Straight from D.C.

I’m writing my final post from Washinton, D.C. I’m here with several members of the ASUO and UO community at the 39th annual United States Student Association’s Legislative Conference. I also have had the opportunity to be chosen as the UO delegation leader which is an amazing honor. We have been working most of our trip to prepare in order to lobby our Senators and Representative about issues surrounding higher education. Through this process though, I’ve been able to build a lot of coalitions with school from across the United States. I’ve worked with University of Wisconsin and University of California on creating spaces for bi/multi racial students like myself. I’ve worked with my campus on issues of privelege and identity. I’ve rode the DC Metro and made amazing friendships with fellow UO students.This conference and this year has taught me a lot about working towards a common goal. It is about three things: cohesion, coalition, and consistency. Without these three, you’ll never make progress.Tomorrow, I’ll be meeting withe Congresswoman Hooley and facilitating a discussion about higher education. Who thought I would be able to have such an impact at this point in my life?  

More Political Branding

I read this article today and agree with the idea that candidate can be thought of more as brands than as individuals. Shania Twain, Britney Spears, and David Beckham all have to be managed as a brand because they represent more than just a person. Same with political candidates. What I don’t agree with is her analysis of each celebrities  endorsement and whether or not it helps each candidate.I think on a lot of candidates she writes them off for the wrong reason. For example, Whoopi Goldberg is an amazingly influential woman in America and what she says means a lot to several different communities. She is considered a news woman who understands social issues because of her work on the View. Also, Magic Johnson is an influential person in sports communities and in the Black community. She makes some problematic generalizations in her analysis. 

Take Back Campus

 For once, the idea of getting together in order to achieve a common goal really makes sense to me. Working on the arena issue has really shown me how important coalition is to making social change. Michael Jackson knew that apparently.

 Last night, the ASUO and the Sustianability Coalition sponsored an event called Take Back Campus. It was a student forum about how to regain student control of campus yet again. The Daily Emerald ran an article about the event which covers both the positive and what to me were some negatives. I want to talk about how exciting it was to see that while some people advocate bucking the system that others were excited about working together in order to make sure that student voices were heard. Coalitions have already began emerging from that event. The event, sadly, was framed as a campaign kick off. Whether or not it was, I have no idea. What I know is that it does not matter who sponsored the event. It remains true that students are not heard on campus and that it is time to work together to get back our voice. Even though it is election season does not mean that people have to lose their minds and forget the good work we have done over the past year. 

A Tide Pen for Your Rep

I read an interesting post this week about a company that claims they can clean up you online reputation.What lengths will people go to bury their online dirt? More importantly, what is it that they are so desperate to bury? And who are they? I need OK! magazine or US Weekly to investigate. Seriously though, it is funny how people think that what they put out into the world will not come back to haunt them. And at $300,000 to have your reputation cleaned up, I will think twice about the next party picture that goes up on facebook or fear ending up like these ladies who will regret their popular video very soon.. 

Coming to the Table

On Tuesday, 10 UO students went to Salem and testified about concerns about funding the bonds to build a new arena. That might not seem like a huge deal but let me give you the details. We found out that we could testify at about 11:30. I got the voice mail at noon and was in the office by 12:45. From there, 6 of us frantically typed testimony, called students who cared about the issue, and managed to organize by 1:30. At this point, I ran to my car as did Senate Ombudswoman Kate Jones. We were on the road with full cars by 1:30 and in the capital by 3.  This might seem like a lot of time but to organize students in the middle of the day and create cohesive messages that are intelligent and persuasive is pretty much a challenge if you have a day. We had a little under two hours. Our representative from the Oregon Student Association met us and I began to organize us. We revisited our messages, prioritized them, and began made sure we were one unified group while Tami, the executive director for OSA, secured our names on the list and we filed into testify before the joint committee on Ways and Means for the Oregon Senate and House.Ten students sat together in school clothes with written testimony in a room of politicians, aids, and reporters. We stuck out but it made a statement. I was the first to testify which was more than nerve racking but a better learning experience than anything I’ve gotten in a lecture hall or discussion section in the past four years.In the end, we were only able to sway two votes. One of those votes was directly influenced by student testimony which is more than we could have asked for. Most of all, we just wanted to be included in a discussion about our fees. 

