Friday, 10 trustees will most likely cast unanimous votes on resolutions at a board retreat in Columbus, but one thing is for certain: Those votes won’t be from either of the two Ohio University student trustees.
OU President Roderick McDavis told The Post previously that he did not think student trustees need voting rights.
McDavis’ chief of staff Jennifer Kirksey previously stated that OU administration expressed concern with House Bill 111, which would make it mandatory for student trustees to have voting rights.
“We value their role and want to ensure that their student experience would not be negatively impacted, because with such rights, it would change their role as a student,” she stated in an email.
However, current student trustee Keith Wilbur said he supports student trustee voting rights. Second-year student trustee Amanda Roden does not. She has said she believes it would be a conflict of interest for her to vote on issues that would affect her as a student.
That argument is dodgy at best. Members of Athens City Council and the president of the United States alike enact legislation that affects them directly. It’s not a conflict of interest; it’s representation.
Although we at The Post typically prefer coffee to tea, we can get behind the notion that students should have representation in decisions affecting the tuition they pay.
But true representation requires more than the regurgitation of a toothless opinion. It requires actually making things happen. What better way to do that than by casting a vote?
Student Senate also passed multiple resolutions saying student trustees should be able to vote. Former Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee spoke out in favor of student trustee voting rights. And of the 39 states with student trustees, 32 give them voting rights.
University Communications and Marketing just jumpstarted the “it’s you” campaign and has touted itself as “best student-centered learning experience in America.”
If OU is as student-centered as the university claims, the least administrators and currently voting trustees can do is give student trustees the vote.
Editorials represent the majority of The Post’s executive editors.
