Next Wednesday will be a first for the Ohio University Student Senate’s current administration.
Next Wednesday will be a first for the Ohio University Student Senate’s current administration.
There will be no general body meeting.
This comes after senate members agreed Wednesday to begin meeting every two weeks.
This occurred after Senate President Megan Marzec and Vice President Caitlyn McDaniel last spring ran on the Restart ticket, which aimed to achieve greater student involvement and “to be more democratic and vastly increase regular student involvement in OU’s shared-governance model,” according to a previous Post article.
McDaniel said academic association meetings, which will be held in place of general body meetings every other week, may lead to greater student involvement.
“The association meetings are like giant Student SpeakOUts,” McDaniel has previously said. “Your association is based around your college. The idea is that students who are in the same college will probably have similar concerns.”
Still, on Wednesday, there will be an “emergency” meeting — which differs in structure and length from traditional general body meetings — to pass budgets at 7 p.m. McDaniel estimated it would take about 15 minutes.
After that, senators will congregate based on the college in which they study for the first of the association meetings.
Also at the meeting, senate continued to pass resolutions altering the spring elections. This week, they approved extending the window during which students can vote and the time allotted for candidates to debate.
Students will now be able to vote for senate candidates during a two-day period. Previously, students had less than 24 hours.
“If you’re working all day or you’re in classes all day, it’s hard to do,” said McDaniel, of the previous voting window.
Additionally, senate discussed the concept of white privilege — the idea that white people are dealt a set of advantages and immunities in American society. During that discussion, some members of senate critiqued The Post’s treatment of minority issues on campus.
“We need to own up to our white privilege,” said Charlotte Bassam-Bowles, university life commissioner. “We need to realize that it is not okay to be racist.”
Senate hoped the discussion would raise awareness of the inequality among ethnicities that can be found even on campus.
@mayganbeeler
mb076912@ohio.edu
