Ohio University Student Senate will discuss compensating the Board of elections Wednesday night
Students will now be able to cast a vote for Ohio University’s student trustees, although Ohio’s Executive Branch still has the final say.
Student Senate voted at the last general body meeting on Jan. 21 to hold the elections alongside Student Senate elections, which are on April 14-16.
Last week, the senate-approved process was finalized, Student Senate Vice President Caitlyn McDaniel said in an email.
“Senate has passed multiple resolutions in the past year to open up the trustee ‘selection’ process,’” McDaniel said. “We find that an election is a way in which all stakeholders, that is, students of OU, can democratically participate in the selection process.”
Though the election process will allow students to cast a vote for student trustees, Ohio Governor John Kasich could still select a trustee that students did not vote for. Under state law, student trustees do not vote at Board of Trustee meetings.
“If we want to see real shared governance at OU, we need change on campus and in the statehouse,” McDaniel said.
At Wednesday night’s meeting, senate members will hear a presentation on Take Back the Tap, a movement with the goal of protecting water resources by reducing the consumption of bottled water.
Senate is also in the process of fixing OU’s carpooling forum, Ride Board, which has been down since the New Year.
The server, which hosted the site, expired at the end of 2014. McDaniel is leading a project to reestablish the forum, and after a “confusing” process, expects the board to be available in the next few weeks.
“It’s a complicated process, I’m not much of a techie myself, so it took me a while to figure it out,” McDaniel said.
OIT will be paying for Ride Board, and is currently discussing purchasing options, McDaniel said.
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