Administrators and faculty are only half the inspiration behind OHIO's Promise and Vision OHIO, yet they have worked their hardest to make Ohio University a better place for undergraduate, medical and graduate students. The other half belongs to students.
The increased specialization and popularity for some programs have grown because of economic uncertainties - the same uncertainties that put traditional liberal arts in the awkward position of scapegoat and prone to budget cuts. Economic uncertainty has led to many cuts for humanities and social sciences across the state at institutions.
Students offer a valuable perspective about their university experience, and three reforms will strengthen the experience by adding to the university's pioneering history: student trustee suffrage, open Budget Planning Council meetings in addition to existent forums and the establishment of the Student Employee Commission on the Student Senate.
The first reform is farthest from reach, and would be the product of many reports, studies and research because Ohio University has two trustees who presently cannot vote. Their inability to vote presents a problem between the institution and its students.
A student official says they did not support a resolution to give student trustees suffrage because it is not "supported by the Ohio Student Government Association," but no one has published a legitimate reason why student trustees ought not to be given suffrage on our foremost governing body.
Budget Planning Council meetings remain closed as well. These meetings set agendas concerning items necessary for our university's long-term wellbeing, and closed meetings clot the arteries of ideas. "I think that if [Budget Planning Council meetings] were open, nobody would want to be quoted in the paper as saying, 'My unit can take a hit here because it's good for the university,'" says the student official. Students can apply to sit on the Budget Planning Council, but what is an argument for closed BPC meetings?
Letters have been mailed to the Student Senate to encourage the creation of the Student Employee Commission-a commission dedicated to student employees who are not employed by Residential Housing, because Residence Life has a commission unto itself. A number of dining halls, reception, library, information technology, laboratory and recreation student employees expect statewide budget cuts to negatively affect their campus employment, and are invited to mail more letters to 305 Baker Center to lobby for this commission.
The latest communication sent from an official on the subject was from State and Federal Affairs Commissioner Chris Wimsatt in support of creating the commission and he has asked for the responsibility to be the primary sponsor of the resolution. His willingness has sparked an opportunity for the resolution's passage prior to the May senate election.
Whoever leads the commission will be responsible for hundreds of constituents who go to work on this campus and depend on their gainful employment to fund their education at Ohio University.
Student trustee suffrage, open Budget Planning Council meetings and a Student Employee Commission create accessibility and will shield from future conflicts that arise in a time of uncertainty. The reforms will be the products of students,' administrators,' professors,' and donors' idea that imagination is important to accessibility at Ohio University.
Christopher Myers is a senior studying philosophy.
