Graduate Student Senate passed three resolutions, including one to appoint a Board of Elections chair, at its last meeting of the semester Wednesday evening in Porter Hall.
The body voted on four total resolutions, two of which were old business from the previous meeting. The resolutions were tabled because much of the meeting was taken up by a discussion with Ohio University President Roderick McDavis.
The first resolution GSS voted on during Wednesday's meeting was to create an official stance on the presidential search committee holding open forums with the final candidates for OU president.
“It kind of was uncertain if that was going to happen,” GSS President Ian Armstrong said. “This resolution is just setting a stance that we think this is a very important part of the presidential search. The OU community needs to interact with these people.”
Since the resolution passed, Armstrong will send an official statement to each member of the search committee, the Board of Trustees, leaders of the shared-governance senates and the media, the resolution said.
“This letter is in response to the rumors that have been circulating regarding the uncertainty of finalist visits to campus,” the letter stated. “We feel that it is extremely important to have each of the final candidates visit campus, and interact with the community in the form of small group discussions, as well as open forums.”
Additionally, GSS discussed a resolution to allocate $65 to help pay for the OU History Graduate Association Conference. However, because the resolution was first brought to the table for the previous meeting, and new information had been added to the original budget request, the body motioned to send the resolution back to the budget committee to be revised.
GSS also voted on two new resolutions, both of which focused on what is happening inside the body by appointing a Board of Elections chair for Spring Semester and restructuring the budget request process.
The Board of Elections chair must be non-biased and graduating that Spring Semester, the resolution stated. The Board of Elections chair essentially runs the elections to select the executive officers and college senators for next year's officers.
Angie Chapman, vice president of legislative affairs, said the executive officers chose Jivanto van Hemert to hold the position because they trust him and are familiar with his work. He also fits the qualifications.
“Jivanto is definitely someone who does his work very well,” Alex Burke, vice president of finance, said. “I think he can do this in an unbiased manner, and those are the main things with a Board of Elections chair.”
The last resolution the body voted on was to restructure the budget request procedure. After having some problems this semester with the process, the budget committee said it would be easier to have a “rolling budget request” system.
In addition to voting on the resolution, Edward Matovu, educational studies department representative, brought forward a discussion point, which sparked from a meeting with his department chair regarding if all graduate students should be required to take a critical studies class in the Patton College of Education.
Overall, the body said making all graduate students take a universal course is “impossible,” Burke said. Many members said their departments or colleges already have a course that touches on issues of diversity as it relates to their specific areas of study.
“I don’t feel like one course could potentially cover everything,” Katie Foglia, sports administration department representative, said. “I just encourage everyone to seek it out.”
Armstrong ended the meeting by saying he is proud of the work GSS has done this semester and hopes to keep up the momentum next semester.
