As we all know, the ASUO election is in full swing. It has been a year characterized by the harm and missteps of ASUO - the egregious scheduling of the concert nobody asked for on the same day as NASU’s mother’s day powwow and the removal of student’s referendum funding are the first that come to mind. ASUO has a longstanding history of silencing and working against cultural and political action organizations that have been created by and for UO students; ironically, considering its own claim that it itself is by and for students. This election is one that holds huge weight moving forward, and there is a hope that it will be taken seriously by the voters.

There are numerous instances in which University of Oregon students are confronted with harmful situations. Take the Eugene Fondler, for example, a serious case of sexual harassment in our streets and oh boy is it lauded by the student body as a laughing matter. Platforms such as YikYak and Fizz perpetuate a culture of anonymous joke-telling spanning from fraternity jabs to victim blaming and poking fun at a Celtics jersey-clad man grabbing impressionable first-year students by their private parts. Has it become a new part of the University of Oregon culture to humorize our downfall?

A PALESTINIAN-AMERICAN STUDENTS PERSPECTIVE