Ohio University Student Senate will hear final resolutions aimed to change spring senate elections.
Ohio University Student Senate will attempt to finalize election changes for spring semester by voting on five election-centered resolutions this week ranging from an in-kind donation cap to the addition of “slates," or groups of candidates not on a ticket.
Election resolutions must be passed this week to affect senate’s spring elections. Several changes, including a limit on the amount that individuals and tickets can spend to fund their campaigns, were voted on earlier this semester.
“This is the last ditch effort for anything that we want to change for next semester,” Landen Lama, senate's lead parliamentarian, said. “This is it. Technically we could have a meeting next week, it would just need to be decided upon by, I think, a two-thirds majority of the senate.”
A resolution to amend the election structure of student senate by allowing green senators, off-campus senators and college senators to run on “slates” comes after another resolution to limit the number of positions allowed to run on a ticket failed last week. A slate is defined in the resolution as “a group of senator candidates who are not part of a ticket running together for election.”
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“This was a plan B, because the vote (last week) was still a majority wanted change, but not two-thirds,” Lama said. “So we did some research and found out that OSU uses this slate system.”
A West Green, East Green and South Green senator may run together on a slate, or choose to run independently. Off-campus and academic college senators will also have this option.
“It gives a solution to a lot of the problems that were raised in the last meeting,” said Logan Stark, environmental affairs commissioner.
Also slated for Wednesday’s meeting are resolutions to cap funding for slates, a resolution to amend the definition of “party,” and a resolution to cap in-kind donations.
“I’m pretty confident that the in-kind donations resolution will pass,” Noah Hajivandi, the environmental affairs vice-commissioner, said. “There will be debate on that, but the debate will be mostly on the ticket structure resolution.”
Additionally, senate will propose a resolution to support minority students on campus. The resolution calls for an increased recruitment of black students and faculty and an effort to recruit more black resident assistants. If passed, Student Senate will write a letter of support for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s efforts to create a more diverse and inclusive campus, according to the resolution.
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Last week, senate narrowly met the quorum needed to vote on resolutions. This week, Lama says he isn’t concerned about attendance.
“I think there will be more members who come this week,” he said. “People are starting to be held more accountable for not showing up to meetings. I don’t think we’re going to have a numbers issue this week.”
@mayganbeeler
