Ohio University Student Senate’s weekly meeting is poised to be a decisive one, as students still want answers from the university’s top administrators.
After not being able to make last week’s meeting, Executive Vice President and Provost Pam Benoit and Vice President for Finance and Administration Stephen Golding will attend Wednesday’s senate meeting to answer questions from senators concerning OU’s budget, administrative raises and last year’s tuition hike.
In April, the OU Board of Trustees voted to increase tuition by 3.5 percent after Benoit argued before senate that if the increase was not approved, Baker University Center, Alden Library and Grover Center would have to be closed.
However, Chad Mitchell, interim budget director for finance, said earlier this fall that Benoit’s statements were not meant to be taken literally, according to a previous Post article.
“You can’t tell us that the university is going to stop in the spring and then, nothing has happened since then,” said Amrit Saini, vice president of Student Senate, adding that senate wants answers from administrators about why nothing was cut this fall after asking for tuition increases in the spring.
Administrative raises are another area of concern for the senate, Saini added.
“Don’t raise tuition and give raises in the same year … it’s shared sacrifice,” he said. “If you’re going to ask us to pay more, then don’t get paid more yourselves.”
Zach George, senate president, says that he will allow as much discussion as is desired by senate for this meeting.
“We were led to believe that the university would fall off a fiscal cliff … if we didn’t have tuition raises and that just wasn’t the case,” George said. “It was a farce.”
While he will do his best to be non-partisan, George said he will ensure that questions are not skirted and if senate’s questions are not answered at the end of the meeting, senate will take the issue directly to OU President Roderick McDavis.
“Benoit and Golding are looking forward to being able to be there in person since they didn’t have an opportunity to be there last week,” said Ann Fidler, Chief of Staff for the provost and Chief Financial Officer, as she also confirmed that Benoit and Golding will be at the meeting.
John Day, associate provost for Academic Budget and Planning, and Mitchell will also be in attendance, Fidler said.
Amrit and George said they believe administrators will have their plates full at the meeting as senators want answers to their questions.
“We want an explanation and we want an apology for completely disregarding us and lying to us last year,” Saini said.
dd195710@ohiou.edu
