Ohio University Student Senate will call on the university's administration to be more transparent in the standing committee process at Wednesday's meeting.
The bill, sponsored by incoming senate President Landen Lama and environmental affairs commissioner Sarah Pinter, calls for greater transparency with the selection of student committee members and the requests the administration reevaluate the committees' mission statements to make them more efficient. The committees include members from the student body, faculty and administration.
Lama said senate was disappointed with this year’s administration but hopes to work with the administration to involve student government members in more university decisions.
“We, as students, really have to utilize every opportunity we can to speak up,” Lama said. “We are given these seats on committees and we need to be able to sit on them and speak up about things when we see something going wrong.”
Senate is allowed to recommend students to serve on standing committees. In August, senate sent President Roderick McDavis a list of 60 students for the administration to consider appointing to committees. Students were not appointed to standing committees until November, Lama said.
Courtney Muhl, vice president of senate, says senate was unable to communicate with the committee that oversees the committees about the appointments because it was unclear when that committee had met, if at all.
“There was no way for us to communicate to any kind of accountability function that the students who had been nominated to serve on university committees weren't getting a chance to meet with them,” Muhl said.
Muhl found it “astonishing” how little the university communicated with the students recommended to serve on standing committees. She said she thinks the bill will pass because senate holds a similar point of view.
“We think (communication is) really important,” Muhl said. “I think that this is something that has been pretty universally seen throughout senate.”
Senate will also consider a bill to ask the university to address the needs of international, immigrant and undocumented students.
Two of the sponsors, Elliot Long and Fatma
“If the resolution passes Student Senate as well, I hope that sends a message to the university that we have not forgotten the new threats to the international, immigrant, and undocumented students, faculty, and staff on our campus,” Long said in an email.
Muhl also expects Senate will pass a bill preserving the ridges' green space, along with seven other resolutions.
