After last year's Pride Week, which only had one event, disappointed some members of Student Senate, this year's body passed a budget to fund the event.
Last year’s Pride Week left some current members of Ohio University Student Senate disappointed in that it only had one event.
This year, senate made a step to prevent that from happening again by passing a budget to fund the event.
The body passed a resolution at Wednesday night’s meeting to budget about $1,800 for Pride Week, which will take place March 7-11, according to the LGBT Center’s website.
The LGBTQA Affairs commission of Student Senate is tasked with organizing events for the week, but only planned one event last year, according to a previous Post report.
Paige Klatt, the LGBTQA commissioner who sponsored the resolution, said she is very excited the resolution passed, especially considering Pride Week “didn’t have a lot of hype last year.”
“I’m hoping that having this passed and having a budget to work with now and knowing we have money and events going and planned that it will have good turn outs for everything and it’ll unify the community and they’ll feel supported and loved,” Klatt said.
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Noah Hajivandi, the environmental affairs vice-commissioner, said last year’s student senate pretty much ignored Pride Week and said he was happy to see the budget pass.
“The fact that we're having Pride Week again just shows that Student Senate is supporting the gay community,” Hajivandi said.
Senate President Gabby Bacha said last year the community was very upset that there was essentially no Pride Week.
“It’s a good way for us to talk about relevant student issues to our student population on campus and we should be enthusiastically supporting it no matter what type of senate you want,” Bacha said.
The body also had a discussion about a survey that will be sent out to the members of the body this week. The survey will ask for input about a resolution that will be voted on next week that would introduce a referenda system.
Courteney Muhl, College of Health Science and Professions senator and sponsor of the resolution, explained a new tier system to the body that will be an option in the survey. The tier system would mean the student body’s vote would represent a certain percentage of the senate’s vote, depending on how many students voted in the referenda, she said.
Muhl said the opinions that were most popular from the survey will be used if a new resolution is drafted.
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The body also partook in executive evaluations, which is part of their rules and procedures, in which executive members left the room for the rest of the general body to evaluate their performance.
Bacha said she is glad to hear feedback.
Additionally, at the meeting senate heard presentations about the Good Works Walk and a D.C. networking week offered by the OU Alumni Association.
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