Senate President Ian Carter II gave the state of the senate address Wednesday, touching on topics including COVID-19 and what Senate has done to try and make Ohio University a better place.
Carter II talked about the executive officers’ goals during their time in Senate, and how they plan to support students as much as possible in their positions.
“We wanted to let the students know we are here to support them and be an outlet, and hope for change,” Carter II said. “Building a stronger line of communication between administrators, advocating for students during difficult times, acknowledging well-being and building a stronger community has always been our top priorities as your presiding officers.”
Carter II also spoke on the effect COVID-19 has had on students and faculty.
“To see how much progress and effort put in by students and faculty during this hardship brings joy and pleasure to us all,” he said.
Carter II spoke about Senate passing its first bill last week, asking the university administration to extend the S/NC (satisfactory/no credit) grading option through the Spring semester. He said that members of the Senate have been in talks with the administration regarding this issue.
During the meeting, Justin Kelley and Ellen Gill-Franks, Student Trustees, shared a presentation about the recent BoT meetings that occurred on Jan. 15.
More information was provided by Gill-Franks about the degree programs that were cut this past year, most of them being in the Patton College of Education.
“This comes in light of their entire college audit,” Gill-Franks said. “It’s important to recognize they just said that they were no longer financially feasible in the sense that their enrollment numbers didn’t match the cost of these programs, nor the demand of this area.”
More members were voted on and appointed to take positions on Senate, including Brogan Speraw as a Chairperson to the Committee on the Budget, Megan Handle as a Senator to the Senate Appropriations Commission and Anna Crabtree as a Vice Commissioner for Education to the Environmental Affairs Commission.
Jenny Hall-Jones, Senate advisor, said that Ohio University is trying to start up in-person events in Baker Center.
“We’re piloting a couple of in-person programs this week,” Hall-Jones said. “They’re not necessarily open to the public, they were an invite-only because we just want to test our protocols and see how they work. Fingers crossed, everything works well, and we’ll have some in person programming in Baker Center starting next week for anybody to come to.”
