Student Senate back in action
By Samantha Pirc, Campus Life writer
April 13, 2007 | 9:52 p.m.
The government process always takes forever, so I was not surprised when the April 4 meeting of the Ohio University Student Senate ran much longer than I had expected. What was surprising was the long agenda they had for just the first meeting of the quarter.
To start, there were no students present to “speak out.” I guess being only a week and a half into the final quarter of the year, no one has had enough time to find things yet to complain about. In my mind, the senate needs to do more to promote not only the student “speak out” opportunity, but also the fact that it exists at all. Having attended just two meetings myself, I am already quite impressed with the amount of influence the senate has at the university.
Before getting into official business, the senate and the audience were addressed by three different groups: the Ohio University Police Department, Rocking Run for Life and Unify.
Taser him, it sounds fun
Chief of the OUPD Mike Martinsen, who has been in charge for six months, gave a presentation to inform the senate of the recent purchase of Taser guns. Pointing out that the biggest priority of the police force is the safety of students on campus, Martinsen explained that Tasers give officers a tool to use that does not rely on pain compliance. He also said that it is hard to explain to parents or anyone why someone had to be beaten with a steel rod when newer, safer compliance technology is available. The Tasers work by shooting out two probes that hook onto a person’s clothing or skin and deliver a 5-watt electric shock to the person, disabling them as he or she basically cramps up, spasms and goes down.
While this may not sound like the most pleasant experience, Martinsen explained that it leaves no lasting effects– the minute the Taser is turned off, the pain is over. Martinsen compared this method to other tools he looked into: a beanbag shot gun and a PepperBall launcher, which work similarly to a paintball gun. Both can cause serious injury and bruising and often have to be fired repeatedly at offenders before they will comply.
Members of the senate expressed some concern about why the purchase was necessary and what will be done to make sure members of the force do not misuse their new tool. I can see their point because the threat of being shocked and basically electrocuted for a short period of time might not sit well with a majority of students; however, Martinson was prepared. He said that the Tasers that were purchased are equipped with a camera that records what happens before the Taser is actually fired. The Tasers also record the duration of the electric current, the time it was used, the number of times it has been used and even the temperature. In other words, there is a minicomputer built into them that cannot be tampered with by the police, which will ensure that there is no misconduct.
More presentations
After a very well-done presentation by the OUPD (no, there were unfortunately no live demonstrations of the Taser), Rocking Run for Life came and presented information to the senate about a 5K run that will occur April 28. This philanthropy event, put on by the Ohio University Sales Center, is being done to benefit Miracles for Life, a national non-profit organization that raises money and awareness for organ transplantation.
Thomas Starr, an OU alumni who has received two liver transplants, founded Miracles for Life and is also still very involved with the university as a member of the alumni and trustee boards, to name a few of his positions.
The students from the Sales Center enthusiastically spoke of the importance of being an organ donor and encouraged all to attend the event. They also reminded people that they will not have to run the entire thing.
The final pre-meeting presentation was Unify. Unify presented members of the senate with awards showing their appreciation for the hard work of certain members to make sure that diversity and unity were a top priority of the university. Unify also presented senate President Morgan Allen with an application for a member of the senate to become a delegate who would attend Unify meetings.
With all the talk about OU having problems with misrepresenting its true student diversity, I feel that Unify should really step up and get themselves out there more. The organization seems like it does some amazing things on campus, and I would love to hear more about them.
It’s business time
After all this interesting information was presented to me, I was ready to buckle down for some real senate business. Each member of the executive board and leader of each different council wished everyone a nice welcome back and gave short reports that consisted of what they had done in the past week.
Once again, I was really impressed with the amount of work that these people had done in just a week. While I am still pulling out my schedule to check the room number of my classes and making sure I have the correct time, my peers have been attending press conferences, holding meetings and forming committees to work on making our school better.
Highlights from the week: a press conference was held to announce that the different diversity and equity offices on campus would be combined to form a single office, and the Resident Life council is working on a survey that would help place students with more suitable roommates with hope of increasing freshman retention rates.
When the senate finally (FINALLY) got around to new business was when the meeting really started to get interesting. After five new senate members were voted in, it came time to debate and pass or vote down the resolutions that were on the table.
Two resolutions concerning budgets-one for Take Back the Night- passed with very little discussion, as did a resolution stating the university’s grief about the member of the OU Women’s Soccer team who passed away during spring break. While this was very nice of them to do, I felt that it is probably pretty obvious that people are going to feel terrible about a fellow student, teammate and friend who suddenly dies.
The senate became all business when it was time to talk about the four questions that are being added to this year’s ballot concerning whether or not the student body has confidence in the McDavis administration…excuse me, the administration…sorry, no, it’s the higher level executive administration…or something. Much of the discussion was spent over how the questions should be worded and how they should be presented to students. Senate members expressed that they wanted students to be clear on whom they were voting confidence for, and also that they want to be able to get clear results from the vote. This topic seemed to me to have been beaten to death with a stick, although quite a few of the senators seemed to have very strong feelings concerning the wording of the questions.
Members of the Graduate Student Senate, who actually sat down right next to me, even spoke briefly to explain how and why they had voted as they did on the questions. The president of Graduate Student Senate explained that a vote of confidence is a one-time deal, and it should be a simple yes or no question, while having a 1 through 5 scale on the rest of the questions should be fine.
All of this would make more sense, I suppose, if I had actually known what the heck the questions were; however, I was amazed at the amount of discussion that was going into what seemed like a very easy decision. I am sure that no one who votes will have any idea as to how much time was actually put into creating those four little questions.
After more then half an hour on this single topic, I was unclear as to what the senate actually decided. At that point I am sorry to say, I was just ready to stand up and say “ENOUGH” and end the meeting myself.
I have a feeling some of the people there had the same idea in mind, too.