Tragedy at NIU

Wow. A video was released by the girlfriend of the shooter at Northern Illinois this week. She talks about the shooter and what he was like.

Working at the ASUO makes this issue seem a lot closer to home. Several members of the student government at NIU went to the Northwest Student Leadership Conference with us. The ASUO is putting together a banner that sends our condolences to those at NIU.

The sad thing about this is that our own administration is trying to use this event to make a case for UO to need tazers and eventually guns. It is unfortunate that the situation is potentially going to be exploited for self serving means.

Details, details, details

Working in the ASUO means life is all about trying to secure publicity for an event. I don’t get the opportunity to plan many events anymore but in my former life I did and getting someone to recognize and let alone write about them was a nightmare.

 This article sheds some light on really good methods to get a story covered.

 Writing press releases for Senate is a chore especially when most that goes on in arguing about percents of percentages. When something comes around that is really newsworthy though, I want to make sure it gets covered. When you are working on complex really involved issues, it is really easy to get swept up and not pay attention to details.

 More importantly, names can be a killer. To make sure to get right they can be a total pain but misspell one and you might was well jump off a cliff. It is the quickest way to lose an audience and offend someone who was generous enough to help or potentially help.

Ad Club Drama Ends

This week the Student Senate finally saw the partial funding of ad club. This Oregon Daily Emerald article explains the situation as does this post from a major advertising blog.

After working with this group for so long to fix a problem that was clearly not their fault, it was nice to see that my hard work paid off. The group came in and came out fairly quick which was excellent seeing has how they did everything we asked of them. They raised almost the exact amount we had asked and worked harder than past Ad Clubs have had to work. I think that this is a true testament to how strong the leadership of the UO Ad Club has been. Props to Sabrina DeMartini and Carolyn Bee for working as hard as they have.

Mostly, I think this is the way government should work. You work for and with people. Not to regulate them as if they do not know how to manage themselves. You are just an aid not a king.

This Oregon Daily Emerald post summarizes the meeting in which Ad Club received $3000 in funding. The quote they chose from me is a little out of context but I’m still glad that Ad Club is going to compete.

Leadership and a viral video

After reading this post, I’ve been thinking about leadership a lot. After Super Tuesday, I saw the will.i.am video and was left in almost tears. Now, I will admit to being a strong Obama supporter for various reasons which are not important to this forum. I do have to say that I admire his ability to inspire. No matter which candidate is to win president, we need a leader who inspires. As we head into the second half of this school year, I think it is important the leaders, especially those of us in the ASUO, reflect on how we present ourselves. Do we inspire our fellow students to go on and do more? Are we working to make the university, our home better? Are we constantly doing the right thing? Are we working to throw off our privileges, fighting for fellow students, and striving to speak for those without a voice? For me, no matter where I am and what I am doing, I want to strive to believe in the power of possible. I remind myself daily that I have dedicated my life to preserving integrity, fighting for equality, and treating everyone with more than respect but with dignity. I see those same values in Barack Obama and his speech reminds me of what is important. 

ASUO Brands

I was reading this article about the branding of each President and it got me thinking about the ASUO Student Senate. I mean there are definite brands for each Student Senator. Nate Gulley is portrayed as being an experienced rebel. Athan Papailiou as eager politician. Kate Jones is portrayed as a a by the book, rule enforcing corporate woman. I would think my brand would include being outspoken, liberal (both fiscally and politically, and comical.  More importantly, I think this is what is wrong with politics on any level. Politicians even on a small scale like at UO are never seen as anything more than their brand. While my “brand” as a policy maker does encompass elements of what is important to me, it is not me. I would assert that the same is true in the upcoming election. Brands are just brands and people are just people.