Student Senate urges administration to utilize bias incident reporting tool

Student Senate passed its first bill of the year, calling on administration to market its bias incident reporting tool, which enables individuals to report sexual harassment, racism and homophobia through an anonymous, online submission platform.“If something happens to a student that makes them feel uncomfortable, they can report it through the bias incident reporting system,” said Steve Lichtenfels, Student Senate treasurer and sponsor of the bill. “We’re just asking that the university sort it out, become transparent and market it to the students and see that it has a proper home.”The tool is currently available on the Ohio University Diversity and Inclusion website under the resources drop-down tab. Senate said it hopes this bill will bring more attention to the tool while also making sure that the reports are being heard.“To the best of my knowledge, nothing is really being done with those (incident reports) yet, which is kind of an issue,” Senate President Hannah Clouser said. “When those reports come in, through the bias and incident reporting tool, an action plan can be formed to move forward.”Senate meets Wednesday nights at 7:15 p.m. in Walter 235.