Discussion of conflict minerals and their role at Ohio University headlined the second meeting of the year for OU’s Student Senate.
Two representatives of the OU chapter of STAND presented to senate about their continuing efforts to make the university a conflict-free campus while presenting a plan for how senate can help end the practice of buying conflict minerals.
“We’re bringing this to your attention because of the human rights abuses happening in the Congo,” said Jack Spicer, Midwest regional organizer for STAND and president of the OU chapter of the organization.
STAND, the student division of United to End Genocide, is a national organization that mobilizes college students to fight genocide by attacking policies and actions that support the practice.
The university recently released a statement acknowledging the link between some products purchased by the institution and conflicts occurring in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, recognizing that the university needs to change its policies to end indirect funding of the conflict, according to a previous Post article.
This is the first in a three-part approach STAND representatives want the university to take, as they hope the statement will be followed with concrete procurement and investment policies from the university that give preference to companies that consider social responsibility in their products.
There will be a resolution at next week’s senate meeting, sponsored by Honors Tutorial College senator Jared Henderson, urging the university to move on creating these policies.
“I want a lot of cosponsors for this resolution. Everyone should be on it,” Henderson said.
The increasing crackdown by the city on noise complaints was also brought up at Wednesday night’s meeting “our job at student senate is to inform the students about this to ensure they adhere to city noise ordinances,” said Senate President Zach George.
Jenny Hall-Jones, interim dean of students, was also at the meeting and made it clear that the administration is interested in having students in white shirts walk with faculty and staff on Mill St. during Halloween again, as happened last year.
Those that participated enjoyed it very much last year, Jones said, adding that the faculty asked if the program could happen again.
dd195710@ohiou.edu
