Ohio University’s Student Senate will hear a proposal for a direct democracy model at Wednesday night’s meeting.
Members of Ohio University’s Student Senate and the Ohio University Student Union hope a PowerPoint presentation will unite their interests Wednesday night, during the proposal of a student government structure that both sides view as a compromise.
A summer committee charged with discussing direct democracy as a model for senate created a plan that would allow students to vote directly in weekly town-hall-style meetings organized by academic college and senate commission. The committee will present this plan to senate at Wednesday’s meeting.
“It basically represents a compromise between the interests of the student union and those of the SOS ticket,” Daniel Kington, a member of the Student Union and Student Senate’s Honors Tutorial College senator, said.
Student Senate Treasurer Hannah Clouser also served on the summer committee.
“I support a compromise between the student union and student senate,” Clouser said. “I think something needs to change. I don’t know if this is the answer or not, but I think that there needs to be some sort of compromise.”
Senate members have already received a document detailing the committee’s proposal and an explanation of the next steps should senate agree to implement the direct democracy model.
The body will have the opportunity to ask questions and discuss the presentation Wednesday, but voting won’t take place until Sept. 9.
“A lot of the people in SOS, I anticipate, may be resistant to this since this wasn’t a part of their platform that they ran on, so we want to give those folks time to really think about this and encourage them to just come into this next week with an open mind ready to vote,” Kington said.
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A vote in favor of this model would result in an October election open to the entire student body, similar to the senate elections that take place each spring, but on a smaller scale. Students would have the opportunity to cast a vote for or against this model by indicating whether or not they would like to participate in weekly meetings with the representative from their college.
“It actually allows them to have a meaningful say in how their university is run,” Ryan Powers, member of the summer committee and the Student Union, said. “It enhances the effect of students’ voices and how much power they have on campus. University issues and policies affect all of us and we should all have a say in what they are.”
In addition, the body will vote on a resolution that outlines a budget for Ride Board, OU’s ride sharing service. The board went offline when the site’s server was discontinued at the end of 2014.
Last year’s senate believed the service would switch seamlessly to the new server without any down time, but budget and communication issues delayed the project.
If the budget is passed, Ride Board should be online within a week or two, Clouser said.
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