Ohio University students will have three candidates to choose from when electing next year's Student Senate President.
Juniors Will Klatt and Michael Adeyanju and senior Mashur Rahman are each leading a party in the May 15 election. Another student requested a deadline extension because he or she was hospitalized, but the senate Board of Elections decided the late application for candidacy was more due to disorganization and poor planning
chairman Micah Mitchell said.
Klatt, who lost the presidency to current senate President Tim Vonville by 17 votes last spring, will run for the position again this year. Klatt's party, the Birthday Party, consists mostly of non-senate members. Junior John Calhoun, vice president of College Democrats, is the party's candidate for vice president and senior Maleka Anderson is running for treasurer.
Klatt, who ran as an independent last year, described the group as a coalition or social movement, saying he felt it would take a broad change of leadership to enact the party's goals.
I think we have a lot of potential on this campus to change the way the university operates Klatt said. I feel the current senate has not adequately addressed problems on campus.
Those problems include unfair alcohol and marijuana policies and lack of shared governance, Klatt said.
Last year's Black Affairs Commissioner Adeyanju, a junior, kicked off his party's campaign yesterday with a rally in Baker University Center. The blue-shirted members of the Ability And Accountability Party gathered to announce their candidacy and goals. Besides Adeyanju, AAA is promoting candidates junior Sally Neidhard, the senate's current Women's Affairs commissioner, for vice president and sophomore Elisha Bender, a Student Activities Commission member, for treasurer.
We will be proactive and solve issues before they become problems Adeyanju said at yesterday's rally. He said the group wants to be more visible and accessible to students than previous senates. To accomplish this goal, they plan to hold accountability forums twice a quarter.
We will hold administrators accountable
and we will hold ourselves accountable to the student body
Adeyanju said.Rahman, the ACT OU Party candidate, said he would not talk to The Post before press time, Mitchell said. According to the party's Facebook group, freshman Evan Webb is ACT OU's treasurer candidate. The group refers to itself as diverse and open-minded and says it will strive for change.
About 4,600 students, about 23 percent of the student body, voted in last year's senate elections, the largest turnout in recent history.
During that election 78 percent of voters indicated that they had no confidence in OU President Roderick McDavis. A no-confidence vote will not be included on this year's ballot.
I'm excited for the campaign
Klatt said. I'm hoping the parties stay respectful of each other and don't take it too seriously. It's just an election.
The presidential candidates will debate at 6 p.m. April 29 in Bentley 236.
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