Senate is voting on many controversial topics at Wednesday’s meeting.
Ohio University’s Student Senate is proposing dramatic changes for the university that would significantly affect the institution’s budget, if they were ever adopted by officials.
Senate’s proposals — which will be voted on at its Wednesday meeting — can be forwarded to whomever they choose. But senate is only an advisory committee formed to represent undergraduate students on campus. Officials aren’t required to make the changes it suggests.
Senate’s ideas include:
-A $15 minimum wage that is almost double Ohio’s $7.95 minimum wage.
-Elimination of tuition increases
-No pay raises for administrators making over $200,000
-Transparency of OU’s endowment
-Divestment from the use of fossil fuels
-Suspending the rules dictating how senate meetings are run
Senate President Megan Marzec and Vice President Caitlyn McDaniel could not be reached for comment by press time.
“Student Senate holds that all students and workers alike deserve a living wage,” the resolution reads.
The demand to implement a tuition freeze, beginning the 2015-16 academic year, is from Restart’s campaign, which Marzec and McDaniel both ran on in last year’s senate election.
Marzec was also among four students arrested at a Board of Trustees meeting during the Spring Semester of the 2012-13 academic year for protesting a tuition increase.
Senate also formed the Administrative Accountability Committee early this year to review OU administrators’ salaries.
Last week, some senators, including Will Klatt, chair of the Administrative Accountability Committee and Governmental Affairs commissioner, went to the office hours of OU President Roderick McDavis to protest his “excessive compensation.”
Some students said McDavis was “hostile” in that meeting and “yelled” at them; top university administrators disagreed, calling the meeting “tense.”
The board gave McDavis a 7.8 percent pay raise in August, increasing his base pay to $465,000, and he received a bonus of $85,000. The board said he deserved the increased compensation because of his successful fundraising, OU’s record enrollment and leadership on renovating campus, among other reasons.
Senate will also vote to support the F--kRapeCulture Homecoming March, calling for the mandatory participation of OU students in taking the Not Anymore online sexual assault education program and expanding training for the Athens and OU police departments on how to handle sexual assault cases.
Senate will also consider suspending Robert’s Rules of Order, which govern when members can speak, introduce motions or resolutions and generally control the flow of senate meetings.
The resolution states that “most students are probably unfamiliar with Robert’s Rules of Order, and therefore they pose a barrier to student participation during discussion.”
@Alisa_Warren
aw120713@ohio.edu
