Ohio University Student Senate met Wednesday for its General Body Assembly meeting, during which a new position was added, senator information was clarified and fixed and new members were appointed.
Senate President Dan Gordillo was unable to attend the meeting, so Senate Vice President Kiandra Martin led the meeting instead.
The meeting began with a parliamentary procedure presentation given by chief of staff Olivia Barnes and Governmental Affairs Senator Mark Vitelli.
The presentation aimed to remind Senate of the tools and procedures available to maintain the flow of meetings. Barnes and Vitelli advised members to reserve interjections for non-critical moments, call recesses to revise resolution wording, clarify what constitutes a substantial change and provide a procedural cheat sheet for reference.
Barnes and Vitelli then held a Kahoot! game for the members of Senate. International Affairs Senator Taras Tarasun won the game.
Senate then began discussing the resolutions for the night. Resolution 2425-100, a request for supplies for the Write Your Rep event, was the first resolution discussed and will be held Thursday. The supplies were three pepperoni pizzas, three cheese pizzas, three pages of 20 stamps and an envelope self-seal and totaled *$136.39.
Before the vote on the resolution was taken, Governmental Affairs Senator Jayson Smith said a page of stamps was $14.50, and he did not know why the stamps were so expensive.
“I totally understand the frustration of the American colonists, but please, rest assured, we'll not have to fight, and we'll work against the British to win this wonderful event,” Smith said.
The resolution passed unanimously.
Next, Senate talked about adding a new position of parliamentarian through resolution 2425-101. The position is meant to alleviate some stress from the chief of staff, assistant chief of staff and Judicial Panel by ensuring all rules and procedures of Senate and Roberts’ Rules of Order are followed during general body meetings.
The parliamentarian would also review any legislation before it goes to the floor at a general body meeting and markup the legislation. Also, those in the position must also make themselves available to members of Senate to help them draft legislation.
Treasurer Johnny Susany then shared his concern the parliamentarian would be taking away power from the Judicial Panel which views the legislation before the meetings.
“From my understanding, the parliamentarian would be viewing past legislation that the judicial panel has already seen and approved or helping individuals who are working towards legislation or Chief of Staff before general floor meetings,” Barnes said.
The resolution then was voted on and passed.
Resolution 2425-103 updated section 6.03 of the rules and procedures of Senate, which details senator positions. The update fixed the names of the colleges listed and specified students must be enrolled in a bachelor program for the college they are a senator for. In addition, if a student is double majoring, they may choose which college they would prefer to represent.
“I believe that students would be able to adequately represent their colleges as long as they are pursuing the bachelor's degree in the college,” Academic Affairs Commissioner Maggie Giansante said. “This change may enable us to fill more of the available positions.”
Before this resolution could be voted on, members raised their concerns about the changes not including five senators for off-campus life, as well as there being no regional life senators.
Giansante said there is only one off-campus senator who is a part of university life, regional affairs senators are different from off-campus senators and regional affairs is a part of campus affairs.
The motion was then moved to be voted and passed; however, soon the resolution was reopened to add an amendment to it.
Martian moved to add one senator for off-campus life to be a part of the university life commission. The amendment was passed unanimously.
After this resolution, four more resolutions were passed unanimously with all of them going into effect right after the meeting.
Resolution 2425-104 changed section 2.08 of the rules and procedures of Senate. Previously, the section had the vice president carry out evaluations of executive officials, the chief of staff, the relations director and the graduate advisor. The resolution will have the graduate assistant do the evaluations instead.
Resolution 2425-105 appointed Chayce Bell to fill the vacancy for the governmental affairs vice commissioner position. His primary sponsor was Governmental Affairs Commissioner Donald Thiesan and Public Relations Director Willow Downard.
“I'm really happy,” Thiesan said. “I was in (Bell’s) interview. He’s real put together, probably more than anyone in this room.”
Sage Kerrigan-Christ was appointed to be the LGBTQIA+ Commissioner by resolution 2425-106. Their primary sponsor was Susany and their secondary sponsor was Gordillo.
“I'm super excited to welcome them to Student Senate,” Susany said. “As a commissioner, they plan to use this platform as an opportunity to educate people about LGBT experience, create a campus culture that supports all people and help students field conversations to make positive changes.”
The last resolution of the night, resolution 2425-107, appointed Lucas Adkins to be a university life senator. His primary sponsor was University Life Commissioner Luke Fredericks, and his secondary sponsor was Susany.
“Lucas Adkins is an incredibly smart and capable individual,” Fredericks said. “I have no doubt that he will excel in this role. His impressive work in his previous commission speaks for itself, and I am confident he will bring valuable experience and hold on perspective to the university life commission.”
Senate then ended early due to bad weather.
