Ohio U’s Student Senate reviews SAC funds, appoints new members

The Ohio University Student Senate General Body Meeting Wednesday night included a presentation on the Senate Appropriation Committee (SAC), votes on three resolutions and reports from President Dayna Shoulders and Treasurer Trinity Robinson.

Robinson gave a presentation on behalf of SAC. She began by explaining the purpose of the commission: “We are in charge of approving, evaluating and allocating funds to student organizations. They are submitted through funding requests to us, which we review on different bases.”

Robinson updated senate that total SAC funds began the school year at $326,879.48. Now, the current total SAC funds sit at $277,872.61. She expressed her wish to provide as much funding as possible for student organizations and programming. 

“I like to see this number drop because that means we are able to allocate money to our student organizations and we are actively doing so, through our funding, which I love. So our overall goal is for that number to hit zero,” Robinson said. “We also want student organizations to do more and reach out and think of different ways to target students through programming.” 

Senate went on to unanimously pass three resolutions to appoint two members. Ankita Bansode was appointed as an Associate Justice to the Judicial Panel and Morgan Dorais was appointed as Environmental Affairs Vice Commissioner.

Senate also passed Resolution 2223-50, requiring the Executive and Chief Justices of the Student Senate Judicial Panel to hold three and two weekly office hours, respectively. 

“It makes it a lot easier for (senators) to reach them…It will also help the student body as a whole better know the judicial panel,” Vice President Luvina Cooley commented.

In other senate news,  a number of commissioners and executive officers gave senate reports. 

Shoulders discussed the Safety Walk that took place Monday, where administrators and Student Senate leadership walked together on campus to identify areas of safety concern. Shoulders said that their hope is to provide these areas with more “lighting, walkways, stairways, police presence and University safety communication.”

Robinson noted the allocation of funds for two upcoming events, $2,666.63 to Pride Week and $2,666.63 to Take Back the Night.