Looking back on the 2008-09 ASPSU

While most students are focusing on surviving final exams and finishing out the year, the leaders of the Associate Students of Portland State University, or the student body government, have relinquished their duties and can now reflect on their year in office.

This past year, ASPSU spent much of its resources lobbying to the state government in Salem and led a successful “get out the vote” campaign during the presidential election in November.

Student government also stumbled along the way, including problems with the Student Fee Committee and a poorly executed student election.

The student senate was a highlight, never missing quorum and reestablishing itself as a legitimate branch of government. It led nine campaigns, including a successful effort to establish the Green Fund Initiative, which passed by a wide margin in last month’s election.

Vice President Kyle Cady led the effort to revitalize the senate after years of ineptitude. He also was instrumental in dealing with the botched election and was the only member of ASPSU to take full responsibility for the problems in a public forum.

 “I think it was a really successful year,” said Ariel Shultz, student senate pro tempore. “We got a lot of headway on goals that were multiyear goals. There are places for people to continue working on them, but that’s really big.”

Shultz went on to express her pride over the new ASPSU wiki, an online resource for students to further their knowledge of student government processes and provide a place to store institutional memory, which is often lost year to year.

“We had an amazingly successful year overall and I’m excited for the next senate to come in and see what we made and be able to build on it,” Shultz said.

Anela Puljic, vice chair of the Student Fee Committee, attributed her success to her willingness to learn from others.

“I’m proud of sticking through it all year and learning and being open to what students have to say,” Puljic said.
Puljic devoted much of her time to assisting the athletics Department by aiding athletes in achieving coursework goals while maintaining recreational stamina.

Hannah Fisher, ASPSU president, looked back on her reign with fondness.

“It has been a long year,” Fisher said.

Fisher associates accomplishment with the increase in student involvement ASPSU has seen this past year.

“Over the course of the year we had over 400 volunteers that were nonrelated to ASPSU, and that was just students. We did enough outreach to reach over 400 students on campus to come and volunteer on issue that affected them. That was a huge deal,” Fisher said.

Though ASPSU faced searing public criticism and some sizable challenges—including the state budget crisis— they are leaving office with their heads held high.

“I can honestly say there wasn’t a day that went by that we were not accomplishing something tangible for the students of Portland State,” Fisher said.