After years of weekly meetings, Ohio University Student Senate will vote on a resolution to cut back the number of general body meetings in favor of a biweekly schedule. Members are also looking to make it easier to vote for next year’s senate and assuring students Ride Board will continue.
After years of weekly meetings, Ohio University Student Senate will vote on a resolution to cut back the number of general body meetings in favor of a biweekly schedule. Members are also looking to make it easier to vote for next year’s senate and assuring students Ride Board will continue.
“According to the (Student Senate’s) Constitution, there only has to be one senate meeting per semester,” said Caitlyn McDaniel, senate’s vice president. “I think that’s definitely not enough. This resolution will cancel every other (general body) meeting, but that doesn’t mean we won’t be doing anything in between meetings.”
The resolution proposes senators should alternate between general body meetings and their respective academic association meetings.
“Your association is based around your college,” McDaniel said. “The idea is that students who are in the same college will probably have similar concerns.”
For example, McDaniel, who is a War and Peace major, would attend her global studies association meeting every other week.
With 24-hour notice, senate would allow for emergency general body meetings to be held prior to the individual association meetings to pass essential budgets.
“So at 7 p.m., the days that we don’t have general body meetings, we’re leaving room in case we have an emergency budget that needs to go through,” McDaniel said. “Up to 24 hours in advance we can send out an email to members of senate (calling for a special general body meeting.)”
Those meetings, that could run quickly from 7 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., when association meetings would start, could allow senate to approve routine items such as budgets and other resolutions that would require little debate, she said.
The association meetings, which McDaniel likens to “a giant Student SpeakOUt,” would aim for greater student involvement than current senate meetings.
If the resolution to meet biweekly is passed, there will be no general body meeting next week.
Also slated for voting at Wednesday night’s meeting are resolutions to extend time allotted for debates and for voting on Election Day.
The resolution to extend the voting window calls for an increase from what was about a 12-hour time frame, according to McDaniel, to a 48-hour period during which students would be able to cast their votes for senate candidates on their personal computer, in Alden Library or at a public polling station in Baker University Center.
“If you’re working all day or you’re in classes all day, it’s hard to do,” said McDaniel of the current voting window.
In addition, McDaniel noted that the current Ride Board, which senate discussed last week, will be taken down due to a dying server. The Ride Board, which connects OU students looking to carpool to specific destinations, will be replaced with a new version so the ridesharing service can continue.
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