Ohio University Student Senate will talk about the Bobcat Readership Program during its meeting Wednesday night.
The Bobcat Readership Program costs $60,000 each year and provides students with free access to paper copies of newspapers such as The New York Times. The Buzz app, which provides electronic access to newspapers, is $12,000 of that cost, Student Senate Vice President Courteney Muhl said.
Senate is attempting to gauge students’ use of paper copies of The New York Times, and may decide to reallocate the money if the paper copies are not being used to their full extent, Muhl said.
“Not everyone has a smartphone, but if you are a student you have access to library computers through which you can get free subscriptions,” Muhl said. “If we were to cut the Bobcat Readership Program and get that $60,000 we wouldn’t be taking away the ability to access this news for any students.”
Muhl said if senate receives lots of feedback, they will reconsider cutting the program.
“We are looking for a fiscally responsible use of students’ money,” Muhl said.
Senate will also receive a presentation about the Ohio Student Government Summit.
A group of representatives from senate, including Student Senate President Hannah Clouser, attended the summit at Akron University on Feb. 11. She said the representatives will be reporting their takeaways to the senate body and that the trip to the summit was funded by senate.
“The summit was an opportunity for schools to come together and share individual campus issues and come up with ways for public universities to collaborate together,” Muhl said.
The only resolution on the agenda is to form the Committee on Community and Social Activity, which is required by the Rules and Procedures. The committee is necessary to further the “personal development of (the senate) body,” according to the resolution.
If the resolution passes, Kelley Zebrowski will be appointed by senate executives to serve as the Chair for Community and Social Activity.
The committee will be staffed by Nicole Schneider, Amal Afyouni, Haley Klier and Raphaelle Antwi.
Muhl, the bill’s secondary sponsor, said the resolution should pass.
“Feedback we got in the executive evaluation was that folks in senate want to do more as a group,” Muhl said. “Community service is a way to do that. Adding staff to the committee is making sure we are following up on executive feedback.”
She said the meeting will be short.
“I am excited for weeks to come because commissions have been doing heavy programming and planning,” Muhl said. “This meeting will be a nice break before we jump into Take Back the Night Week and Pride Week.”
