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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 15, 2003)
Students take part in ASUO as interns, elected officials Student government is one way for students to create change at the University and hold leadership roles By Cory Eldridge Freelance Reporter For ASUO senator Jesse Harding, involvement in student government is a simple idea. "Half of being involved is show ing up," said Harding, who is Senate seat number eight and a senior jour nalism major. "Student power is in our numbers." For the members of the student government, being active in student government can be as simple as get ting involved with events, or as engag ing as interning for ASUO. Junior Gabe Kjos committed to an internship with ASUO. "I saw tuition was increasing way too much, and students were paying more for less," Kjos said. "1 figured (by interning) I would have a legitimate way to affect students." That was last January. Now Kjos is a legislative associate for ASUO. He works with other students to lobby for and against bills being submitted to the state Legislature. Interns work in one of eight areas of ASUO, from the legislative and in ternational departments to the mar keting and public relation depart ments. A one-hour class takes place once a week, and students spend time at the ASUO office depending on how many credits their internship is worth. Affecting what happens to students' wallets, supplementing a major and learning more about the University are all reasons students have become involved with ASUO. Ben Strawn, a junior and seat number 10, ran for a seat on the Stu dent Senate for many reasons, in cluding learning about how student fees are used. As a senator, Strawn approves the budget for student groups and is on a committee that decides how to award the surplus to student groups that request it. Both Strawn and Harding cite the school's many committees as avenues students can use to greatly affect what happens at the University. The student government works its ass off to keep what students have. It's great when we get something new, but with the state budget, that doesn't happen often.'' Jesse Harding ASUO senator To cater to different majors, nine of the 18 senators are representatives for various majors and are heads of committees. These committees consist of stu dents trying to better the University for other students. "ASUO does for students what the administration can't," he said. "The ASUO is students so it is more affect ed by decisions." The student government attempts to consider every student's needs but admits it can improve. "Our goal is to reach out to all LI of 0 students and we weren't reaching international students," Kjos said. To remedy that, ASUO President Maddy Melton hired senior psychol ogy major Takenori Momiyama to help involve international students in student government. One of Momiyama's goals is to cre ate new committees to address the specific needs of international stu dents, especially the need to improve financial assistance. "Tuition has increased for all stu dents, but international students have few scholarships and no financial aid," Momiyama said. "A project we are working on is a scholarship for in ternational students." ihe scholarship would be based on students donating small change around campus, but could possibly move to other forms of fund raising. "Students helping students is what 1 want to focus on for this scholar ship," Momiyama said. On Oct. 14, ASUO is running a program called "Weaving New Begin nings," which is aimed at allowing students of color to meet school fac ulty and administration. "It's pretty simple, but people think that someone else is doing it," Hard ing said of various events sponsored by student government. '"Ihe student government works its ass off to keep what students have. It's great when we get something new, but with the state budget, that doesn't happen often." To Harding, involvement is as sim ple as this: Show up. "Find the things that interest you the most; show up to committees that affect your major or your daily life," he said. Cory Eldridge is a freelance reporter for the Emerald. EVERY THURSDAY ONLY IN THE OREGON DAILY EMERALD Need Cash — for a • ■ A . night out? Earn Extra .. . New donors bring this ad in for an extra $5 Aventis Bioservices (Formerly Seramed ) __2 Locations: _ I Block east of 8th and Garfield 225 B Main St. 1901 West 8th Ave., Eugene in Springfield 683-9430 747-4390 Advertise mtke ODE classifieds Call 346-4343 or place your ad online www.dailyemerald.com Need a hand with University related problems? 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