GSS members to fill in for vacant city council liaison position
Graduate Student Senate wants to build up its relationship with the City of Athens through a city council liaison.
But more than five months after passing a resolution expressing such desires, the position is currently vacant.
GSS originally passed the resolution for a city council liaison in October, and graduate student Emily Busch began her duties under the position in November.
“The idea behind it was just kind of that myself and some other members of GSS were interested in learning about city council, and when you go on the website you can only learn so much,” said Maggie Clark, interim vice president of Legislative Affairs in GSS.
However, personal matters recently caused Busch to leave the university, which also meant resigning from her position.
Busch went to council six times in Fall Semester and twice in the current semester before resigning, said Chelsea Foster, governmental affairs commissioner.
“At first I reported minutes from every meeting, but this semester I (have) been keeping notes to try to report what is most relevant to Ohio University students,” Busch said in an email.
“We just wanted to have someone there to build better relations so (city council) could understand who (the liaison was), and so they knew that we were well informed,” Clark said.
Council members are also in support of the position.
"I think that’s absolutely wonderful (that GSS wants to meet with council),” said Athens City Council President Chris Knisely. “Anything that helps us improve and increase communication between students who are living here ... and the community representatives ... anything that can increase communication is better.”
Knisely said she did not see or speak with Busch at council meetings.
Now that Busch has left, Foster and Clark say they plan to attend council meetings on weeks when GSS meetings don’t conflict.
When the resolution was originally passed, GSS met every two weeks. Since January, the body has met on Mondays once a month.
City council convenes every week on Monday.
“(The liaison) originally stemmed from my position as the governmental affairs commissioner,” Foster said. “And one thing we realized is there is a very big gap between students and the Athens community that we felt.”
Clark says that having a city council liaison has been beneficial even though “there hasn’t been a whole lot that has been brought to our attention.”
“Looking forward this is something we would like to keep in action,” Foster said.
— Emily Bohatch contributed to this report.
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