After about 70 students were arrested last Wednesday, Faculty Senate will discuss the Baker Center protest as well as a national petition, Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s state budget proposal and the upcoming senate elections during the body’s February meeting.
Ohio University President Roderick McDavis will make a final appearance Monday night to answer the faculty’s questions about the decision to shut down the protest, as many faculty members saw the administration’s reaction as too “swift,” faculty senator Harold Perkins said.
“My sense is, the faculty wants the university to request that the charges against the students be dropped, and I think there’s going to be a conversation about that,” Faculty Senate Chair Joe McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin added that there could be some kind of resolution in response to the arrests made at the protest in Baker. That could either come by means of a petition or an executive committee resolution, if the committee hears enough from faculty who want to publicly support the students.
“It’s very likely that there will be lively and animated discussion (about the student arrests) … based on what I know, I was shocked that the arrests came down so quickly when students weren’t doing anything terribly disruptful besides sitting,” Jim Andrews, a faculty senator and associate professor of classics and world religions, said.
Andrews is not the only faculty member with that opinion.
Perkins, an associate professor of geography, suspects that a number of faculty who are not in Faculty Senate will attend Monday’s meeting to ask McDavis and Executive Vice President and Provost Pam Benoit why those students were arrested.
Senators anticipate the possibility of a resolution to condemn the “heavy-handedness” of the university’s response around police arresting the protesters, Perkins said.
In the spirit of Wednesday night’s protest, a national petition against President Donald Trump’s executive order, banning immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries, is being circulated.
More than 20,000 U.S. faculty members have signed that petition so far.
“Before Wednesday, I think there were some pretty important issues that we had planned to discuss with the president and vice provost,” McLaughlin said. “(Those have) to do with the governor’s budget.”
Several faculty and staff members have been notified that there will be no raises during the next academic year, McLaughlin said.
“Faculty are interested in hearing about this crazy textbook provision the governor has put in his budget proposal,” McLaughlin said.
That provision includes a $300 cap on textbooks and will continue the tuition freeze for public colleges and universities in Ohio.
Faculty Senate will begin to send out forms to nominate candidates for senator positions in preparation for the upcoming academic year.
“In a few weeks we’re gonna send out forms for nominations. I’m just gonna talk a little about the schedule for elections,” McLaughlin said.
