Nicholas Felt wants Student Senate candidates to talk about the issues facing students.
Before starting, I’d like to note that this is a letter written by a student with absolutely no prior affiliation with Student Senate. With that being said, that is no reason that I, or anyone else for that matter, will not represent you to the best of their abilities.
I do not think that the students want Student Senate candidates arguing about who is and who is not a senator (I sure as hell don’t). People on both sides have been in senate and I do not see the point in arguing on such …
Let's talk about the issues facing students.
On a campus with over 17,000 students, the increasing “disconnect” between the Student Senate and student body is evident and the urgency to fix it is essential. After asking students what the senate has done for them, I saw that many did not even know what the senate has done or has been working on.
Creating ways to make this disconnect is a priority to me, as well as the numerous other issues that face the student body. The SMART platform presented by my ticket, UNITE, outlines ways to combat the serious issues that face the student body while implementing necessary improvements to Ohio University.
I have already created a petition to close High Street and Palmer Street that received over 1,500 signatures, and I am set to already meet with state legislatures to create an agenda to start lowering college affordability. I have never been affiliated with Student Senate and I am already a strong advocate for student needs and student rights.
The platform may present the needs my campus needs to see, but it also contains students who are ready and willing to go the extra mile in attaining our goals.
As an elected representative, a senator’s job is to represent a change for issues that the people who elected them face. Getting these issues heard presents an issue but the problem lies not within the physical Student Senate, it lies within the presence the senate has electronically.
Creating a public relations team designed specifically to hear from students, creating a Student Leader Forum where student leaders from any/every student organization can come speak to us and creating a bi-weekly newsletter are just some of the ways we plan to UNITE the campus.
With these tactics, instead of hearing a small fraction of the school population’s problems, we will hear them all. Let us work for you. Let us work to keep making Ohio University a better place.
Let us be the change that we, the students, want to see in our campus.
Let the students of Ohio University UNITE.
Nicholas Felt is a student at Ohio University.
