Ohio University Student Senate voted unanimously to pass its first bill at Wednesday’s meeting.
The Bill to Support the Implementation of a Bias Incident Reporting Tool would help the university collect data about racist, sexist and homophobic incidents on campus and where those incidents occur. That would ultimately enable OU to identify steps that must be taken to formulate a plan to combat bias incidents.
“This bill is calling this tool to the attention of the administration at large and pushing forward our approval of its use,” Student Senate Vice President Courteney Muhl said. “We won’t necessarily be able to define, at this point, what this tool would look like. What we do know is that we are putting our weight behind it.”
Because of a rule change that took place at last week’s meeting, it was the first bill passed by Senate. Previously, the external bill would have been called an external resolution.
“It’s really exciting,” Student Senate President Hannah Clouser said. “Similar actions to bills have been happening since the formation of Senate, but it’s exciting because now we will have a way to document and separate what’s happening externally and internally.”
Clouser also said the five senates at OU — student, graduate student, faculty, administrative and classified — have been meeting to discuss recent instances of intolerance on campus.
“We envision this task force looking at diversity and inclusion on campus and being collaborative and generating new ideas students have brought forward,” Clouser said.
Senate also passed the sole resolution of the meeting to fund the Philanthropy Fair, which will be an event on South Beach where students can learn about charity work performed by Greek organizations.
Additionally, Senate members heard two presentations. The first was from Krista McCallum Beatty, director of International Student and Faculty Services, who discussed the ways her department is working to help international students.
“We’re trying not only to help our international students integrate into the campus but to help our domestic students get to know our international students,” McCallum Beatty said. “Less than a third of students said they think it’s important to get to know our international students. That needs to change.”
International Affairs Commissioner Nino
“It’s important that domestic students take steps to bridge the gap ourselves,” Muhl said.
The second presentation was about BobcaThon, a year-long fundraiser on OU’s campus that benefits the Ronald McDonald House of Central Ohio. Senate heard from Kendra Lutes, BobcaThon’s president, and Anna Seethaler, vice president of internal affairs for BobcaThon, who said they hoped senate would get involved in this year’s BobcaThon.
Before the meeting adjourned, Vice President for Student Affairs Jason Pina thanked Student Senate for its participation in the open house that took place in the Student Senate office over Homecoming Weekend.
“You are our inspiration,” Pina said. “Realize how important it is to have alums who are connected to Student Affairs and Student Senate come back and reconnect to all of you.”
