ASUO Exclusive: Ian Fielding, ACFC Seat 8 Candidate

05Apr10

Ian Fielding for Athletic Contracts Finance Committee Senate Seat 8 (Reality Check)

A few weeks ago, junior Ian Fielding approached me about covering the ASUO elections for Ethos. That morning, the Daily Emerald had asked him and a slew of other candidates a few generic questions for their Voter’s Guide. However, he didn’t feel like he had enough time to elaborate on his ideas for the position he was running for, Senate seat 8. While Ethos will be releasing interviews with the executive president and vice president candidates, we did not have enough time to pull together more staff for interviews of other candidates. So Ian and I decided to take matters into our hands, holding our own interview early Friday. While both of us are close, I present the following interview with zero bias. He had no say in the questions, and I kept them strictly to his position and slate. We only wanted to provide voters with more information about candidates for positions other than exec.

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The day after the primary results are released, Ian Fielding stands at the top of the EMU Skylight, still wearing his sky-blue/lime-green “Reality Check” shirt. He texts away an inquiry of this reporter’s current location, very eager to get his interview started. After taking over an empty Century Room, we sit around debating who the losing slates will now side with. The reporter chuckles in her head, as she thinks back to freshman year. Ian Fielding could have cared less about student government. Now he speaks like an insider and works day and night campaigning.

Charmaine Ng: So Mr. Ian Fielding, you’re running for ACFC Senate Seat 8. What does your position entail?

IF: ACFC deals with nine different contracts. Big contracts that most students are gonna know about are the LTD bus route, student tickets, and then OSPIRG, which was a contract that we actually removed, but now that students may be interested in. It also deals with a lot of the ones that fight for students like OSA and USSA. A lot of people don’t know about the lawyer contract, which basically means that students can help with legal issues. A lot of times, this is with unjust and unfair tenants. It’s something that we need to spread the word about, and hopefully I’ll be able to do that when I’m in office.

CN: So what are your thoughts on how ACFC handled LTD this year, and how would you improve upon next year’s negotiations?

Ian Fielding: Yeah, LTD is a bummer because you have to keep the contract, and it’s not very fair to students because they know that, and they have a lot more position in negotiating. So my plan to change the whole scenario there is to have a shuttle route to the most popular routes to decrease our reliance on it. This also can increase student jobs because we could train students to drive these shuttles. And it could also be cheaper because we could lobby the University for better rates than LTD.

CN: So how much would purchasing the shuttle cost the ASUO?

IF: You wouldn’t necessarily have to purchase shuttles, if you contracted someone else at a better rate that already had shuttles. You could even contract LTD and work out a way to get student drivers or have LTD do it. But if LTD did it, the problem with using their busses is that they may not agree to that, so we’d have to go with a different source.

CN: Moving on: OSPIRG. So like you said earlier, the ballot measure passed, with students supporting its presence on campus. What is your reaction, and do you support it in its current form?

IF: I don’t want to get into a huge discussion about OSPIRG yet until I do a survey when I get into office and try to investigate the matter further. I’m definitely going to consider the student voice here. It did pass by 100 votes, and there’s over 2,000 votes for it. There’s also a lot of support against it. If anyone was out on campus witnessing the great OSPIRG support…where there wasn’t many people who are against OSPIRG, so that easily could’ve swayed votes. And I mean, if OSPIRG can change the way that their contract works and give more money towards students because obviously there’s some student support for it, then I could be interested in bringing it back. It just depends on how accurate this ballot measure really reflected the students’ interests.

CN: Well, what’s wrong with funding researchers? Doesn’t that help student campaigns?

IF: If I think the student body really does wants to fund research in that way, I’m not going to go against what the student body wants. But the thing about the research is…I don’t think we need to pay $80,o00+ for researchers to find out that students want lower textbooks. They still haven’t really produced results. Textbooks are still really expensive. I spent over $250 for three classes this term. Over 30 years, they’ve been working on it, [prices] aren’t coming down.

CN: Well, aren’t they researching ways and methods to lower textbook prices, not just surveying?

IF: This goes back to results. They’re not getting anything done, in regards to textbook prices. They have done some good things; they’v e raised money for good causes, but those causes aren’t student-related. If I want to raise money for cancer, that’s a great cause, but we shouldn’t have a mandatory fee that every student has to give $2 to fight cancer.

CN: Alright, so football tickets. Your presidental candidate has based his entire legacy on football games. What are your plans for improving 2011 – 2012′s ticketing system?

