Nick Southall, a senior studying integrated language arts, donned the title of Ohio University Student Senate president for 245 days.
His first and only semester in office started with a tweet and ended with his arrest.
Southall’s one-semester reign as senate president ended Dec. 24 following his arrest during a university-organized trip to the Beef ‘O’ Brady Bowl. Administrators, fellow student-leaders and a number of his constituents had called for his resignation, following both the arrest and events from last semester.
Southall’s resignation from the top spot caused a switch in roles for current Vice President Anna Morton and a proposed suspension of senate’s Rules and Procedures so that any student — not just voting members of the body — could run for Morton’s former position.
“Although it may be bold, we need to remember that we are here for the student voice, if students feel that they can best fit the position they should be given the opportunity to display that,” said Morton, in a statement.
Morton will officially take over as president of the body Wednesday evening after she takes the oath of office.
Senate’s rules regarding a presidential vacancy ask the vice president to assume the top spot and the newly open second-in-command seat to be filled by a voting member of the body.
However, with a two-thirds vote from the body Wednesday, that rule might be temporarily suspended.
A potential candidate for the vice presidential spot can nominate himself or herself by Jan. 22 by contacting someone in senate. The body’s 39 voting members will cast votes for the next vice president at that evening’s general body meeting.
“I just want someone who is dedicated, committed and can work hard and work with the body,” Morton said. “Who’s to say who that is?”
The chair of the Rules and Procedures Committee, formerly Jordan Ballinger, is charged with the task of ushering the body through the transition period.
The chairman position became vacant after Morton and Austin LaForest, senate treasurer, decided to remove Ballinger from the role due to his plan to run for president this spring and his busy schedule.
Ballinger still serves on senate as governmental affairs commissioner.
“(Morton) told me yesterday that her and (LaForest) had a long discussion and they think it is best that I would not be the chair (of rules and procedures),” Ballinger said. “I have no idea what is going on. She just said we no longer want you to serve as chair, and we will find someone else.”
Tuesday evening, Eliza Straughter, current minority affairs commissioner who has sat on the Rules and Procedures Committee, was appointed the new chair of the committee and will head the election process.
Southall was arrested in a St. Petersburg, Fla., hotel while on a university-sponsored trip to the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl, which led to his resignation and forfeiture of the full in-state student tuition scholarship entitled to the senate president. This academic year, tuition costs $10,380.
The former senate president was charged with “disorderly intoxication — disturbance” after an officer used a stun gun to control Southall, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff Office’s records.
Another OU student, Myranda Owca, was arrested in the Florida county for “disorderly conduct” and booked in the Pinellas County Jail, where Southall was held, 10 minutes before Southall, according to the records.
University bussing picked up both students after the bowl game, said Ryan Lombardi, vice president for Student Affairs.
It is unclear whether Owca was with Southall at the time of the arrests, as the sheriff’s office did not keep a location of Owca’s arrest in the records. However, Cristen Rensel, spokesperson for the county sheriff’s office, said Southall was one of “a couple of different people who were intoxicated and being disorderly, causing a disturbance.”
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@ohhitchcock
