Days after Ohio University Student Senate voted down a resolution condemning the wording of Senate Bill 5, Ohio student government representatives made the opposite decision on a statewide level.
At Saturday’s Ohio Student Government Association meeting, all but three of Ohio’s state universities voted on and passed a resolution condemning Issue 2 and favoring the repeal of SB 5.
OSGA, an organization that includes student government representatives from Ohio’s 13 state schools, met Friday and Saturday at Ohio State University for its regular fall meeting. Members discussed SB 5, a bill passed in March that restricts the collective bargaining rights of public employees and then voted on the resolution. SB 5 will be repealed if enough people vote “no” on Issue 2 in November.
Representatives from all of the universities involved in the association except for the University of Toledo, Youngstown State University and Bowling Green State University attended the meeting.
“It’s not about OU or any of the other state schools,” OU Senate President Kyle Triplett said. “They took the vote as OSGA.”
Triplett, who broke the 20-20 tie at Wednesday’s Student Senate meeting by voting “no” on OU’s resolution condemning the wording of SB 5, said he did not vote at the OSGA meeting.
Senate delegates, rather than presidents, participate in OSGA voting. However, neither of OU’s delegates, Stephanie Stark and Anna Weisheimer, were able to attend the meeting due to scheduling conflicts, Triplett said.
Before the vote was cast, a member made a motion for the resolution to pass by a two-thirds vote, and the body agreed. OSGA conducted the vote through a secret ballot, Triplett said.
“That way, the vote was not taken on what the institution feels, but what the individual delegates felt was right for their school,” he said.
The body voted 9-4 with two abstentions.
Nick Tuell, president of OU’s chapter of College Democrats and senate’s City and County Affairs commissioner, said he was glad OSGA voted on the resolution. He said the discussion of SB 5 on a state level reinforced his belief that the bill does affect students across Ohio.
“It makes me feel like all the work I did to pass this at the OU level did not go to waste,” he said.
tl674710@ohiou.edu
