The Executive ticket of Senate President Sara Hamilton and Senator Athan Papailiou formally announced the goals of their candidacy at a media event in the EMU today. In speeches by the two candidates and campaign manager Jacob Daniels, the ticket placed structural reform at the heart of its efforts, stating that “our candidacy will be centered on long term, sustainable incidental fee reform.” The ticket also publicly appealed to reform-minded students and candidates to join their slate of candidates, emphasizing the need to build consensus without the “back-room deals” that they said characterize traditional ASUO politics.

Although an official platform is still about a week away, pending review and input from potential slate members, Hamilton gave taste of what can be expected from the campaign. Citing the common complaint that a “backwards and structurally inefficient” budget process is compromising student control of budgets, Hamilton presented three points of departure for reform. First, that the current process “struggles to clearly define the purpose of the incidental fee.” Second, that “the current process unfairly pits contracted services and departments against student groups, and professional businessmen against student negotiators,” and third that “the current process is not finding creative and long-term solutions to escape the spending rat race. The cost of services will only continue to increase, and our ability to self-generate revenue cannot sustain itself.”

Hamilton also singled out ODE opinion Editor Tyler Grafs monday column as an example of need for reform creating cynicism and apathy. “We agree with Graf about the problem,” said Hamilton, “but we do not believe that apathy is the answer. Change must take place and the need for reform is serious and imminent.”

Based on what we have seen this year, these statements of intention seem in line with this years burgeoning reform movement, and shows just how mainstream ideas of PFC reform, and fiscal responsibility have come. These are not angry outsiders ranting about politics-as-usual, these are heavy-hitting insiders ranting about politics-as-usual. There is still much to hear from this campaign in terms of a concrete platform and plans, and from other campaigns on their commitment to reform, but this ticket is starting their campaign on the right track. Hopefully we, the students will be treated to an honest, clear-thinking debate on the many structural and “culture” changes so badly needed to get the ASUO headed in the right direction.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 28th, 2007 at 11:04 am by Niedermeyer and is filed under ASUO, Elections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.