After a month of debate, spirited student speakouts and questionable parliamentary rulings, Ohio University Student Senate finally voted on a resolution condemning Ohio Senate Bill 5 last night.
But even after three votes, the body remained split down the middle, forcing senate President Kyle Triplett to break the tie — voting “no” and finally defeating the resolution.
“The bridge is crossed,” Triplett said. “We’re moving forward.”
The resolution, which was first drafted by State and Federal Affairs Commissioner Taylor Abbott about a month ago, condemns the wording of SB 5, a controversial law passed this spring that limits the collective-bargaining rights of public employees in Ohio.
Initially, Triplett chose to leave the resolution off the agenda, resulting in several weeks of protests from student organizations such as OU’s chapter of We Are Ohio and support from others such as the OU College Republicans.
At last week’s meeting, Abbott called a vote to add the resolution to the agenda. Senators voted 18-9 in favor of adding the resolution, but eight senators abstained. At the time, Triplett said the vote would require a two-thirds passage and declared the motion failed. The president has since acknowledged that, according to Robert’s Rules of Order, the vote should have required only a simple majority and should have passed.
Triplett apologized to the body last night and made a point to clarify the parliamentary procedure before the vote.
Senate voted unanimously to add the resolution to the agenda, but voting on whether or not to pass the resolution wasn’t as cut and dry.
After a vocal vote was too close to call, the body deadlocked 19-19 on a standing vote and then tied 20-20 in a roll call vote, forcing Triplett to break the tie. Three voting members — Jeffet Garcia, Chris Yantz and Chelsea Callahan — were not present for the vote.
Even though his resolution ultimately failed, Abbott said he was satisfied with the outcome.
“The only thing I wanted was for this to come to a vote,” he said, “and I respect senate’s decision.”
Before Abbott moved to add the vote to the agenda, about 20 student protesters used senate’s “Student Speakout” session in attempt to persuade senate to vote “yes” one last time.
Those who spoke included former senate member Shannon Welch, who, in frustration, resigned to senate Vice President Roger Jones following last week’s meeting.
“You didn’t help or ask me to stay, or say thank you,” Welch said to Jones last night. “I thought you cared. I devoted so many hours to senate. I should have been someone you wanted to keep around.”
After the protestors had finished, Jones took the floor and emotionally addressed the crowd. His focus, he argued, was not to deceive or play politics with the vote but rather to make sure the student body was informed.
“If this is a true issue that affects students, then I want everyone to know the issues,” he said. “Students are going to have a voice, so let’s get them educated and let’s let them have a voice.”
Despite the resolution’s failure, Tyler Barton, a senior studying chemistry and a student organizer for We Are Ohio at OU, said the fight will continue.
“Honestly, if our goal has been to raise awareness about SB 5 and to tell students why it hurts them, I think we’ve been successful,” he said.
tl674710@ohiou.edu
