Ohio University’s ad hoc committee for socially responsible practices has stopped meeting, but some OU students are asking it to reconvene.
The committee was formed by OU President Roderick McDavis in February 2012, responding to pressure from STAND Against Genocide, the parent group of Bobcats for a Conflict-Free Campus, to acknowledge a tie between companies purchasing illegal minerals from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and its violence.
This past month, OU released a statement acknowledging that tie, but STAND members want the committee to look at the university’s procurement and shareholder policies in those terms, said Ellie Hamrick, STAND’s media and public relations officer.
“Based on who was on the committee and how it was going, we were expecting them to be receptive to everything on the table,” Hamrick said. “But unfortunately, they don’t have a chance to comment.”
The committee comprised representatives from Procurement, Information Technology, Institutional Equity, Legal Affairs, the Ohio University Foundation, staff members and a representative from each of the five senates — graduate student, undergraduate student, faculty, classified and administrative, according to a previous Post article.
“I don’t know what they mean by ‘suspended,’ ” said John Biancamano, director of OU’s Office of Legal Affairs. “An ad hoc committee is not a long-term group.”
The committee would reconvene at McDavis’ request.
“The committee has done what they asked us to do,” Biancamano said. “If there’s more work to do, we’ll do it, but right now, there’s nothing on the agenda.”
Hamrick argues that the committee was always going to discuss the procurement and shareholder policies, she said.
“The group was planning to submit a draft policy and go through it,” Hamrick said, “and see how feasible it would be and how good of an idea so that the president could adopt those policies.”
sj950610@ohiou.edu
