The body voted on six resolutions related to spring campaigns.
Although most of Wednesday night's Student Senate meeting focused on changing senate elections, toward the beginning of the night, Ohio University administrators discussed the on-going changes to the OU Survivor Advocacy Program.
Interim Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Jenny Hall-Jones, Vice Provost for Diversity and Inclusion Shari Clarke and Special Assistant to the Vice Provost for Diversity and Inclusion Alicia Chavira-Prado spoke to the body about the current state of OUSAP.
Clarke said the reason the university took so long to post the job was because administrators tried to find a candidate for the position internally first.
“We're very dedicated to the wellbeing of Ohio University students,” Clarke said.
Hall-Jones added that OU officials are working to find a replacement, but “this is not a quick process.”
After the OUSAP update, the body voted on six resolutions regarding senate's spring elections.
Resolutions extending the campaign season, caping individual donations, setting finance reporting guidelines and increasing ticket's spending limits all passed.
During the spring elections in April, independent candidates were limited to $10 and tickets were limited to $440. For the spring election, independent candidates can now spend $150, and tickets are allowed to use $1,000.
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Andrew Price, an East Green senator and a member of the election committee, said he was happy to see the resolution pass. As an independent candidate last year, he spent his $10 in the first two days of his campaign.
Last week, senate proposed to increase independent candidate spending limits to $900 and ticket limits to $2,600. The body voted against that resolution Wednesday night in favor of the election committee's new proposed limits that were passed Wednesday night.
The other resolution that failed would have limited tickets to executive candidates, senator at-large candidates, Senate Appropriations Commission senator candidates and uFund senator candidates. After much debate, the resolution failed without two-thirds of the body voting in favor.
A majority of people still wanted the resolution to pass leaving some senate members unhappy.
Noah Hajivandi, Environmental Affairs vice commissioner and a member of the election committee, said he hopes the proposed change to ticket structure is brought up again in the future.
“It would have been a better alternative than what we have now,” he said. “But the senate has spoken.”
Jacob Haskins, residence life commissioner and a member of the election committee, voted against the resolution. He said if he had not been able to run on a ticket, he might not have been involved in senate.
“I had the confidence because other people were with me, and I, like, had people with me showing me along the way,” Haskins said.
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