Senate passes a single resolution to distribute a poll aimed to gauge campus concerns, and the resolution to limit speakOUt time did not pass.
Student SpeakOUt, the time reserved during Ohio University Student Senate meetings for students to express opinions, lasted seven minutes Wednesday, offering a stark contrast with marathon sessions that have marred this administration so far this year.
Embattled Student Senate President Megan Marzec was out of town for “personal reasons,” so Vice President Caitlyn McDaniel led the senate meeting.
Josh Baron, a junior studying ceramics art, spoke somewhat passionately during the speakout session about what he called inappropriate behavior by OU President Roderick McDavis during his Wednesday office hours.
Baron said he was appalled by McDavis’ more than $500,000 total compensation, and added that he wishes to see the end of tuition increases — or what he called a “cycle of death created for parents and students.”
Other OU administrators, including Jenny Hall-Jones, dean of students, and Ryan Lombardi, vice president for Student Affairs who is also senate’s advisor, previously said that the meeting could have been more productive if the students hadn’t asked such personal questions, according to a previous Post report.
Ryant Taylor, the LGBTQ affairs senator, also spoke during the speakout session, to express his anger over a campus petition — in which some senators signed — that calls for a recall of the senate election held last spring.
A recall election wouldn’t move senate forward, Taylor said.
After the speakout session, a single resolution was passed by senate out of three that were proposed.
A resolution to propose a campus-wide poll regarding various campus concerns was unanimously passed by senate.
“I feel like there have been some questions raised within this body about student worker wages and administrative compensation,” said Will Klatt, governmental affairs commissioner. “This gives us a chance to gauge if these are student concerns.”
Five separate polls will be distributed to OU undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees classified bargaining unit members and to employees not covered under the bargaining unit contract.
All polls, which will be no longer than 10 questions each, will be delivered through a campus-wide email sent to campus email accounts by the intended date of Oct. 9.
The process of creating the polls will be overseen by the Governmental Affairs Committee and will be available for input from other senate members.
A vote on the resolution condemning the removal of sanction restrictions from the Student Code of Conduct was postponed to a later date after heavy discussion Wednesday regarding the sanctioning guidelines.
Director of Community Standards Martha Compton said at the meeting that she would “love to come back in a few weeks with a draft of the sanctioning guidelines.”
A resolution to clearly define the parameters of Student SpeakOUt — with a 20-minute time limit for the session with a maximum of three minutes allotted to each speaker — failed passage. Instead, senate voted to change the agenda to move roll call to take place before the SpeakOUt session.
“There are no time limits in the rules,” said DJ Amireh, the senate parliamentarian. “At any time, a member of senate can motion to end debate. They can also motion to limit the amount of time each student is allowed to speak.”
McDaniel said to limit speakout, senate would “lose an aspect to what we’re all about.”
@alisa_warren
aw120713@ohio.edu
