Over 4,000 students rose to their feet Friday night when Wiz Khalifa walked on stage to his song, “When I’m Gone.” Student Senate was all smiles. During last year’s Student Senate election the RSVP party campaigned tirelessly for a large-scale concert on campus.
As soon as this year’s Student Senate was elected we began to work with the Campus Involvement Center, BSCPB and UPC to identify potential performers and funding sources for the event. Senate’s efforts were not wasted. The Wiz concert was sold out and enjoyed by thousands of Ohio University students.
While the Wiz concert fulfilled a major campaign promise for Student Senate, we accomplished many more important initiatives pertaining to academics, affordability and safety.
Everyone knows that the semester transition is just around the corner. Student Senate has had a unique challenge in preparing our fellow students for the transition to semesters while looking out for their interests. Over the past year Student Senate has had numerous presentations about the semesters switch and has disseminated useful information to students regarding the switch in conjunction with the Allen Student Help Center.
Senate also stood up for students when we learned that the switch could delay degree conferral for certain graduating students who did not have enough “quarter hours” to graduate but would have had sufficient “semester hours” to graduate once the transition occurred. Student Senate recognized this problem and passed a resolution. As a result of our resolution, students caught up in this situation will have their degree conferred this summer as opposed to the initial proposal, which was for the upcoming Fall Semester.
Affordability is the most important issue on campus for any student. Senate was discouraged when we learned of plans to increase tuition and fees by 3.5 percent. As a result we passed a resolution viewing the increase in a negative light. Student Senate has also been innovative this year with respect to how we have approached the issue of affordability.
First, we have attempted to empower students to find the “best buy” when it comes to buying their textbooks. We partnered with a new online book exchange called FourYears that is user friendly and enables students to name their own price when it comes to textbook purchases.
Second, we have extended the affordability discussion beyond Athens. Student Senate is currently in the midst of a major letter writing campaign to the Ohio General Assembly in Columbus.
We will be writing dozens of legislators advocating for increased state support for higher education. Increased state support for higher education is important because as state support decreases, the cost burden is increasingly placed on students. Lastly, we have increased cost transparency pertaining to tuition and fees. We passed a resolution and worked with the administration to get a link placed on Ohio.edu; this link breaks down costs at OU and shows students what they are paying for. The link titled, “How do we spend our tuition?” can be found in the Fees & Expenses link of OU’s Admissions Web page.
Safety is another crucially important issue for every student at OU. This year Senate has extended the safety conversation beyond the typical dialogue of increased lighting on campus to tangible and proactive safety initiatives. During Fall Quarter, Student Senate instituted the “Lifelines to Safety” poster and Twitter campaign in which our public relations team reminded students to know their surroundings, know the safety recourses that they have on campus and to know crime statistics.
This campaign continued throughout Winter and Spring Quarters as we presented to other student organizations about safety on campus.
A major safety step that Student Senate took this year was advocating for safety information being printed on the back of student IDs. As a result of our work with the administration, the IDs have been redesigned to include the phone numbers of the OU Police Department and OU Safe-T Patrol, along with a QR Code for smart phones that will direct students to Ohio.edu/emergency.
Another major, tangible, safety accomplishment this year was that of Gender-Neutral Housing becoming a permanent housing option on campus. When the year began, Gender-Neutral Housing was a pilot program. We decided to pass a resolution asking for this housing option to become permanent. As a result of Student Senate’s work with this initiative we now have housing options that enable every OU students to feel safe, comfortable and at home.
These successes, along with others such as the USA Today/New York Times Bobcat Readership Program, Athens Beautification Day, Pride Week and Take Back the Night Week are just some of our accomplishments from this year as your Student Senate.
It has been an honor to be the President of OU’s Student Senate this year. I have truly enjoyed getting to work with and meet my fellow students at this university. We have the most engaged student body in the state. It is my hope that we have served you well this year, and that we have made OU a better place to be for students.
Thank you, and go Bobcats!
Kyle Triplett is a senior studying political science and president of Student Senate.
