On April 23, Ohio University’s Student Senate wrapped up one of its most memorable years to date, which included negative national headlines and a controversial election. But this year could be one of the most groundbreaking and divisive ever for the body, which functions as the representative of OU students.
While there are several bodies that represent students and others at OU, Student Senate affects undergraduates at OU the most. Here’s what some of what happened in the past year of Senate, and what’s to come:
At the start of the 2013-14 academic year, Nick Southall was the president of Senate, but by the academic year’s end, he was hardly seen on campus.
Southall’s presidency was filled with public relations problems. The first came on Sept. 1 when he tweeted “Driving through Athens at 8:30 on Sunday morning is hilarious. I want to stop every girl I see and say, 'your dress is a little wrinkly.' " It provoked massive public backlash, with Southall being accused of
“slut shaming.”
Southall was almost impeached by the voting members of Senate on Nov. 20, but escaped by just three votes.
Southall’s presidency ended on Dec. 24, when he resigned after being arrested for “disorderly intoxication — disturbance” while in Florida during a university-organized trip for the Ohio football team’s appearance in the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl. Southall was tasered after drinking excessively at the hotel, and the fallout spread quickly, appearing in
Business Insider
,
The Huffington Post
and other news outlets.
Southall forfeited his is full tuition scholarship as a result of resigning. OU in-state tuition and fees for last year were $10,380.
Then Morton, Senate’s vice-president, stepped into the role of president for the Spring Semester of this past year.
During the second meeting of the Spring Semester, three Senate members resigned — including the treasurer, Austin LaForest.
Former rules and procedures chair, Mary Kate Gallagher was elected to the vacant vice president position after voting for the position was opened up to the entire OU student body.
The election process to elect the Senate officials for this academic year started on March 24. There were two parties composed of mostly current Senate members, Action and ONE, and another party exclusively comprised of non-Senate members called Restart.
Restart called for a complete overhaul of the body, advocating for unionizing students and direct student governing, while taking a more adversarial stance with university administrators, opposing any tuition increases and a host of university positions.
Restart was partially made up of students from the OU Student Union, which has protested tuition increases and other topics in the past.
Students elected Megan Marzec as president and Caitlyn McDaniel as vice-president, both of the Restart ticket, on April 17. Marzec was arrested for protesting a tuition hike at an OU Board of Trustees meeting in 2013.
Carter Phillips of ONE was elected as treasurer.
This is the first time in recent memory that the three executives elected were not part of the same ticket, said Ryan Lombardi, vice president for Student Affairs and Senate’s advisor, on election day. Restart won 21 of the body’s 34 elected seats.
The split in senators is also rare, which will likely lead to a different dynamic within Senate this xacademic year.
However, while Senate’s coming year will likely be different than the past few, Lombardi said it might not be fair to assume Marzec, McDaniel, Phillips and the body will have a controversial year.
“Maybe it won’t be that interesting,” he said. “Do we actually know that? Just because it was not a sweep of one ticket or the other, does that mean it’s automatically going to be (interesting)?”
md781510@ohiou.edu
@MariaDeVito13
