Student Senate met Wednesday to discuss transportation and parking at Ohio University, new Senate appointees and Ohio Senate Bill 1.
The meeting began with a presentation from Executive Director of Transportation and Logistics Tia Hysell about transportation services and how they are planning to improve.
Hysell emphasized that OU Transportation and Parking Services offer fixed-route and on-demand transportation. This transportation includes CATS daily campus shuttles, CATS evening and weekend transit, and the Bobcat pass for free rides on Athens Public Transit. Accessible transit is available with the CATCAB and CAT evening and weekend transit.
Many of these services can be accessed through the app TripShot, which allows riders to reserve seats and follow routes.
Other services OUTPS is responsible for are parking management, fleet rental options available to students and faculty who are traveling on university business, shared mobility programming if a vendor decides to provide Athens with equipment such as rental e-bikes or scooters, and a maintenance garage and fueling station for university and public transit vehicles.
Going forward, OUTPS will continue to expand accessible parking, transportation resources, system connectivity and education about what transportation resources are available to students.
OUTPS will also be improving their equipment, including two new accessible vehicles coming next week.
Hysell also addressed the parking spots that have been removed because of the construction of the new residence hall on South Green.
“We are currently evaluating opportunities to expand parking for those displaced on South Green,” Hysell said. “I hope to see by fall and recognize some of those parking spaces that have been displaced. We’re still working through a timeline on some of that, but I do hope it will be in the near future.”
Senate also passed multiple resolutions regarding new appointees and Senate proceedings.
Ellane Poole was officially appointed as a commuter student senator, the first commuter student to serve on the Senate.
Evangelos Vlahos was appointed as an LGBTQIA+ senator, and Andrew Krebs was appointed as a public relations assistant for the Senate.
Other resolutions passed included coffee pods for the Senate office, a clarification for how to discharge an issue from the judicial panel during a Senate meeting and the expansion of senator, vice commissioner and commissioner office hours to be served between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. every weekday.
After passing these resolutions, commissioners gave updates on their initiatives, several of which involved spreading more information to students about Senate Bill 1, an anti-diversity, equity and inclusion bill for higher education in Ohio.
Student Senate President Dan Gordillo also spoke about his work to create a bill that condemns Senate Bill 1 outright.
“Another group is working on a bill that supports diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives on campus,” Gordillo said. “I’ve been working actively to mesh the content (of the two bills) and help them go together so we can achieve the common goal of supporting our students and standing against Columbus’ overreach.”
Gordillo said they are actively seeking a large amount of secondary sponsorships and that any OU student is eligible to sponsor.
Senate also has a newly formed special committee that will provide input to the city of Athens and its disability commission, Gordillo said. Members of the Senate and anyone in the public are welcome to join the committee.
Finally, Vice President Kiandra Martin promoted a Women’s History Month event, EmpowerHer, this Saturday at 11 a.m. in the Walter Rotunda and a peaceful protest happening this afternoon at 1:30 p.m. in the Peden Stadium parking lot.