IF: Well I’m going to disagree with the start of that. His entire legacy isn’t based off student tickets. Alex has also been focused heavily on parking and other ACFC-related areas. He’s been big in OSA, OSA loves him; he’s going to the conference in Portland. He’s all for increasing student advocacy. He is against OSPIRG, which a lot of people think that doesn’t mean he cares about the student voice, but he’s been heavily involved in OSA. So his “legacy” – if you wanna say willdly enough – while in office is a little unfair. He has also served as the president of the Senate trying to create more efficient meetings, and he has also been the Ombudsman. He created that position to push all the senators to actually hold their office hours…I’m going to be working with him closely and the executive staff and the other ACFC members to increase not only free tickets, but the season passes. There’s gonna be 1,000 season passes that are going to be sold at half the retail value. Increasing this number increases free student tickets as well, because it’s going to be about $300 per student, and the more tickets we get there, the more free spaces open. The student section has gotten bigger with Alex McCafferty’s plans, and I continue to keep working with his plans to increase student passes and free tickets.

CN: What about those fans who can’t afford those $300 season passes?

IF: Well we increase the free section by 6%, so there’s even more free opportunities, everyone wins.

CN: Well what if they still can’t access those tickets because the online system sucks? [Writer's note: The online system has always loved me, but I used the term "sucks" because that's how so many of my associates have described its performance.]

IF: Well the online system is always trying to be improved. I think most people agree that it’s better than the old system, and the University didn’t want us to remove the old system because people were missing classes, and it wasn’t supporting an academic environment. Alex McCafferty has always been about academics first. The online system hopefully will be a little bit faster this year too with the season passes, because right now, you’re hopefully gonna remove 1,000 people who get season passes, who are the really dedicated fans. And that’s going to clear up space because you’re going to have 1,000 less people who are logging onto DuckWeb [Writer's correction: GoDucks.com]. I can’t predict the future and say it’s going to be a perfect system or whatever, but hopefully, it’ll be better.

CN: So you mentioned Legal Services earlier and OSA and USSA. Can you elaborate on how much you would give them, money-wise?

IF: The problem is how aware students are right now with the services. I think all of these are great contracts. Legal Services is a pretty big contract, actually; it’s over $300,000. I know people do personally use them, and it’s especially important for tenants who are treating their college students unfairly. People just aren’t aware of it. I would like to maintain the service. Last year, they requested a budget increase of about $30,000. If they can’t prove that more students know about it and it’s not like providing for enough tudents, I don’t know if I would approve that big of a request. With OSA, their request isn’t usually very large. Last year, it was less than 10%, and they have a fairly small contract, so that’s not a lot of money. And the thing is with OSA is they do a lot of student advocacy. It depends on if OSPIRG comes back or not in some form. But if they don’t come back, I’m definitely for increasing the OSA contract. USSA is going to stay at $10,000. If you know about that contract, it’s been $10,000 for a really long time. There are hundreds of schools that pay $10,000 for it. I would keep that contract, and I agree with their causes. [Fielding later reminded me that I forgot to mention the family co-op contract. His thoughts: "Economic times are hard. The University's children need to be looked after by providing them with subsidized rates."]

CN: So my last question for you: what makes you better for this position than Katie Ericson? You don’t really have that much experience, but neither does she, so…

IF: I don’t have a ton of ASUO experience. I have sat on the Academic Requirements Committee. I’ve been to every meeting but one that I couldn’t attend due to finals, so I think that shows that I’m pretty dutiful in that responsibility. I’ve been in other leadership roles. Managing an Ultimate team, I also did the accounting for that, got jerseys put together. I’ve helped a lot of people understand how to deal with competitive environments. So I do think I bring in non-ASUO-related experiences. I also have a really good work ethic. I’m willing to work really hard for the students. I’ve been at the University for a year and a half, and I believe I’m only a couple credits shy of being a senior already. I usually take five courses, but next year, I’m going to be able to only take eight credits, which is going to give me a lot of time to focus on serving the student body. Katie Ericson could be great. I don’t know if she has as much time available as me; I don’t know her leadership experience. I know if you were to elect me, though, you’re going to get someone who’s gonna work his ass off for you and try to produce positive change. I also have a good relationship with the other ACFC candidates that I’d possibly be working with. And then I have a good relationship with the possible executive staff in Alex McCafferty and Alden Williams. So I believe I’ll move into office very smoothly with the relationships I have with them and our ability to work together to get things done.

CN: Alright, well, thank you for your time!

IF: Thank you!

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Please remember to vote this week in the general elections, and admonish your friends if they don’t. Voting starts on Monday at 9AM and ends Thursday at 5PM! Go over to DuckWeb now! Check out this post for links to information on other slates and the Daily Emerald’s primary election coverage. And pick up today’s paper for new updates, like their official endorsement of Reality Check.

If you enjoyed my interview with Ian and believe he is the best person for the seat, please RSVP to his Facebook event to show your support!

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Tags: ACFC, ASUO, campus issues, elections, ian fielding, politics, reality check