Student Senate began its first meeting of the year focusing on how Ohio University approaches cultural diversity and tuition raises.
A group of senators attended a meeting with OU President Roderick McDavis and Vice President for Student Affairs Ryan Lombardi before the senate meeting to request several changes they want to see from the university.
Senators asked for cultural competency courses for incoming freshman, an increase in the number of minorities in faculty administrative positions, and an increase in scholarships for minority students, among other requests.
This was the first meeting senators had with Lombardi and McDavis about these requests. Senate said it would continue meetings with administrators to discuss the requests.
“They are very tentative because we aren’t done with them yet,” said LBGTQA commissioner• Ryant Taylor•. “We are working with Ryan Lombardi and McDavis to plan meetings, but there will definitely be more in the future.”
Several senators, including DJ Amireh,• announced support of the Ohio University Student Union rally against the Ohio Guarantee set to take place Thursday• at 5 p.m.• near the Civil War Monument.•
“'The Ohio Guarantee' is a guaranteed tuition hike,” the Facebook page for the event read. “ Tuition hikes are class war.”
The Ohio Guarantee is a tuition model that would lock in tuition at a certain rate for incoming freshmen. The Board of Trustees will be meeting to vote on the model, among other issues, on Jan. 22.
“Basically, we’re trying to shake their agenda, and hopefully they’ll actually listen to us,” Amireh said. “All incoming students are going to be signed up for this. They don’t have a choice.
“If you don’t care about the Ohio Guarantee, it’s still something to do that shows we don’t want them to raise our tuition,” Amireh said.
Also at Wednesday night’s meeting, senate announced plans to travel to the Statehouse to meet with state representatives and discuss issues, including guaranteed tuition.
Student Senate President Megan Marzec• was not present at the meeting.
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