In the midst of Student Senate’s intern selection process, its site — where all the selection information is stored — went down.
Although senate wasn’t actively seeking a company to maintain its website, Amrit Saini, senate’s site designer and former vice president, wanted to secure his business’ role in hosting the site and sent senate a formal contract outlining his desires. But senate contacted Reach Web Solutions, LLC, the company that Saini is associated with, and denied its request.
Saini, who refused to elaborate on his exact position at Reach Web Solutions, “unlinked” his server from the Web domain senate owns —
www.oustudentsenate.com — and caused the site to go dark Thursday.
The site will be down for at least a week until senate’s Committee on the Budget, which oversees senate funds, will evaluate a revised version of Saini’s proposed contract after it is submitted.
Saini revamped the site last winter and was compensated $1,600 from internal senate funds for his work.
“The work that was done last year should still be up because he doesn’t own the site (domain),” said Anna Morton, this year’s senate vice president. “That’s not legal.”
Saini said that, if asked, he will provide any of the site’s information to senate and that it will take at least an hour to make that data available.
“Until I get confirmation that my work is going to get compensated, I am not going to provide my services for free. That is not right for my company,” Saini said. “Let’s just call it the last five weeks of (their) free trial.”
Currently, the startup company has about 10 employees, a number of whom, like Saini, are OU alumni. Senate would have been the company’s first client.
The Committee on the Budget unanimously decided to deny Reach Web Solutions’ contract because of cost and legal concerns, said Adam Brown, chair of the Committee on the Budget.
Senate also wants to compare prospective hosts’ prices, Brown said.
Saini’s contract called for an annual payment of $2,500 — or $1,250 per semester for upkeep — a price Saini said is hard to beat.
However, Saini said he would keep senate’s budget in mind as well, offering a compromise if the proposed cost was unfeasible.
“I don’t want senate to be decimated,” he said. “… (But) I’m not going to throw money at something if I’m not going to get a return.”
There were legal concerns with the contract as well, Brown said.
The revised contract must go through a multi-step process, including receiving approval from senate adviser Vice President for Student Affairs Ryan Lombardi, who didn’t return a request for comment by press time.
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