Although recent resolutions sponsored by Ohio University's Student Senate and Faculty Senate are similar in name, they advocate opposite courses of action for an athletics committee.
Student Senate voted unanimously to pass a resolution supporting the current structure of the Intercollegiate Athletics Committee - directly opposing a resolution unanimously passed by Faculty Senate two weeks ago proposing an additional voting faculty member be added to the committee.
The committee advises OU President Roderick McDavis on all policies pertaining to athletics.
The committee currently comprises five faculty members, two NCAA faculty representatives, two administrators, one Classified Senate member, one community member and two undergraduate students. Faculty Senate's resolution, entitled A Resolution to Enable Shared Governance
proposed increasing the current 7:7 ratio of faculty to non-faculty members to give faculty a majority vote in the committee.
Student Senate's response to that resolution, entitled A Resolution to Facilitate Shared Governance proposes the opposite - to keep the committee's structure as it stands. The proposed change would threaten shared governance, said East Green Senator Andy Burnette, who wrote the resolution.
Students don't have a say now (with Faculty Senate's proposed change) Burnette said. Shared governance is when all constituent groups have a say. Giving faculty the dominant number of votes ostracizes everyone else's opinions.
Faculty Senate President Joe McLaughlin e-mailed Student Senate President Robert Leary prior to last night's meeting to argue Faculty Senate's point. He said Faculty Senate's goal in passing its resolution is to empower the committee rather than reducing the influence of any of the senates.
Faculty Senate members argued at their meeting that the resolution did support shared governance, and that a faculty majority would protect academic funding.
I think academics should take priority at this university
and for that reason
I think there should be more than a bare (faculty) majority
said Alyssa Bernstein, Faculty Senate philosophy senator.
Scott Titsworth, chair of the Faculty Senate Facilities and Finance Committee, said he did not understand why Student Senate opposed the Faculty Senate resolution.
A majority faculty vote on that committee would do more to legitimize that committee than anything else
Titsworth said. There's nothing that's taking student voice away from that committee by adding a faculty member. If anything
it legitimizes the academic concern
which students should want as well.
The possibility of having a faculty majority on the committee is not the first time faculty has shown a lack of support for athletics, said Student Senate's Vice President Emily Bacha, who co-sponsored the resolution. Last year's senate pushed for a non-summation policy that would give student athletes more leeway with assignments and tests when a game or traveling commitment caused a time conflict.
What we met was strong faculty resistance to this
Bacha said. There was no discussion of even looking at the faculty handbook to make a means for working with student athletes.
Former Student Trustee Chauncey Jackson and former Senate President Michael Adeyanju, both senators emeritus, also co-sponsored the resolution.
Burnette acknowledged the academics vs. athletics debate but said it was not at the root of the reasoning behind his resolution. He said his main concern is the voice of the student members of the committee.
This isn't just to help athletics; it's to find a student voice
Burnette said. The students are what make up this institution. By ignoring the student voice
