Five months after his appointment to Student Senate president, some claim Nick Southall has forgotten his executive oath:
“… Do nothing to bring shame or discredit to senate or the university.”
Southall tweeted early Sunday, “Driving through Athens at 8:30 on Sunday morning is hilarious. I want to stop every girl I see and say ‘your dress is a little wrinkly.’
Three senate members — Allie Erwin, senator from the Honors Tutorial College; Mary Kate Gallagher, residence life commissioner; and Anna Morton, vice president — have started pooling a panel of interdisciplinary professionals who will meet with senate to educate the body on proper social-media use, especially with regards to sexist comments.
“We need to focus on corrective justice as opposed to punitive justice, and that is what the workshop aims to do,” Erwin said. “I am hoping for President Southall to understand why what he did was totally inappropriate. This isn’t to shame him or single him out. … This is an opportunity for all of us to learn.”
The panel will be an opportunity for the senate body to meet as a whole and learn from individuals who offer varying perspectives as to sexism and discrimination. Though the initial panel will be closed to non-senate members, Erwin did not rule out a later panel for all students.
“I hoping to begin a culture shift within Student Senate,” Erwin said. “We are a representative body but we also need to be a respectful body … and part of that is educating ourselves on how to communicate properly.”
Other students on campus are calling for a culture change as well, prompting a group of students to plan on attending the senate’s weekly Wednesday meeting in Walter 235 dressed in wrinkled clothes and feminist T-shirts so as to discuss Southall’s tweet during the senate’s allocated speak OUt session.
“The Student Senate president needs to hold himself to a higher standard,” said Emily Harper, a senior studying international business and marketing and organizational communications. “He is the face of students at this university…and it is not okay that someone with that degree of power puts down students that got him elected. It is basic human courtesy.”
Some attendees will wear shirts from the “This is What an OU Feminist Looks Like Campaign,” which was sponsored last year by senate and promoted by Southall.
“I believe that they have a right to say what is on their mind,” Southall said. “I am not trying to justify what I said. I realize that the things I said were not correct.”
OU’s Student Senate constitution does not have a social media policy; it has not been revised since the 1995-96 school year.
But senate members have a responsibility to conduct themselves in a respectful manner, Morton said.
“In just being elected, you need to hold yourself to a high standard,” Morton said. “(Southall) is entitled to his own opinions, but he is also held to those higher standards.”
Senate is in the process of deciding how it will respond to the incident, which might include calling an executive session at tomorrow’s meeting.
“Nick’s personal tweets do not represent what senate as a body advocates or believes,” Morton said. “I don’t want this situation to be what people think senate is about.”
Besides the anticipated presentation at Student Speak OUt, senate will also be discussing student trustee voting rights — a project Governmental Affairs Commissioner Jordan Ballinger has been working on closely with Representatives Mike Duffey (R-Worthington) and Michael Stinziano (D-Columbus).
“My biggest goal for this is bringing students together on an issue,” Ballinger said. “The more support from students we get, the more likely this law will pass.”
Dean of the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, Kenneth Johnson, will also be speaking at the meeting.
oh271711@ohiou.edu
@ohitchcock
