Competing tickets go head-to-head in Student Senate election Tuesday

Graphic by Sarah Donaldson.

Ohio University students will get the chance to vote for their next student senators Tuesday in the first contested Student Senate election since the 2017-2018 school year. 

The two main tickets running against each other in this year’s election are “Build Together” and “Athens Advocacy.” 

Build Together is led by presidential candidate Maxeen Ramlo, current governmental affairs commissioner and younger sister of previous Student Senate President Lydia Ramlo. She is a junior studying mechanical engineering. Her ticket includes treasurer candidate Simir Kalkat, a sophomore studying finance, business analytics and economics. 

Ramlo and Kalkat’s ticket is also endorsing independent vice president candidate Richard Danylo, who was initially part of the ticket before being impeached by the Judicial Panel and later acquitted by Student Senate. 

The competing ticket, Athens Advocacy, is led by presidential candidate Eliza Ivan, current treasurer of Student Senate, along with current Senate Chief of Staff Elaina Tartal and Director of Public Relations Emily Ertle, who are running for vice president and treasurer respectively. 

Build Together’s platform issues focus on mental health, diversity and inclusion, and student safety. The ticket also wants to focus on sustainability and carbon neutrality at Ohio U, maintain quality education as campus transitions back from online to in-person learning and maintain transparency with the financial status of the university. 

Ramlo specifically pointed to improving the Counseling and Psychological Services (CPS) website, improving resources for students struggling with eating disorders, bringing back advertising for the Bobcat Safe App and increasing student involvement with the university’s financial decisions when discussing her ticket’s platform. 

Ramlo said her ticket is made up of people with various backgrounds and experiences. 

“We have a great variety of people,” Ramlo said. “We have people who have been in Senate for years, we have people who are brand new to Student Senate. We have people who are involved in multiple facets of the university and have a lot of different experiences, whether they’re first generation, international or domestic. And I think that makes it really special.” 

Ramlo said her own experiences as well as those of everyone on her ticket will help advocate for the student body. 

“I think that my experiences, having to use university services such as CPS, and having that flexibility of online classes impact my life in such a big way. And speaking for everyone on my ticket, I think having those experiences really helps allow us to advocate for them in the best way possible,” Ramlo said. “We’ve had those personal experiences. We know the personal connection to it.”

Ertle said the Athens Advocacy ticket has “12 broad goals” they would like to accomplish if elected. 

“Some of the main goals are compensation for student educators, working towards an eco-friendly initiative on campus, creating an inclusive and accessible learning environment for all students, as well as focusing and highlighting diversity on campus, and making financial decisions more transparent, since there feels like there may be a little bit of a divide between where money is going versus what students know about it,” Ertle said. 

Several of Athens Advocacy's focuses are similar to the Build Together ticket. Ertle described the goal of increasing awareness and support for mental wellness and “to improve the CPS structure, particularly making it easier to schedule appointments,” as goals for her ticket, as well as “expanding accessibility for tutor track offerings.”

Ertle touched on diversity and inclusion, saying her ticket wants to create a one-credit-hour seminar on diversity, inclusion and accessibility, update the Inclusive Excellence Strategic Plan and add new positions to Student Senate to “ensure representation.” 

She mentioned the possibility of adding a “tripod commission,” with new directors for diversity, inclusion and accessibility. 

She discussed promoting anti-littering and minimizing food wasted through her ticket’s green initiative. 

Ertle emphasized her ticket’s deep involvement with Student Senate and how its members have worked together for a while now, saying they will continue to push forward big ideas to help the student body.

“This past year we had been working closely together on the leadership team,” she said. “And we developed a great work ethic together, that we thought, ‘Well, why wouldn’t we bring all these great ideas we formed this year that we couldn’t necessarily bring to action, why don’t we bring that together and move forward in another year of leading Athens and advocating for students and better change?’”

Previously, another ticket, “Onward,” was led by Senate Appropriations (SAC) Commissioner Sam Carryer. That ticket has since dissolved. 

Brogan Speraw, a senior studying mechanical engineering, is running independently for vice president. Sarah Packard, a junior studying management and information systems, is running independently for treasurer. Both Speraw and Packard were originally part of Onward. 

Students will receive an emial Tuesday morning with a link to the ballot in their student emails. They will have until 7 p.m. to cast a vote. Election results will be announced Tuesday evening.