As a political science major, Sean Staub’s involvement in government may come as no surprise. Staub began an internship with the Teacher’s Union in Salem in January and has been involved with the Labor Party of Ireland, but his latest venture is running this year for ASPSU president with friend and coworker, Kyle Juedes.
Staub and Juedes decided to run for office after being approached by Ingrid Castellina, the Elections Board Chair about running for office. They saw a chance to improve on the current state of student government because of their own experiences with student government and hearing the concerns of other students.
“We’re just running hopefully to bring some transparency and accountability to the process. That’s our biggest goal,” Staub said.
Attending SFC budget meetings as a member of PSU Recycles! is what sparked Juedes interest in being part of student government.
“I found it was interesting and inspiring and kind of gave an insight into how the SFC ran,” Juedes said.
He also saw the challenges that his group as well as others faced getting proper funding from the committee.
“I guess with the bureaucratic processes, it was hard to get our message across and I heard that resonate with several people,” Juedes said.
Both Staub and Juedes hope to create a sense of transparency in student government by having the Student Fee Committee’s meetings televised on the recently launched PSU-TV.
“If we just could have highlights of what’s going on in the student fee committee and maybe put that on the PSU-TV. I think that would engage students more,” Staub said.
He notices that there is a lack of concern for the workings of student government among the PSU student population in general.
“I think it’s kind of sad, that we only have one person running for SFC chair this election cycle, that’s crazy, because it’s a very important position,” he said.
The candidates also want the SFC budget available on the web as part of the goal to keeping the SFC accountable for student fee allocation.
“You can’t actually see how much money is spent by the groups and where, and that’s a concern of ours,” Staub said.
The SFC does, however, publish such information at sa.pdx.edu/budgets.
Being both involved with PSU Recycles!, sustainability is also a vital issue with Staub and Juedes. They plan to “promote a ‘buy local’ campaign to eliminate wasteful long-distance transportation of supplies while simultaneously stimulating the local economy,” according to their campaign Web site, www.seanandkyle.com.
Along with making the SFC budget more accessible, they hope to make the campus’ energy usage and waste production statistics easily available to the public.
Staub hopes that some of the enthusiasm and activism in the 2008 U.S. presidential election will seep its way onto the campus.
“They’re paying more attention than they have in the past, because they’re realizing it really does matter, I think we really need to carry that kind of interest to campus as well,” Staub said.
A more personal look at the candidates:
Sean Staub
Like many Oregonians, Portland-born Sean Staub loves the outdoors and loves to bike. Last year he also got to travel to Ireland on a study abroad program.
“It was a very transformative experience. It kind of helped me understand that the diversity of opinions, beliefs and creeds are very important. It was very eye opening,” Staub said, who is part Irish himself.
As a political science major, he often reads the newspaper to stay up on current events and any other reading of interest as well. He is currently reading The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West by Niall Ferguson.
“It’s kind of how the 20th century has just been defined by tremendous lack of respect, to put it lightly, for different groups of human beings, when we all are the same,” Staub said, giving a synopsis of the book.
Staub says that for him life is about discovery and understanding.
“I’m really interested in hearing what other people have to say. [I’m] interested in learning about anything I can,” Staub said.
“Everyday we can learn something new.”
Kyle Juedes
In addition to being involved with PSU Recycles! on campus along with Staub, Kyle Juedes also loves the outdoors and can often be spotted hiking “the highest thing I can find,” Juedes said.
Juedes is also an avid consumer and player of music, and taught himself guitar, violin, piano and mandolin. “I love going out and finding new music,” Juedes said.
He is a fan of the group Pandora “and a whole string of random things you’ve never heard before that are exceedingly awesome,” he said.
Juedes has recently gotten into the mixing artist RJD2 via Staub.
He also enjoys working with his hands and is currently working on building a computer and just recently finished building a composter for his parents.
Even though his love for building electronics and machinery might seem fitting for the engineering major he had previously planned on, he found the study of theoretical astrophysics even more appealing and thus changed his major.
“I am really interested in pursuing a greater understanding of our universe,” Juedes said, who feels that without mathematics and physics, we would understand very little about our world.
“If you look at it mathematically it’s outstanding what people can discover.”