Student gathered to reflect on the year’s activism efforts and drafted demands to present to the university
Students discussed goals for campus activism for the next academic year and drafted demands for Ohio University at Friday’s “First General Assembly” event.
The event was hosted by the OU Student Union in collaboration with several other student groups, including F--k Rape Culture and New BLAC.
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After meeting at the Scripps Amphitheater, a crowd of about 70 students broke up into discussion groups based on four issues: affordability, safety and well-being, unionization of student workers, and campus development and sustainability.
Students drafted several demands for the university, including cultural competency classes — the terms of which would be set by students — a university-wide vote on the purpose of 29 Park Place and increasing sustainability efforts on campus.
Students also voted to create a campus-wide activism campaign to achieve these demands next school year, and decided to start planning the campaign over the summer.
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“The purpose of this was to form some demands and focus our attention more on what we really want out of the university, what we want the administration to do and how we want our university to look like,” said Ryan Powers, a sophomore studying philosophy and Student Union member who helped organize the event.
The event served as a follow-up to last month’s “Bat Rally,” where students and faculty protested the university’s decision to relocate the president’s residence to 31 Coventry Lane as part of a lease-to-buy agreement that would have cost the university $1.2 million if purchased.
On April 13, Stephen Golding, vice president of Finance and Administration, announced he would not recommend the Board of Trustees and the OU Foundation to pursue the purchase of 31 Coventry Lane.
At the assembly, students discussed various ways of using the “freed-up” $1.2 million, such as using the money to buy textbooks or to fund cultural competency classes.
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Students also called for the full funding of OU’s Survivor Advocacy Program on students’ terms terms and creating “safe spaces” for students.
Ellenore Holbrook, a sophomore studying political science, said she wants more students to push for sustainability issues on campus, while also calling for more funding for the university’s Office of Sustainability.
“We believe students need to be educated on why you need to recycle and to pay attention to issues on campus,” Holbrook said. “There are countries running on clean energy. OU can do it too.”
Daniel Kington, a freshman studying English, spoke about unionization of student workers on campus. He said he hopes to see an increase of students working for unionization and called for the expansion of unions for other student workers, such as dining hall employees.
“We want to see a continuation and escalation about what people have already been doing this year in terms of student worker unionization,” Kington said.
After the discussion ended, students ate free pizza and were entertained by the local bands “Style Star” and “Near Hills.”
@AlxMeyer
am095013@ohio.edu
