At this year’s first Ohio University Student Senate meeting, a senate candidate disqualified from her elected position last year received a second chance at the job.
Senate appointed two at large senators after two FACE candidates who originally won senator spots last spring were disqualified because of a mistake in FACE’s budget report.
Rachel Ackerman ran on the FACE ticket and was voted into the at large position last spring before being disqualified.
“Speaking with the other executives, we believed that Rachel deserved and won this position,” Vice President Roger Jones said.
Bryan Morton received the other at large senator position. He originally planned to run on the RSVP ticket but was unable, Jones said.
On April 21, amid the monthlong senate-election period, three RSVP candidates and nine FACE candidates were disqualified. Candidates can be disqualified for having a GPA below a 2.0, having fewer than 25 signatures on their applications, or misreporting their GPAs.
Senators also listened to four presentations addressing athletics, upcoming programming, a possible partnership for senate’s book exchange and an upcoming sexual assault awareness event.
OU’s Director of Athletics Jim Schaus and Jordan Thompson, a junior and a tight end on OU’s football team, discussed what they hope to accomplish this year with continued partnership between Athletics and Student Senate.
Through this partnership, senate has begun to recognize student leaders or organizations at home games. Last week, Campus Crusade for Christ received the distinction, and University Program Council will be recognized next.
“That idea came from Student Senate; it came from you guys,” Schaus said. “There are some fun and creative ideas that we can do.”
Schaus said he hoped increased interaction with Student Senate would increase Ohio Athletics’ visibility among OU students.
“It’s really rewarding to see these relationships develop over athletic programming,” Thompson said.
Drew Holzaepfel, a faculty adviser for UPC, and Brian Heilmeier, UPC graduate adviser, discussed the Campus Involvement Center’s planned lineup for Fall Quarter. This quarter, musicians such as O.A.R. and Mike Posner and comedian Aziz Ansari will perform at OU.
UPC also plans to hold weekly performances in The Front Room; on Thursday nights, the council will bring in local bands, Heilmeier said.
Ryan Verner, an OU alumnus who created FourYears.com, spoke to senate as well. FourYears offers a book exchange for OU students. Verner said he hopes that, in the future, it also will offer class and professor reviews, tips for finding off-campus housing and a venue for students to sell other items.
Verner compared his website to senate’s current book exchange.
“I thought (the book exchange) was a little outdated and needed some sprucing up,” he said.
The OU book exchange has a little more than 1,700 books posted. Verner said that, because OU’s campus has about 20,000 students, this service could be utilized much more.
Off-Campus Life Commissioner Thomas Raabe led the last presentation, which outlined plans for the upcoming Walk a Mile in Her Shoes event.
The event, which invites men to walk down Court Street in high heels to raise sexual-assault awareness, will take place at noon Oct. 1.
Walk a Mile in Her Shoes events have been held throughout the world for 10 years, and this will be OU’s fourth time participating in the event.
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