Guest Column: Brundage and Shah lay out plans for the future

ASOSU President Simon Brundage and ASOSU Vice President Radhika Shah stand in front of the Memorial Union. Brundage and Shah are placing an emphasis on transparency for their upcoming year in office.

Fellow students—

First of all, we would like to thank former President Rachel Grisham and former Vice President Brett Morgan for their service to the Associated Students of Oregon State University (ASOSU), and for their mentorship and guidance during our transition. We are excited to hit the ground running, and are immensely grateful that Rachel and Brett provided resources and precedent for future successes. 

The vision statement of ASOSU states that “a better campus, a better community, (and) a better experience happens when we come together. You are a student. You have a Voice. Make it known.” We believe this to be true. History has proven that change occurs when we act as a collective, and not as individuals. Cultural anthropologist Margaret Meade said we should “never doubt that a small group of dedicated citizens can change the world for the better.” 

As such, we hope you all participate in our student-needs survey in the fall. You will be able to exercise your voice regarding what issues you would like our administration to focus on in the upcoming year. While our campaign platform may guide our agenda, we were elected to serve the students, with the goal of better representing all groups on campus. Our actions are governed by you—it is not the other way around. 

Transparency was an important element of our platform, and will be one of the primary goals of our administration; we believe it is important that you all know what projects your student government will be undertaking over the summer. 

One of the main concerns we expressed during our campaign was the lack of information on and the inaccessibility of the ASOSU website. Frustrations with the website are not uncommon—we will be working to fundamentally revamp it, offering updated congressional meeting minutes, a list of all administrative committee and congressional vacancies, resources for students to learn more about the OSU budget and a fully updated version of the ASOSU Constitution. Not to mention, we also plan to make the interface of the website more

user-friendly and navigable. 

Another effort we plan to pursue this summer is bringing ridesharing to Corvallis. Ideally, we hope to see ridesharing companies like Uber and Lyft arriving in the fall, prior to classes resuming. In coordination with the previous administration, we have been in correspondence with the public affairs director for Uber, and recently gave testimony to the Corvallis City Council supporting a ridesharing ordinance. The ordinance for ridesharing has been adopted in Salem and Bend, and it is looking likely that a similar policy will be adopted by our city. However, students must lead this effort. Ridesharing will provide students more transportation options, with the ultimate aim of reducing wait times for SafeRide, while also promoting job growth and safe alternatives for students to get home. 

Lastly, we plan to develop a comprehensive agenda for the upcoming year, with goals such as restructuring the Student and Incidental Fee Committee budgeting process, enhancing ASOSU outreach and awareness, filling student vacancies on administrative committees, creating an ASOSU steering committee to address budget gaps at both the university and state level and more. We are looking forward to the upcoming year, and see great potential for positive, meaningful change. Our efforts this summer are just the beginning—and we are thrilled to have the opportunity to work with all of you to improve the student experience at OSU. 

Congratulations to all graduating seniors, and we wish you all the best of luck with finals! 

Sincerely,

Simon Brundage, ASOSU President

Radhika Shah, ASOSU Vice President

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