breslow said.
But Breslow said he has other
strengths outside his crazy ideas,
and one of the stronger ones is be
ing personable.
In addition, because he “grew up”
in the Multicultural Center and has
connections to student groups, Bres
low said he has a built-in network of
people to call in certain situations.
A weakness, Breslow said, is that
in focusing on the big picture, he
and Magner have sometimes forgot
ten the details.
During fall term, two students at
tempted a recall of Breslow, accus
ing him of partisanship during an
Oct. 27 candidate fair and of leaving
several ASUO positions open for
more than 30 days, the time limit
that ASUO rules dictate for leaving
positions unfilled.
Breslow said he has trouble getting
things done on time, and that one of
the biggest mistakes he’s made all
year was not hiring the elections co
ordinator on time. Shantell Rice,
ASUO elections coordinator, was
hired at the start of winter term.
Looking ahead, the focus for the
future revolves around many sepa
rate issues, ranging from the Oregon
budget for higher education to racial
profiling, the pair said.
But, Breslow said, those goals
could always change.
“It’s a really crazy campus. [I] can
never sit still for half an hour,” he
said. “Something’s always popping
up.”
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