News Editor
Jan Montry
News Editor:
Brook Reinhard
Freelance Editor
AyishaYahya
-OregonDaily Emerald
ASUO Elections
Tuesday, April 8,2003
Seat 13 bids
review office
hours, budget
Candidates for Senate Seat 13 seek cooperation
among student groups, cost-efficient budgeting
strategies and more outlets for student voice
Aaron Shakra
Pulse Reporter
Three students are running for ASUO Student Senate
Seat 13, Arts & Letters, Journalism. Although all three
candidates agreed to interviews with the Emerald, candi
date Alicia Lindquist decided she was uncomfortable with
the Emerald’s political coverage and did not want her re
sponses printed.
The Emerald asked each candidate three general ques
tions, and one specific question regarding student govern
ment: What’s the most important part of Senate Rules Sec
tion 5, which covers senate duties, and why?
Ashlee Stefani is a 20-year-old sophomore majoring in jour
nalism, with minors in business and Spanish. She is also a
member of Delta Gramma sorority and is running to “become
proactive” in the way that the school is run. She was initially
unfamiliar with Section 5, but said holding office hours is im
portant so students have someone to turn to.
Q: How will you figure out how to spend the surplus?
Stefani: I think that the best way is to find out about the
programs and participate in budget making processes, get
a better understanding of what the programs are about and
help develop cost-efficient budgets in order to allocate the
funds in a cost-efficient way.
Turn to Seat 13, page 12
Peter Utsey Emerald
Seat 15 hopefuls
ponder budget,
student contact
Five students make their bids for Senate Seat 15,
stressing budget concerns, cooperation with
student groups and office hours as top priorities
Jan Montry
News Editor
The ASUO Student Senate has nine academic seats that are
intended to represent academic categories — such as social sci
ence and business — at the University. Five students are vying
for Seat 15, Social Science.
The Emerald asked each candidate three general ques
tions and one specific question about student government:
What is the most important part of Senate Rules Section 5,
which lists senators’ duties?
Kevin Curtin, a sophomore political science major, is
involved with the College Democrats and was an ASUO leg
islative intern his freshman year. While he didn’t know that
Section 5 contained senate duties, he said being impartial
was the most important duty.
Q: How will you figure out how to spend the surplus?
Curtin: Well, I’ll sit down and listen to the groups that
want the surplus money. I’ll patiently listen to what they
have to say. And once I’ve listened to what they have to say,
I’ll make a vote based on what I believe is right.
Q: How will you interact with student groups?
Curtin: Keep the avenues of communication open and
show respect to the different student groups, whether I per
sonally disagree with what they’re doing or not. I would
Turn to Seat 15, page 12
Ballot measures to update ASUO constitution
Nineteen ballot measure
changes have approval
from the Constitution Court,
but still need student approval
Brook Reinhard
News Editor
The ASUO constitution is one of
many documents that make their
home in the Green Tape Notebook,
which tells student government offi
cials everything they need to know
about their jobs. But the constitu
tion, just like state and federal con
stitutions, sometimes becomes obso
lete or contains language that needs
to be changed.
In this ASUO primary election,
students must consider 19 ballot
measures that would amend the
constitution. Each measure has
been approved by the ASUO Consti
tution Court, and students must de
cide whether to vote “yes” and
amend the constitution or “no” and
keep the status quo.
Being an informed voter in this
election will take a lot of reading and
a willingness to skip over the gram
mar errors and unclear wording in
some of the actual ballot measures.
With this in mind, the Emerald has
explained the measures without
reprinting them verbatim. The
measures are divided into three cat
egories: Major changes, minor
changes and date changes.
Major changes
•5.4: Clarifies who appoints stu
dents to vacant student government
spots. Voting yes would allow the
ASUO president to make appoint
ments to vacant positions on the
Athletic Department Finance Com
mittee, the Programs Finance Com
mittee and the EMU Board, except
for positions that are actually ap
pointed by the EMU Board itself. Vot
ing no would still allow the president
to fill vacant seats on the ASUO Con
stitution Court and the ASUO Stu
dent Senate, but the rules would not
be clear on who could appoint stu
dents to fill ADFC, PFC and EMU
Board seats.
