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Incoming Senators Working On Ethics Reform

Somehow, incoming Senators have come to the conclusion that current ethical standards just aren’t tough enough. I guess when Senators can legally vote to allocate money to send themselves on trips, but you get summarily removed for finalizing the agenda a few hours late, something must be wrong. Ethics reform has been a long time coming, and it is crucially important that, among other things, clear conflict of interest rules are laid out, particularly for surplus and overrealized requests. These to processes hand out lump sums of cash, but there are no ethical rules at all, governing who may vote on them, and who may not.

New Senators, you seem to be on the right track. This new ethics code will be one of the most important steps taken by the ASUO in a long time. It will be hard work, and you will face opposition… if you ever need to remember why ethics reform is important, all the motivation you will ever need is right here.

  1. P says:

    “I dont think you could give your paper away.”

    Uhm. . .they DO give their paper away.

  2. Miles says:

    Me myself, I am content to throw stones. That is, only if they hit someone in the head hard enough to merit their impending doom.

    i.e. Jamie.

  3. ChrisD says:

    Jamie: You seem to be quoting me as saying “if the show fits” which I didn’t, nor is it a close approximation to the sentiment I was expressing. Perhaps you should look up the use of “quote marks.” Sorry, I know you don’t like to have your punctuation corrected but, well, if the shoe fits…. (Oh, also, nouns like “murder” and “guns” ought not be capitalized mid-sentence.)

    The point of my comment was that someone suggested a cut to my program more than twice the exec rec and had not even read the budget paperwork we provided to find out what a colloquium was, nor had he availed himself of a dictionary to find out what it meant. In short, he was trying to get more “free” football tickets, or else maybe he thought any money they didn’t allocate would be divided amongst them. I’m really not sure, but I am sure that people who are elected to ASUO Senate ought to actually do their job, correctly and ethically, without being douchebags.

    Why aren’t you on board with this whole concept?

  4. Niedermeyer says:

    Heh.

    I feel dumber and dumber each time I respond to this Jamie character…

  5. CJ Ciaramella says:

    Jamie: “Yelling at the problems recurring mistakes is just as good as locking people up for Murder. Sure we don

  6. Niedermeyer says:

    This is my fifth year of post-secondary education. I took a year off after highschool, attended 2 years and a term of Lane Community College, and spent the 2 years and 2 terms I already mentioned here. The issue here is not my educational career, it is this quote:

    “If any of you spent half the time working for a positive solution to the problems you whine about, maybe the world would be a better place. And Ted you

  7. Blaser says:

    “Ted you still, like many of your associates, failed to address the portion of my claim that was factual in that you did post private information in the Roberts article, you never had an interview of your own, and you are fully content to sit back and throw stones as if you actually did any investigative work of your own.”

    “My 6 Year number was in reference to the total number of years you

  8. Andy says:

    Jaime, you sound like a person who believes that you are a unique and intelligent, but it also sounds like you’ve never been requested to demonstrate these abilities you believe you possess. You’re recent rebuttal is incredibly scattered and rendered meaningless by tangential arguments. My fellow Commentators will no doubt respond to your various arguments, but is there a good reason for them to do so? You tell us that you are offended by the editor’s actions, but you haven’t demonstrated an ability to express the justification to why you are offended. Please, either educate yourself in hopes of learning this ability, or give up all together. Otherwise you are just wasting our time – but especially yours!

  9. Jamie says:

    Blaser says Intelligent debate and Chris D said “if the shoe fits.” What I get from my forray into all this is that some people here feel that if you cant pronounce a word such as Colloquium that obviosly means they are insufficient to host one, and if you are standing behind “Your duty to hold the ASUO responsible, and create accountability”, then its fair to say whatever you please.

    Ted you still, like many of your associates, failed to address the portion of my claim that was factual in that you did post private information in the Roberts article, you never had an interview of your own, and you are fully content to sit back and throw stones as if you actually did any investigative work of your own. For as much as you hate the ODE you seem fine with using their reporting as a viable source of information. As far as your tenure here I have no knowledge of that. Only a hope that It will soon end. My 6 Year number was in reference to the total number of years you’ve qualified as a college student. Do correct me if Im wrong but I’m sure 2 years and 2 terms isn’t nearly all the time you’ve spent pursuing higher education.

    As a parting shot I would just like to say that you support apathay yet champion accountability. I don’t know why you fight two such separate fights because it’s obvious that many students dont know or care where their money goes. You obviously are vigilant in your beliefs and I think the only true way to get the accountability you desire would be to work to reduce some of that apathy. Yelling at the problems recurring mistakes is just as good as locking people up for Murder. Sure we don’t want Murderers running lose but stopping things that cause murders (i.e. Guns, alcohol, mental illness, poverty, etc.) from becoming issues would be a better plan to reduce murders.

  10. Andy says:

    REPENT SINNERS!!!

  11. Andy says:

    Ted, remember that the largest religion in the United States is Statism. They will always seek converts – that is why you were asked to join – in hopes that you will see the truth. Their wish is that all shall take a knee at the mention of the government’s glory.

  12. Niedermeyer says:

    Jamie: I don’t know where you got the 6 years number, but I’ve been at the U of O for 2 years and two terms, and I totally ignored the ASUO for about half of that time. There’s also a big difference between “bad mouthing the process” and showing up to meetings, criticizing where it is needed, praising where it is deserved, and attempting to educate and inform students about the process and it’s numerous flaws. Ask anyone who served on the budget process reform committee and the Student Rec Center reform committee what my contributions to those bodies were like.

