Correction appended.
Student Senate spent its first meeting of the year introducing new members of the senate, appointing new members and discussing several budgets.
The general body meeting started out by introducing new members of Senate and going over etiquette and expectations.
“I think this (meeting) set the tone for the year,” Student Senate President Madison Sloat said. “I really want this to be a body that people feel comfortable coming to, asking questions and being involved — and I think we are already off to a really good start with that.”
Ten resolutions were passed during the meeting. The first three were formalities to set a weekly meeting time, use Robert’s Rules of Order and use legislative format for resolutions.
New members were appointed to various commissions and committees within Student Senate.
Liana Neff was appointed as LGBTQA+ affairs commissioner. The position was held by an interim commissioner over the summer. Additionally, after expressing interest for the position over summer, Paula Atfield was appointed as the fine art senator for the Academic Affairs Commission.
Jon Schlosser was voted as the budget chair. Cole Neuhart and Chris Hrytzik were appointed as new members for the Internal Budget Committee. Student Senate also passed that Jack Conrath-Sweeney would be a part of the Residence Life Commission.
There were also resolutions to allocate budget between Student Senate and the Senate Appropriations Commission, or SAC, and to purchase breakfast and lunch for the the Student Senate retreat Saturday.
The senate passed the resolution to split the $10,000 budget between Student Senate and SAC, with each group receiving $5,000.
Student Senate plans to use that money for the readership program that they provide for Ohio University. That program funds the university's ability to get The New York Times for students on campus. Spending for this has been cut, but it will not affect the readership program.
Arguments against the resolution include giving more money to SAC since the commission ran out of money in March last year. The current total budget for SAC, which allocates funds from the student general fund for campus programming, is $405,409.
Money leftover from last year is still being processed and is anticipated to be received in mid-September. The Student Senate’s current total budget is $25,666.98.
The budget was passed for funding for the Student Senate breakfast from Brenen’s Coffee Café and lunch from Avalanche Pizza. The retreat will also include Student Senate planting trees and flowers along Tulane Road.
The meeting concluded with reports for executives on Student Senate. As advisors for Student Senate, Dean of Students Jenny Hall Jones and Vice President for Student Affairs Jason Pina shared their excitement for the start of the new academic year. They also encouraged members to reach out to the Office of Student Affairs and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion to get more people involved and have those offices talk about goals for the future.
Correction: A previous version of this report misspelled Jon Schlosser's name. The report also misstated Paula Atfeild's position and misspelled the name of the Academic Affairs Commission. The article has been updated to reflect the most accurate information.
