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The ASUO is a lot like fifth graders. They run an election every year on vague platitudes and empty promises. They would rather spend money on making themselves feel better about their small roles in life. And they always screw up big time and plead ignorance. No more. We demand the ASUO finally understand the law and their duties.
Much like their younger counterparts, the ASUO continues to screw up those elections every year because the rules imposed on candidates are ridiculous, and then the Elections Board that oversees the entire process still manages to misunderstand the law every year.
This year the Elections Board decided that no media would be allowed into the ASUO office while the write-in votes were counted, contravening Oregon laws. Oregon’s presumptive law is that every public meeting is open, unless specifically enumerated in law. However, if the board had done a quick legal search of the matter, they would have found that Oregon Revised Statute 192.660 states “Representatives of the news media shall be allowed to attend executive sessions other than those … relating to labor negotiations…” Reporters from both the Commentator and the Emerald were turned away by Elections Coordinator Courtney Hight, who said that it was the burden of the media to produce relevant laws that would allow them to witness the proceedings.
But this is not the first year that the elections have been halted, altered or fixed by incompetency or corruption in the ASUO.
Two years ago, former Student Senate All-Star CJ Gabbe and running mate Peter Larson were kicked out of the elections by the board for illegally sponsoring the International Student Association coffee hour. But the board made errors in handling the decision and the Constitution Court placed Gabbe and Larson back on the general election ticket, from whence they were handed a remarkable defeat by Jay Breslow and an overwhelming tide of antipathy for the former senator.
In that same year several senators were embarrassed when it was discovered they were paid for their duties despite not fulfilling all of their duties.
Last year saw more trouble in the elections when current Commentator publisher and former ASUO Executive candidate Bret Jacobson and running mate Matt Cook were kicked out of the election by the board, who so badly misunderstood and misapplied the text and nature of Oregon law that the board received a scolding from the court and Jacobson went on to face and lose to the current executive.
This year the ASUO has again had a number of embarrassments, some including this publication. The ASUO Executive decided to fire a controller, who later joined the Commentator staff, and then agreed to and reneged on a pledge to go through an arbitration process. That matter appears to again be an issue that will be dealt with by the Constitution Court. Then the Program Finance Committee tabled the Commentator budget because it couldn’t wrap its members’ minds around simple student speech issues before being forced to pass the magazine’s mission statement.
The most disappointing aspect of the annual melee of mediocrity that is the ASUO circle is the continued self-righteousness that invariably envelopes the student government kids like a halo of ignorant bliss.
“If you guys show us the statute, you can sit in the corner and be quiet while we count the votes,” one Elections Board member told the Commentator during the attempt to gain access to the vote counting process this year.
Notwithstanding that generous offer, it is the role of student government to know applicable rules, not the duty of students and journalists to prove their rights. But again and again the ASUO has proven that it has no interest in following Oregon and federal law, or even its own rules for that matter. The Elections Board apparently has no idea of the most fundamental tenets of state law and again has embarrassed the institution of student government.
It’s time the ASUO graduate from fifth grade politics to adult responsibility. Fewer platitudes and a greater number of respected laws would be a great graduation present.
A Nasty Case of B.D.
Across the whole of campus, emotions collided when the departure of B.D. Gerhert from the Oregon Daily Emerald was quietly announced last week-- not by public declaration or shouts from the EMU roof, but by simple masthead omission.
News came at a particularly troubled time for the campus daily, described as "hngghhh" by a stooped, disoriented old man loitering by the LTD North Station on Kincaid. Perennially mediocre, some watchers believe the loss of Gerhert as columnist will cause the Emerald to be more accurately described as "sub-mediocre."
The series of events leading up to Gerhert's exit began with the Oregon Daily Emerald's particular interest in the clash between the Programs Finance Committee (PFC) and this magazine, the Oregon Commentator.
To refresh readers who may have forgotten the ordeal, from the first, controversial budget hearing, objective observers could plainly tell that the PFC was very, very wrong and the OC was right on every count.
The Emerald, led by Editor-in-Chief Jessica Blanchard, courageously adopted the "very, very wrong" position, making their moral incompetence and legal ignorance well known with the Jan. 28 unsigned editorial, "Commentator staff should 'toe the line.'"
When the finally PFC relented, abandoning their assault against everything that is right and good, the Emerald sputtered on for a few more days before letting the matter drop.
Gerhert, filing his next column for the newspaper, chose to disagree with the Emerald editorial board. Acting in good faith, he also disclosed his former association with the Commentator.
Blanchard promptly refused to print the column, citing her own lack of journalistic integrity and sense of fairness as precedent. Gerhert, in response, filed one last thing: his resignation.
Asked about the incident, Gerhert said: " Hot damn! Lookit that over there. I gotta get me summa that!!"
Pat Payne, the opinionated veteran of last year's Emerald and countless unwanted comments in the front just about every journalism class he's ever been in, was not asked for his viewpoint.
Blanchard, meanwhile, was unavailable for comment.
Readers of the Emerald know only too well its slow decline. From the glorious heights of Ryan Frank's 1999-00 lovefest, to the bitter, hate-filled months of the Laura Cadiz reign, on to the exploits of shadowy, 40-year-old Jack Clifford.
Others will remember how the Emerald launched a series of indignant, front-page editorials about its best friend the PFC last year, when they were not best friends, but instead upset that the Emerald's funding had been reduced. Onlookers would like to know just how the Emerald squares their defiance last year with this year's unqualified support.
Tom Goldstein, dean of Columbia's School of Journalism, observes: "The Emerald is in crisis. Part of it is the post-Sept. 11 advertising crash, not to mention Blanchard's wholesale inability to lead, and lest I forget, the overwhelming effects of the corporate media control, which everybody knows is certain to be the downfall of American democracy."
Others disagree. Says Gerhert, "Hoo boy, I needs me a drink!"
While the Emerald has only more eye-rolling stupidity ahead of it, the opposite is true for B.D. Gerhert.
Gerhert's journalism career at the University of Oregon was long and storied. From editorships at the Commentator and Emerald to awards, internships and verbal fisticuffs on the porch at Rennies, it will be a long time before another like him comes around.
With the departure of B.D. Gerhert, loyal fans must wonder: Who will provide balance to the newspaper? Who will make them laugh, smile and think? Who can be counted upon to walk around heavily intoxicated, arms flailing, shouting at hippies and denouncing communists?
Questions remain unanswered, but one thing is known: B.D. Gerhert has come full circle.
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