Wednesday marks the beginning of the ASUO primary elections, and we want to encourage the student body to take a few minutes to log onto DuckWeb to vote. Here are some (just some) of the reasons why all students should vote in the ASUO election:
Let’s start with the big stuff, such as the fact that ASUO officials spend most of their time spending your money. More than $10 million each year. This stack of your cash is collected to the tune of approximately $184 per term per student and sent to the ASUO coffers. It comes partially from your student fees and goes where these elected officials say it goes.
Does it bother you that OSPIRG, one of the largest student-funded groups on campus (with an approved $120,074 budget for 2005-06), could make a request to this year’s Programs Finance Committee for an additional $13,000 to fund an environmental advocate (this was denied) while some groups had their stipends dramatically cut? Don’t like it? Go vote.
Earlier this year, elected and appointed student officials went on a retreat in Sunriver where they later admitted to drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana. We aren’t the moral police, or the real police for that matter, but what we found in a note they left at a guest house, dated Oct. 10, said: “Do you pay incidental fees at the Univ. of Oregon? If so, your money just paid for six people to sleep here for two nights. We got drunk, played taboo, and learned about the finance system, all on your dime. We are some cocky, smooth, motherfuckers.” Don’t like it? Go vote.
Next year students will lose 400 seats at home football games and 300 seats at men’s basketball games because of changes to a contract that the members of the Athletic Department Finance Committee, who you elected last year, negotiated for you. Care about getting a ticket to the Civil War? Go vote.
Enjoying the creaky comforts of an outdated student union building? The elected members of the 15-person EMU Board help designate space in the EMU for student groups, and it advises the professional EMU staff on how to renovate and maintain the building. The same officials allocate funding for services and programs such as the Outdoor Program and Cultural Forum, and events such as the Willamette Valley Folk Festival. Want more space in the EMU for better events on campus? Go vote.
This year when the budget-crippled UO Libraries could no longer support the security needed to keep the building open 24/7 for Dead Week, the library turned to your elected student Senators for the necessary cash. In the face of an impending loss of the service they debated whether it was the University’s responsibility to pay. Should students have to dole out money for an academic service with funds meant to support and, in the words of current ASUO Vice President Mena Ravissapour, promote “the physical and cultural development of our University”? Go vote.
With the plethora of important issues (that affect every student at this university) in the hands of these candidates, each and every one of you has no reason not to get out the vote.
Complacent voters yield ineffectual government
April 4, 2005