    Your argument is not only factually incorrect, it’s also ignorant and asinine. You assume that if we stop “bad mouthing” than things will get better, but what incentive would ASUO officials have to not waste money and break rules, if they knew they wouldn’t be publicly mocked for it? By “badmouthing” and “roasting” we create accountability that otherwise wouldn’t be there. You may have faith in your elected student leaders, but I certainly don’t, and I could recite a litany of events, fiascos, boondoggles, snafus and disasters to support my skepticism.

    It really does sound like you are over your head here. I encourage you to read up on the ASUO, it’s current members and it’s past events. We have a large archive on this site, and the Emerald has years worth of coverage on their site. My feeling is that when you beome a little more familiar with how things happen around here, you’ll feel a little more healthy skepticism and appreciation for our contributions.

    Oh, and if you think we’ve been to nasty this year, just wait for the Hate Issue, coming out in about a week.

  13. Blaser says:

    Jamie: I think the term “way in over your head,” or “childish” may be appropriate here. If you know so much about the magazine, you would know that we support the right to be apathetic. It is not our job to get people to vote: it is our job to expose the realities of the ASUO to average students who have no idea what their money is going to.

    Let’s take for example Jerome Roberts. While it may have been a mistake on the part of the ASUO to keep paying him a stipend, it is childish to assume that every time he cashed a check with a big “University of Oregon” on it, that he was simply making a mistake, or as he would put it, was “not thinking about con court.” It is our job to bring that to the attention of the students, and from there they can do what they like with that information.

    We are here for intelligent debate, not for baseless claims or personal smears against students who have done nothing to deserve such attention. You might look at your recent comments and see if you can hold yourself to the same standard before you start making false statements such as Ted being at the U of O for six years.

    And if the debate is just too childish for you still, then why do you insist on putting in your own two cents? Shouldn’t you take your own advice and get a life?

  14. ChrisD says:

    Sorry, Jamie, but sometimes the truth hurts–a good number of the senators ARE juvenile douchebags (although you might want to note that no one even responded to my comment, much less applauded it, so don’t know where you’re coming from with that). My program got cut by 2.5 times the exec rec, at the urging of someone who couldn’t pronounce what we were asking money for, and then had to ask what a cowl… colliqua… colloquium?? was, anyway.

    Glad that guy gets to handle millions and millions of dollars in student fees.

  15. Miles says:

    Life isn’t fair. Neither are we. Deal with it, Loggins.

  16. Jamie says:

    Students on campus would pay for an opputunity to see a football game or take a beer bong or even go out to the bars….I dont think you could give your paper away. And if what you do is so effective then why do barely 5% of students vote? Im not saying stop doing what you’re doing. Im saying do it more responsibly. Stop printing private information, stop turning this into one big ASUO roast, stop applauding people who calling senators on the PFC ” juvenile douchebags” and start getting your act together. I think the term is fair and balanced.

  17. Timothy says:

    Yes, because every journalist and gadfly should TOTALLY just quit doing that and…and what? Participate in the corrupt, flawed, and unfixable electoral process? Yeah, that’ll totally work. A positive solution requires more students caring about how much of their money is getting wasted, or caring that the ridiculous and ever-increasing incidental fee constitutes more than 10% of the total tuition and fees they pay. How do they become informed without diligent student journalists like Ted at media outlets like the Commentator? What the hell do you think reporting, on a public and widely-trafficked website and in widely-circulated print magazine, the nefarious goings-on of suite four is if not working to find a “positive solution”?

    How, exactly, do you propose students become informed without media outlets dedicated to following student politics, reading the press releases from the ASUO? Do you think everybody on campus should pile into the EMU Boardroom every week for Senate meetings? If you think working to inform the student body about what happens in the ASUO and exactly how what happens is illegal, immoral, wasteful or some combination of the above, then I’m left to conclude that you happen to like the way in which things function and are more than content to let it continue in perpetuity.

  18. Jamie says:

    Just as in real politics there are a chosen few who have nothing better to do than sit around bad mouthing the process. If any of you spent half the time working for a positive solution to the problems you whine about, maybe the world would be a better place. And Ted you’ve had SIX years to figure this out. How many USSA trips have you funded during your tenure here? Get a life PLEASE!

  19. Niedermeyer says:

    I keep getting the feeling that this year will end up being the build up to things going apeshit next year. Gulley will be the only Senator left of the Axelrod slate (assuming Lleras becomes McLain’s chief of staff), and McLain can’t just appoint anyone she wants because of the confirmation process. If this years benchmark/PFC process engendered so much suspicion and anger from programs, things are only gonna get worse next year. Word to the new Senate: be prepared to be called racist before the end of fall term.

  20. michael grey says:

    You sound pretty optimistic for someone who has seen the senate crash and burn annually. Is anything really different this year? – intelligence in the leadership, maybe? Or just more fat kids burning witches to make Ol’ Dirty’s front page.

    Seriously though.

  21. Sean says:

    But what better to learn ‘leadership’ by playing around with and making mistakes with other people’s money, where there are no consequences as to whether they fuck up or not?

  22. Anthony says:

    Abolish the ASUO for the love of all that is good.

  23. Timothy says:

    Now, if only we could get Congress to pass something like that….

  24. ChrisD says:

    What about a rule that says juvenile douchebags don’t get to hand out millions of dollars?? I’d be all about that rule.

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