Correction appended: A previous version listed a meeting title as a “commission parody”. A correction has been made to reference the meeting as a “commission parity”.”
Ohio University Student Senate’s Rules and Procedures document, which outlines how the Student Senate works, has undergone significant reforms this year.
Senate President Dan Gordillo said a special committee to revise the R&P, composed of the general body and Judicial Panel members, was created to reform Senate.
“Fact of the matter is that the Rules and Procedures are a living document,” Gordillo said. “There are going to be scenarios that R&P doesn't cover long after I am gone. There should be a way to handle that, and there should be a permanent way of handling it.”
Governmental Affairs Senator Mark Vitelli said the current copy of R&P was written during the 1990s and still had aspects from then that needed to be fixed. For example, Vitelli said the previous R&P listed the Environmental Commission as having three vice commissioners instead of the usual single commissioner.
“Each section was almost written in a different language, so we went through what is called ‘commission parity,’” Vitelli said. “We took all of them into a standardized form, and I think that has shown some success.”
According to a previous report from The Post, former Student Senate Treasurer Reagan Farmer, who was initially supposed to be the president for the 2024-25 academic year, was impeached and transparency issues occurred.
“Last year, we saw a complete almost breakdown of the Senate, and when we came out of it, we were on our last legs,” Gordillo said. “We had to reform our Rules and Procedures so we can more effectively advocate for students because that's what we're here for–effectively advocating for students, nothing more, nothing less.”
Governmental Affairs Commissioner Donald Theisen said the previous election laws were not conducive to a well-functioning process, leading to negative campaigning. To help fix this, the committee introduced a runoff election for ties and worked with the Judicial Panel to introduce a two-strike system where a ticket or candidate is removed if they violate the election procedure twice.
“People will do what they think they can get away with,” Theisen said. “If you can properly define what is and is not acceptable and have the proper systems for recourse, then it's less likely to happen.”
Previously, a candidate or ticket would be fined for any violation. Theisen said the fine was between $2-$300 depending on the violation’s severity.
In addition, the campaigning spending limit was lowered to $500 from the original $1,000 in the new R&P. Theisen said lowering the amount was fairer and still allowed for an effective campaign.
“If I've got serious money to spend on this campaign, I might just decide, screw it, I'm gonna do what I want to do, and I'm gonna get away with it because I can afford it,” Theisen said. “I'm speaking hypothetically, but if a candidate were to say that under the old system, provided they never did the highest tier of offense, they would never be removed.”
Theisen and Vitelli noted several additional changes unrelated to election laws, including the elimination of unfilled positions and commissions, changes in role titles, clarification of violation types, the introduction of a chief investigator position, revisions to the Judicial Panel and trial processes, and the establishment of transparency laws.
Many of the changes were small language changes. Gordillo said the definition of a word matters to the law’s interpretation and helps determine how to carry out the law.
“Exact verbiage is so important because (R&P) is supposed to be for the future,” Gordillo said. “Ten years from now, none of the people that are in this office are going to be here. Ten years from now, a student cannot ask us and say, ‘What did you mean by this?’”
Gordillo said he is happy with the changes to the R&P. Even though most of the changes to the R&P have not been flashy, he believes it will help ensure Senate stays stable.
“If you find yourself asking, ‘Wow, I haven't heard any drama from the Senate recently,’ now you know why,’ Gordillo said. “It’s because we've changed.”
Chief of Staff Olivia Barnes said the committee has come out with two to four R&P changes every week and hopes to see the committee become a permanent standing committee in the Senate. If made permanent, it would meet once or twice a semester for general maintenance.
“The reason that the Rules and Procedures got so out of whack to begin with is because there was no one maintaining it,” Barnes said. “With the success of our very active committee this year, we believe that we should be able to continue the committee in a smaller capacity going forward.”
