A petition asking for a recall election is circulating on campus and has roughly 300 signatures.
Several student groups are circulating a petition on campus demanding the recall of the most recent Student Senate election in the aftermath of Senate President Megan Marzec’s “blood bucket” challenge video.
The petition, which is using #RecallSSE on Twitter, aims to receive 3,000 student signatures before being presented at the next Board of Trustees meeting on Oct. 17 and calls for an amendment to be added to the Ohio University Student Senate Constitution which would allow a recall election of the previous senate election held last spring, during which Marzec was elected.
There are 10 sets of this petition currently circulating through various petition holders, each aiming to receive 300 signatures, said Taylor Hufford, LGBTQ affairs senate.
“This is the first time that this had ever been done before,” Hufford said. “It’s kind of unprecedented territory. It’s in the constitution that they can do this if they put this together.”
Hufford was involved in drafting and organizing the petition and said that within the first 48 hours of circulation roughly 300 signatures had been collected. The first signatures were gathered Monday night.
Several campus groups are involved with this petition, including the OU College Republicans, Bobcats for Israel and the Jewish fraternity, Alpha Epsilon Pi, Hufford said.
Senate’s constitution states that OU students can propose amendments if at least 10 percent of students currently registered on the Athens Campus in “good academic standing” sign the petition.
The resolution to amend the constitution states that the term “recall” refers to the process by which elected officials can be removed from office by a vote of the students.
If the petition successfully collects the necessary number of signatures, the amendment must be approved by the Board of Trustees, and the constitution will then be modified.
An additional petition, attached to the one calling for the recall election, references disapproval for Marzec’s “blood bucket” challenge video and aims to gather support for the proposed amendment, said Gabby Bacha, South Green senator.
The petition states that a signature doesn’t call for Marzec’s resignation but instead is an act to give students an opportunity to “make sure a democratic process remains democratic” through the recall election.
“We’ve seen a lot of reaction from people who have signed this petition,” Hufford said. “A lot of students are still very angered about feeling misrepresented.”
She said that her knowledge of the senate constitution as a third-year member of the body and the help of senate alumni allowed her to brainstorm solutions to the demands from numerous individuals to have Marzec removed.
Bacha signed the petition and said that students should feel “empowered” by having the ability to hold their student leaders accountable.
“And that is something I think everyone should back,” Bacha said.
@Alisa_Warren
aw120713@ohio.edu
