Ohio University Student Senate will discuss reforming senate elections and separating the Arts and Sciences senator position into two seats.
Ohio University Student Senate will start planning for its election season nearly seven months in advance at Wednesday's meeting, where senators will discuss ideas for senate election reform.
Last year, resolutions to reform elections were passed in late October and early November, but some Board of Elections decisions, including compensation for board members, weren’t made until February.
“It’s really important that we get it done early,” Gabby Bacha, Student Senate president, said. “Frankly, it’s really, really frustrating and time consuming and stressful to run a ticket. It really takes away from being a student so maybe there are some rule changes we can install that kind of even that out and balance that out to make it a less stressful process.”
Bacha and Vice President Jared Ohnsman, who ran on the SOS ticket in the spring, said several campaign rules, such as the amount of money a ticket could spend, were unclear.
“Every ticket had a different perception of the rule changes, so every ticket thought they could spend a certain amount,” Ohnsman said. “But none of those were the same, I think, until everyone was sitting down together discussing it.”
Bacha said two weeks before the campaign process started, she didn't know the proper amount of funding her ticket could raise.
“For the longest time we thought we were only allowed to run on $100, so I was thinking that from literally the time I talked to Jared in February until about two weeks before the election,” she said.
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Bacha and Ohnsman also said they will discuss reverting the voting period to one day and reinstating a passive campaign period to allow more time for debates. Last year's election took place over two days on April 15 and 16.
The body will also hear a resolution to form a special committee on sexual assault prevention.
According to the resolution, senate executives and the Women’s Affairs commission think it’s necessary for senate to play a larger role in educating students about and combating campus sexual assault. If passed, each commission would be required to select a representative to serve on the committee.
Senate will also discuss splitting the College of Arts and Sciences senator position into two seats.
“One thing that came up briefly during the SOS campaign is that Arts and Sciences is the biggest college that we have, and the variety of areas of study within that is enormous,” Praelo Zandonadi, senate academics affairs commissioner, said. “It’s very hard for one person, usually a (political science) person, to represent the entire college, or understand how it feels to be a biology student.”
The Arts and Sciences senator position is currently vacant after Hayley Oliver resigned two weeks ago.
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