Two weeks after Student Senate invited two Ohio University officials who recently saw pay raises to justify tuition increases, the administrators accepted the invitation.
Provost and Executive Vice President Pam Benoit and Vice President of Finance and Administration Stephen Golding took questions from senators on topics including the university budget, the tuition increase and what Benoit characterized as misunderstandings between senate and the administration during last April’s meeting.
The meeting began, however, with Shannon Welch, a senior studying political science and president of OU College Democrats, addressing senate during “Student Speakout.”
She referenced a comment made by Benoit at a senate meeting last April, where she said that without a 3.5 percent tuition increase, Alden Library, Baker University Center and Grover Center could be closed.
“You guys came in here, and you lied about what was going to happen,” Welch said, directing her comments toward Golding and Benoit. “I find that shameful, and I think you should be embarrassed, and I think you need to apologize.”
Benoit’s comment has been the cause of controversy over the past several weeks after raises were given to top administrators, causing senators to say
Benoit had presented a doomsday scenario at the April meeting and exaggerated the state of the university’s budget.
On Wednesday, Benoit began by addressing that very statement, saying there was a fundamental misunderstanding.
“If there is no tuition increase, the utilities cut would be equal to closing Alden, Grover and Baker,” she said, quoting her statement from last April’s meeting. “’Would be equal to’ is a comparative … we’re sure that this is a rhetorical device that many of you have also used.”
Student senators asked questions concerning the prospect of increasing the student role in budget planning.
“The feeling by a lot of students is that it’s not shared governance … for the most part, we provide feedback,” Academic Affairs Commissioner Jared Henderson said as he addressed Benoit. “But in a truly shared governance model, governance is truly shared. Feedback is not shared.”
Henderson, along with other senators, wants students to have a larger role on advisory bodies such as the Budget Planning Council, which currently only has three student members.
In response, Golding argued that there is already substantial student input considered in the budget-making process and that if more representation is given to one constituency, others will want it as well.
“It’s not to say that any one voice isn’t important in the conversation,” Golding said. “Each voice has its own perspective that it brings to the table.”
The meeting concluded with mixed emotions and some questions left unanswered, Henderson said, but Senate President Zach George says this is the first of many dialogues.
“I’m glad that they showed up,” George said. “Like I said, this is the first of many steps. They’re baby steps, but we’re making progress. We got our questions aired. We got our questions answered.
“We now have the ear of the administration.”
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