Ohio U’s Student Senate discusses internal audit, The Ridges, office hours for execs

The Ohio University Student Senate discussed internal audit results, the future of The Ridges and passed two bills at its Wednesday general meeting. One bill hopes to make executive member’s office hours more flexible, and the other seeks to provide funding for purchasing Pride month products. 

The internal audit, which the Ohio U Board of Trustees carries out each year, occurs between late April and early May and the results are received between January and February. 

Student Trustee Ellen Gill-Franks talked about the ease of this year’s audit, explaining that there is no need for recommendations when things are going well. 

“This is actually a really great thing to hear and something worth noting is that they didn’t have any trouble during the audit,” Gill-Franks said.

The Board of Trustees also presented several Capital Improvement projects, one of which was the Reshaping Approach dedicated to The Ridges. The Ridges have been a hot topic of concern for Ohio U due to the amount of money that has been put into preserving them despite its lack of use. The West Wing, which holds the Kennedy Museum of Art, will remain part of Ohio U, however, the current plan is to either sell or lease the other portion of the property so it can utilize the rest of the historical building. 

Gill-Franks spoke about the mass of a financial investment The Ridges is. 

“Since 2018 investors have been giving money to preserve and maintain The Ridges to either be used by us or to be an appealing offer to someone else, that number is near $28 million,” Gill-Franks said.

Several senators expressed that the office hours for executive student senators are not efficient because of class schedules and other conflicts that occur in daily life. Currently, office hours are scheduled Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The proposal to amend the mandatory 9 to 5 time slot passed unanimously, giving executive members the ability to be available to their constituents whenever they choose. This change was already made available for executive staff and is effective immediately for all executive members.

Senate also discussed another resolution, which covered funding decorations for Pride month. The decorations would include Pride flags, non-binary flags, asexual Pride flags and lesbian Pride flags. Last year, there was a display on college green to celebrate Pride month, however this year the hope is to be as inclusive as possible by representing as many flags as possible. The resolution passed and the flags were approved to be bought with Student Senate budget money. This year’s display will also be on college green in March.