Student Senate demands university make Election Day a school holiday

Student Senate. Photo by Tim Zelina.

Ohio University Student Senate passed a resolution Wednesday night demanding the university make Election Day a school holiday. 

The resolution, sponsored by Honors Tutorial College Senator Rhyan Goodman, would also allow serving as a poll worker to count as a university-approved absence. 

“I’m asking that the university make Election Day a university holiday, and also accept proof of service as a poll worker as a university-approved absence from class, and to create a committee so that way Student Senate can leverage our resources to be more of an asset to the Athens community,” Goodman said. 

Megan Vogel, the chief of staff to the vice president of Student Affairs, as well as Duane Bruce, the interim assistant director for Multicultural Center, gave a presentation on the university’s “Make Respect Visible” campaign. The two went in-depth on the origin of “Make Respect Visible,” explaining that it originated from the universities Inclusive Excellence Strategic Plan, which was affirmed by the Board of Trustees in April of this year. 

“This is the start, it’s just the beginning of the conversation on campus, and I always like to say this and I’ve been saying this a lot in the last couple weeks as we’ve been hearing feedback. But 12 months ago, we didn’t have expectations like this,” Bruce said. “12 months ago, we weren’t having conversations like this.” 

Student Senate also passed three resolutions. It appointed Kaitlynn Boyd as Senate Appropriations Vice Commissioner of Public Outreach for the 2021-2022 academic year. The other two, Jamal Bernardino and Trinity Robinson, were appointed to the Committee on the Budget of Student Senate.