Student senate met Wednesday to discuss President Gonzalez’s first 100 days and her future plans.
Ohio University’s 23rd President, Dr. Lori Stewart-Gonzalez, gave an informal presentation to update the student senate on what she has been able to accomplish since becoming president in July.
Gonzalez began her presentation by recalling her experiences during her first OU homecoming as president, and the amount of alumni who attended.
“I would say, myself, everybody thinks their school is a special place, right?” Gonzalez said. “It's this place where graduates want to come back and some of our students don't want to leave.”
Before the academic year was in session, Gonzalez got to visit OU’s research labs, which are open all summer. She said it helped her connect with students and better understand what is needed by OU’s research studies.
“I saw every major lab that we've had on campus, which helped me learn about the needs in research, where we're going and what kind of research we're doing. It's impacting Ohio and Southeast Ohio today,” Gonzalez said.
In addition, Gonzalez emphasized how she has restructured human resources to provide greater benefits to faculty.
A key focus for Gonzalez is being a “student first university” able to help students be successful.
“We are here for a core mission that is academic,” Gonzalez said. “So students' success must always be first, that again, that there are lots of things we have to do, but that is the main driver of our institution is to get students in and get them out.”
Following this presentation the senate passed several items of legislation which included nine resolutions and its first senate bill.
The resolutions included appointing several new senators within the University Life and LGBTQIA+ Affairs Commissions as well as a vice-commissioner within the Environmental Affairs Commission.
There were budget resolutions passed to provide food for Academic Affairs events to promote academic coaching and gift card incentives for students to participate in a survey that will be sent by the Academic Affairs Commission next week.
The Minority Affairs Commission assumed the responsibilities of the Black Student Affairs Commission until the positions of Black Student Affairs commissioner and vice-commissioner are filled.
Student senate’s first bill this year involved changing the name of the current LGBT Center to Pride Center to be more inclusive within the community.
Micah McCarey, director of the LGBT Center, was also the secondary sponsor for this senate bill.
“Historically, lesbians and gays have been largely understood and researched the most, then we understood that maybe people can be Bi,” McCarey said. “Now we have trans excitement and energy and more attention to those rights. So we don't want to just keep working our way down the acronym.”
