For the first time this semester, Student Senate will have its weekly Wednesday meeting with a full executive board now that it has a president, vice president and treasurer. Finally, the body will be able to sit down and delineate its goals without distraction.
Among its current ambitions are securing a consistent Spring Convo Concert, ensuring its body fully understands its rules and procedures and making students aware of available funding opportunities.
That’s a good step — both the goals themselves and the act of making them.
But we think senate should adopt an active role in identifying significant concerns, soliciting student opinions about those topics and presenting a single stance to the university as the elected representatives of the student body.
For example, senate should take students’ temperature on the university’s guaranteed tuition plan. The Ohio University Student Union has led protests and discussions with the Board of Trustees, so obviously there are concerns out there.
We suggest getting the facts, understanding the administration’s reasoning and contemplating students’ qualms. Then find a position and defend it to the students and administration in a resolution.
That is just one important policy debate we have yet to see come from the student-elected officials. Discussions about the merits of faculty and administrative compensation, Athletics’ budget and attitudes toward sex and sexual violence are vital and deserve to be formalized.
If the senators find that students are supportive of the university’s plan of action, get the word out about why. If they find that students disagree with a policy, suggest a solution and bring it to the administrators.
Senate is the official mechanism through which student opinions should be documented and submitted to the university. If the university chooses to ignore them, that’s another matter. That doesn’t give senate an excuse to sit on its hands.
Senate might not have a direct role in affecting change, but it should keep a critical eye on the university and be an institutional mouthpiece for the student body. That’s a tool the students need and should be able to expect from their student representatives.
We know that it sounds like a broken record when we say senate needs to improve — and we’re tired of saying it — but we’d like to see that change. We’ll be the first ones to congratulate senate when it happens.
Editorials represent the majority opinion of The Post’s executive editors.
