With one scandal after another, Student Senate has slid from a professional, respected body to one of the biggest laughingstocks the university has to offer worldwide. As such, Senate has become largely irrelevant to the student body and has certainly lost the ounce of credibility it once had with the administration. We all know the stories, the allegations, and laundry list of resignations, but what the student body needs now are solutions and not more scandals.
It is my belief that Senate should consider the following:
1. Shift focus from politics to student advocacy. As mentioned in the Jan. 23 Post editorial, “Student Senate is meant to be a marketplace of ideas — a place in which students’ ideas are solicited, weighed carefully and brought to administrators, trustees and legislators.” Senate needs to go back to its roots of student advocacy, and in doing so engage and represent the student body in the decisions the administration makes on behalf of students. This is not a unique idea and was a primary platform on the FUSS ticket.
2. Work together with Faculty Senate and Graduate Student Senate to make the collective voice of students and faculty alike heard by the administration, especially when it comes to tuition and fees. Take it from an alum, many of the faculty really do care about students and find tuition hikes just as appalling. There is power in numbers!
3. Convene a committee fully devoted to recommending changes to the way Senate is run and elected, as well as its priorities, with a representative body of students — not just those entrenched in the current Senate. Look to student advocacy organizations like the OU Student Union and many others. I hope those who have fought for student advocacy in the past and others will continue to push Senate to be a more relevant organization advocating on behalf of the students at OU.
Understandably, well-known stalwarts of student advocacy have dropped their names from the Senate VP nomination to avoid being attached to a such a toxic organization, but without strong leadership, Senate will continue to falter. All is not lost in the quest for a relevant, professional, and civil Senate as long as the student body (and media) shifts its focus to solutions and not scandals.
Keith Hawkins is a 2013
alumnus of Ohio University.