•5.6: Requires the ASUO presi
dent or designee to submit a budget
recommendation at the same time
each major program submits its rec
ommendation to senate. Voting yes
would synchronize the budget rec
ommendation of the president,
EMU, PFG and ADFG. Voting no
would let groups and the ASUO pres
ident continue to decide independ
ently when they make budget rec
ommendations.
•6.14: Instructs the PFG to budg
et for an unallocated reserve, or sur
plus. Voting yes would make the PFG
responsible for including in their
budget an unallocated reserve of up
to 1.5 percent of the student inci
dental fee budget, to be allocated to
student groups by the senate. Voting
no would leave the senate in charge
of budgeting the unallocated reserve.
•6.15: Excludes maintenance and
repair costs from the seven percent
maximum allowable increase for EMU
program’s building reserves. Voting
yes would allow maintenance costs,
like fixing a furnace or replacing light
bulbs, to be excluded from the seven
percent-per-year building reserve
fund. Voting no would include main
tenance and repair costs when factor
ing in the seven percent increase.
•8.1: Removes a position from the
five-member ADFG and replaces it
with a non-voting committee mem
ber. Voting yes would strike the Ath
letic Department Team Council ap
pointed position and require the
ASUO Finance Coordinator to serve
instead as a non-voting member. Vot
ing no would keep the Athletic De
partment Team Council appointment,
even though the explanation of the
ballot measure approved by the ASUO
Elections Board says that the council
no longer appoints anyone.
Turn to Measures, page 7
Science students to select
who sits in Senate Seat 16
Science majors can vote for one of
three candidates for Senate Seat 16
Kira Park
Freelance Reporter
Three candidates are in the race for ASUO
Student Senate Seat 16, Science. This posi
tion represents the interests of students from
the science department, and only students in
science-affiliated fields can vote in this race.
The Emerald asked each candidate three
general questions and one specific question
about student government: What is the most
important part of Senate Rules Section 5,
which lists senators’ duties?
Senior Paul Griffes is majoring in geogra
phy. He is a member of Students for Peace, the
College Democrats and the University Surf
Club. Saying he hadn’t memorized senate
rules, Griffes looked up Section 5 and then
said the most important parts were attending
scheduled meetings and making himself avail
able to the students.
Q: How will you figure out how to spend
the surplus?
Griffes: Some of the principle guidelines
that I would use for allocating money would
be how wide a portion of the student body is
going to benefit. If your group only benefits a
very small sliver of the campus population, in
my eyes you shouldn’t be as entitled to money
that everybody pays into as some other func
tion that everybody benefits from.
Q: How will you interact with student
groups?
Griffes: I’ll be keeping office hours, I’ll have
an e-mail address and people who are inter
ested in getting my attention who have issues
will know where to contact me. I believe there
are too many different groups to go out and
meet everybody personally.
Q: What are the most important issues fac
ing the students you would represent?
Griffes: The most important issues facing
all of us on the student body are: ability to
Turn to Seat 16, page 7
Seat 17 candidates plan out
allocation of surplus funds
Three candidates vie for Senate
Seat 17, a position that represents
students in the business school
Jennifer Bear
Campus/Federal Politics Reporter
Three students are running for ASUO Stu
dent Seat 17, Business, an academic position
that represents students in the Charles H.
Lundquist College of Business. The candidate
who is elected to this position will be respon
sible for helping the senate decide where and
when to invest surplus money next year.
The Emerald asked each candidate three
general questions and one specific question
about student government: What is the most
important part of Senate Rules Section 5,
which lists senators’ duties?
Erik Fordyce is a junior and business ad
ministration major with a finance concentra
tion. He is a member of the University Invest
ment Group, and he worked last term as a
financial planning intern at Merrill Lynch. He
did not know that Section 5 lists senators’ du
ties, but he said a senator’s most important re
sponsibility is to actively represent the inter
ests of students.
Q: What are the most important issues fac
ing the students you would represent?
Fordyce: The most important issue is not
getting enough opportunities outside of cam
pus. We just don’t have enough quality com
panies coming to the University any more.
That’s my main goal, is getting more opportu
nities for students to plan their future instead
of going out into the working world not really
knowing what they’re going to do.
Q: How will you figure out how to spend
the surplus?
Fordyce: Basically take every activity, see
what the allocation of funds is for that activity,
the importance. I believe that within the com
ing years, groups and organizations should be
sponsored more by the school. I think the
Turn to Seat 17, page 11