New ASUO Vice Presidents Patrick Kindred and Tran Dinh took office May 23 after the Ducks Like You executive victory. Since assuming office, the executive team hired staff, went to a leadership conference in Washington D.C. and got involved with on-campus issues.

Patrick Kindred

What do you want to do with the ASUO?

“I feel like a lot of the students don’t know that the ASUO exists and they don’t know what its purpose is. It was the same thing for me as a foster youth. I had a case worker, I had a lawyer, I had a judge, I had all these different people in my life, but I never was really in a lot of contact with them and these were supposed to be the people advocating for different things going on in my life. So as an ASUO official, I would like to make the ASUO more accessible, which is going to deal a lot more media relations.”

What are you excited for next year?

“I’m excited to see if we can really make some change. Because I’ve definitely heard that it’s really hard to make change and after the first term you start trying to fight battles that you feel like you can win as oppose to what you’re most ambitious about. I would like to change that.”

Mighty Oregon is mostly the senate and Ducks Like You is mostly the executive. I would like to completely destroy that image. People are saying that the executive and senate can’t get along?

“I would like us to be kumbaya-ing by the end and for everyone to be happy. I think Mighty Oregon and Ducks Like You both ran with the idea of, ‘How can we better help these students?’ I think that’s important. Don’t emphasize the campaign you ran under, but emphasize what you’re trying to do, and that’s better help for students … Coming together as senate and executive staff should be the first thing we do because that is our job.”

Tran Dinh

Why did you decide to run for office?

“I decided to run for office because I truly believe in Beatriz. She has been a great resource for me and many others from the time we’ve known each other. I believe that I can assist or be a part of that change. At first I was a little bit hesitant because as an international student I didn’t know if I had a place in the ASUO.  I think historically it’s been a bit exclusive, but I believed that with Beatriz and the management team supporting us that the ASUO can be more open.”

How has the learning curve been for your first week in office?

“There are a lot of details and specificities that we have to get acquainted with. Azia and Greg have been great resources. Patrick and I have met with them several times and they gave us the run down of being vice president. I had my first senate meeting yesterday — that was really fun. … I just think it’s going to be a learning process for all of us. We have a lot of fresh faces and people who have never been in the ASUO before. It’s going to be a great year, but we also want to be open to learning and changing things while being compliant to the (ASUO constiution).”