Ohio University Student Senate met Wednesday evening to approve appointments.
Senate started its meeting by voting on a resolution to appoint Julianna Rittenberg as an associate justice on the Judicial Panel.
“We interviewed her, we looked over her application and she seems to have a lot of good experience working with other students,” Hannah Fleming, chief justice of the Judicial Panel and primary sponsor of the resolution, said. “She brought a lot of enthusiasm and I think that, in general, she has a lot she can bring to the table in helping build up the Judicial Panel.”
Following Fleming’s comments, the full body voted to approve Rittenberg’s appointment to the position.
Senate then discussed a resolution appointing Faith Laughlin to the LGBTQA+ Affairs vice commissioner position. Laughlin was nominated for the position by sponsors Luvina Cooley, LGBTQA+ Affairs commissioner, and Simar Kalkat, treasurer of Senate.
“We were able to chat with Faith about her plans in the position — she has experience with Senate, which is awesome, so she can really just dive in starting right now,” Kalkat said. “I think she's going to work really well with Luvina and the rest of the team.”
Laughlin’s nomination was approved by Senate following Kalkat’s remarks.
Toward the end of the meeting, Kalkat updated Senate on budget amounts. Currently, the Senate has $68,175.57, while the Senate Appropriations Commission’s budget totals $597,985.09.
Patricia McSteen, Senate advisor and interim senior associate vice president and dean of students, spoke about Ohio Senate Bill 126, an anti-hazing bill commonly known as Collin’s Law, which was signed July 6 into state law by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine. McSteen said there will be a required hazing education module for all OU students, faculty, staff and advisers to complete by Oct. 7.
Although everyone within the university community has to complete the module, Jenny Hall-Jones, interim vice president for Student Affairs, said student organization membership is also contingent on completion of the module. Hall-Jones reminded senators to take the module as soon as it is released in order to participate in Senate or any other student organization moving forward.
