As the academic year comes to a close, Ohio University’s two student governing bodies reflected on the work that was accomplished and the work that is yet to be done.
STUDENT SENATE:
When REACH executives were voted into Student Senate last year, they began their term much like this year’s winning ticket, VOICE — by taking all but one position.
Less than a year later, outgoing Student Senate President Zach George, from the REACH ticket, said he believes he led one of the most effective senate bodies in recent memory.
“This whole year has been broad reaching in terms of what we’ve done for students and for this body,” George said. “As an organization, we’re only as great as the sum of our parts and we’ve had a lot of good working components this year on senate.”
Senate invited administrators to meetings this year and surveyed students for their opinions on OU’s tuition — two examples, George said, of how senate didn’t act as Cutler Hall’s “strawman.”
This month’s comedy night at The Convo drew about 5,300 people — more than any other senate-sponsored event. George first proposed the idea to OU administrators after money not allocated to the Multipurpose Center left $150,000 in surplus. Senate passed 54 resolutions this year, including ones that express support for student trustee voting rights, OU storing students’ emergency contact information and the enactment of a preferred-name policy.
This year’s winning senate ticket, VOICE, also almost swept this year’s election season and won all commissioner spots except one. Next year’s senate President Nick Southall said he would build off this year’s progress.
“The tuition issue is huge right now,” Southall said. “That’s something that we’re versing ourselves on this year and will hopefully know exactly what students want next year and we will push for that.”
Senate’s new executives — Anna Morton as vice president and Austin LaForest as treasurer — will spend the summer in Athens to strategize how to best implement their plans for next year, Southall said.
GRADUATE STUDENT SENATE:
This year’s Graduate Student Senate race was the first contested election in recent years and ultimately ended with Joel Newby as president, who said he hopes to continue the work done by 2012-13 GSS President Tynita White.
GSS saw its first change in presidential power in three years when White was elected. White aimed to implement new ways to increase graduate student representation on campus and create better communication with administrators.
“In the beginning (of the year) I felt like we were out of the loop, but at the end it was all coming together,” White said. “I feel like next year they will have a better relationship (with the administration) because of our work this year.”
GSS passed 23 resolutions this year, 12 of which appointed new members, seven allocated funds and two altered the bylaws and representation structure of the body. Two other resolutions showed support for conflict-free minerals on campus and student trustee voting rights.
The overarching goal of the body was to represent graduate students, something that is not always reflected by resolutions, White said.
“I want to make GSS the strongest institution that it can possibly be so that it will better represent the graduate students when it comes to that next level,” Newby said.
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