Mayoral candidate claims campus awareness
Miles Bryant
Issue date: 10/13/08 Section: News
As the Fayetteville mayoral campaign trudges along, the student grapevine sometimes casually whispers the names of the candidates campaigning. Walt Eilers is a candidate who considers himself the most campus aware. He attributes part of this to his running in the past, which guides his exploration of all the nooks and crannies in the city of Fayetteville, including the UA campus.
"If you were to ask the current mayor of the City Council to find Vol Walker Hall, they'd be hard pressed," Eilers said. "There's only one candidate who knows his way in and out of campus, because I run every square inch of it.
"But I'm interested in the campus because that's our major industry. We need to cultivate you. Right now you're being taken for granted. I'm tired of you being taken for granted. I want you to become part of the family here and be included," he said.
"We have 19,000 students here - you all are consumers. There are three things that can help them have an even better time in college: integrate, include and engage," Eilers said. "My view is, we start with one Friday or Saturday a month and we close Dickson Street. No cars, no traffic. I envision entertainers, hot dogs, street vendors and people just able to hang out."
Eilers said he thinks his experience in education - which includes having an English major from Lock Haven State and a master's degree from the University of Maryland, as well as being a teacher at Annapolis, Md. - will help him connect to the students of the university as a mayor.
"I, by training, am an English teacher, actually Southern literature," Eilers said.
He is certainly economically driven, and economic development tops and engages within his priority list.
"I have three priorities, and they're all related," he said. "The first priority is economic development. We've got to bring new business, and the mayor has got to be out there leading that charge.
"The second is we have got to enhance our sustainability effort. We have not improved on anything that we are doing for sustainability since 2002. The third thing that is in my priority unit is paying our police, firemen and public employees an affordable wage," Eilers said.
"If you were to ask the current mayor of the City Council to find Vol Walker Hall, they'd be hard pressed," Eilers said. "There's only one candidate who knows his way in and out of campus, because I run every square inch of it.
"But I'm interested in the campus because that's our major industry. We need to cultivate you. Right now you're being taken for granted. I'm tired of you being taken for granted. I want you to become part of the family here and be included," he said.
"We have 19,000 students here - you all are consumers. There are three things that can help them have an even better time in college: integrate, include and engage," Eilers said. "My view is, we start with one Friday or Saturday a month and we close Dickson Street. No cars, no traffic. I envision entertainers, hot dogs, street vendors and people just able to hang out."
Eilers said he thinks his experience in education - which includes having an English major from Lock Haven State and a master's degree from the University of Maryland, as well as being a teacher at Annapolis, Md. - will help him connect to the students of the university as a mayor.
"I, by training, am an English teacher, actually Southern literature," Eilers said.
He is certainly economically driven, and economic development tops and engages within his priority list.
"I have three priorities, and they're all related," he said. "The first priority is economic development. We've got to bring new business, and the mayor has got to be out there leading that charge.
"The second is we have got to enhance our sustainability effort. We have not improved on anything that we are doing for sustainability since 2002. The third thing that is in my priority unit is paying our police, firemen and public employees an affordable wage," Eilers said.
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GregL
Greg
posted 10/13/08 @ 5:29 PM CST
You can find Walt on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=9711909666&ref=share
He's also on MySpace at http://myspace.com/walteilersformayor. (Continued…)
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