Student Senate unanimously passes four resolutions in first meeting of fall semester

The Wednesday evening Student Senate meeting was the first of the semester, but it began just like any other — with roll call. Not everything was the same, though. It was the first of any Student Senate meeting to be live streamed on the Senate’s YouTube page. Student Senate President Hannah Clouser said the live stream format would allow for archives and later viewing. The meeting began with a presentation about the rules and structure of the Senate for new members of the organization.The Honors Tutorial College Senator, Cassidy Cleland, asked her colleagues to take a moment of silence for Joey Otto, the HTC senior who died Wednesday morning. There were four resolutions presented at the Wednesday evening meeting, all of which were unanimously passed. Resolution 1617-01, or the Robert’s Rules of Order resolution, is the basic parliamentary structure for how the Senate is to operate during the 2016-2017 academic year. Robert’s Rules of Order is the most popular framework for student organizations at Ohio University. Resolution 1617-02 set the meeting time for Wednesday evenings at 7:15 p.m. The intent of the weekly meeting is to ensure that meetings are short in length, according to the resolution’s sponsor. The next resolution, 1617-03, concerned the appointment of the chief justice of the Judicial Panel. After a search to fill the vacancy, Hashim Pastun was selected. The fourth and final resolution, 1617-04, was concerned with appointments to the Budget Committee. Dean of Students Jenny Hall-Jones spoke about the previously mentioned student who died on Wednesday and his far-reaching impact on the Ohio University community. She also mentioned a blood drive being held in Baker Center in honor of her 43rd birthday.   Jason Pina, the new Vice President of Student Affairs, was not present at the meeting, but Hall-Jones said he will be present at future meetings. Executives of the Senate hope to tailor the organization to fit the needs of the university’s students. Student Senate Treasurer Stephen Lichtenfels was the SAC Senator At-Large for the past two academic years. He hopes to bring some fundamental changes to how students view Senate.  “I know we’ve gotten a lot of criticism in the past for internal things. We’re looking to do more external things on campus, and to just listen to students, table and get ourselves out there,” Lichtenfels said. While she said it would be hard to fit all of the year's goals into a few sentences, Student Senate Vice President Courteney Muhl spoke about her goals for the upcoming year. “Most importantly, we want to make positive change for students on campus. Doing that means getting our senators right here, off the ground and together as a functional team. I think our biggest goal as a senate this year is to make sure that we are set up to smoothly function from now into the never-ending future and that we are taking in student need and making positive change based on that student need.”