Student Senate Welcomes 23rd Ohio University President Gonzalez with Open Arms
The Ohio University Student Senate’s weekly meeting opened with an announcement from Rachel Grant, Director of Community Services and Social Activity, reminding those present of the canned food drive that began Sunday, Oct. 8 of this week. The drive gives students the opportunity to give back to the Bobcat community by donating non-perishable goods, and there is still time left to participate.
Once announcements had concluded, President Handle welcomed Ohio U’s newly appointed president Lori Stewart Gonzalez to the podium to speak on how her term as president has been going for the first approximately 100 days in office. She began by recapping her first homecoming weekend, where she emphasized the pride and admiration that Ohio U alumni still hold for the school, citing the 400 members of the alumni band that attended and the 23,000 people who watched the football game.
President Gonzalez then spoke about her plans for the university’s future, discussing the future of the President’s Council, such as the search for the next provost after Dr. Elizabeth Sayers and separating the jobs of Dean of the Graduate School Vice President for Research. Additionally, she talked about the restructuring of Human Resources for faculty and staff that will focus on more development and recognition, though this change will not be felt as much by students but by staff.
Amid the changes to her council, Gonzalez also spoke of her new strategy for Ohio U for the coming years, going into detail on the “working groups” called pillars. The four pillars are learn, educate and engage; discover and research, community impact and the world of work, which is intended to help students understand the work they do on campus and how it will serve them in the future.
All four pillars are meant to guide the university during Gonzalez’s time in office, but she stressed that the main guide for her presidency will be the Bobcat community itself. “Some people asked me, ‘What is your vision of OU,’ and I tell them if I came from Louisville, Kentucky with a vision for this campus, you shouldn’t have hired me because the vision is hearing from everybody on campus about where we should go,” Gonzalez said.
The floor was then opened to questions from audience members and senators, ranging from Ohio U’s commitment to sustainability and liberal arts, both of which Gonzalez stated her support for, to plans for a new residence hall. The residence hall would likely be in the front or back of South Green, replacing the back 4 buildings. The purpose of the new building or buildings is to continually update where students live.
Continuing the question portion of the evening, when asked about how diversity would be preserved in Ohio universities and colleges due to Senate Bill 83, which would prohibit any mandatory Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). Here, Gonzalez said that Ohio U would welcome students of all identities and that the bill would not change anything because Ohio U currently does not mandate DEI training, although training happens on campus, it just is not required. For the final question, Gonzalez was asked what her greatest priority was at Ohio U, to which she said student success. “We are here for a core mission and that is academics, so student success must always be first,” Gonzalez said.
President Gonzalez’s official investiture will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 18 at 2:30 PM in the Templeton Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium. All students and faculty are welcome to attend to join in the celebration of Ohio U’s 23rd president.
At the conclusion of Gonzalez’s presentation, the Senate proceeded to pass Senate Bill 2324-01, which renamed the LGBT Center to the Pride Center within the Division of Diversity and Inclusion. The reasoning behind the change was to be more inclusive of identities not included in the original acronym and often get overlooked. For example, aromantic and asexual identities are often left out of the original. The issue was given much thought, and the Senate heard from LGBT Center Director Dr. Micah McCarey and Assistant Director Sarah Doherty to weigh in on the bill.
Dr. McCarey has been in his position since 2019 and said that he has been asked about the LGBT Center’s name at least twice a month in regards to how it can serve people who are not included in the LGBT acronym. Doherty also weighed in and expressed concern that changing the center’s name to Pride Center because it would specifically reference gender identity and sexuality, though both acknowledged the difficulty of finding a name for the center that would capture all the identities included in the LGBTQIA+ community and agreed to the name change.
Before adjourning for the night, the Senate heard commission, committee and executive reports. Treasurer Reagan Farmer reviewed the Senate’s budget and stated that the Senate has spent $1,061.02 and has allocated but not spent $7,507.90. The Senate’s total budget is $37,360.20, $29,787.32 of which is neither allocated nor spent.
Dean of Students Kathy Fahl concluded the meeting by reminding students of meal bank donation week, where students can donate up to three meal swipes to support those dealing with food insecurity.
In other business:
Taja Booker was appointed Senator for Athletics.
Jacob Weisenfelder was appointed University Life Senator.
Cynthia Jimenez was appointed Environmental Affairs Vice Commissioner of Policy.
Colton Gibbs-Dunlap was appointed LGBTQ+ Affairs Senator.
Riley Peeden was appointed University Life Senator.
The Senate passed a resolution to purchase food for the Success Session event where students could attend walk-in academic coaching for a total of $231.40.
The Senate moved to indefinitely table a resolution to purchase an indigenous people’s handout.
The Senate passed a resolution to purchase Visa gift cards for the General Academic Service incentive for a total of $142.20.
The Senate passed a resolution to rename the LGBTQ+ Affairs Commission to the LGBTQIA+ Affairs Commission in order to be more inclusive.
The Senate passed a resolution to allow the commissioner of the Minority Affairs Commission to serve as commissioner of the Black Student Affairs Commission until the commission’s respective commissioner and vice-commissioner have been appointed.
