Student Senate supports faculty union
Photo via The New Political staff
On Wednesday, the Undergraduate Student Senate of Ohio University voted to support Ohio U faculty in their efforts to unionize. The attempts by faculty to unionize began in January of last year and have since been in months of negotiation.
The primary sponsor of the bill, Budget Committee Chair Maggie Giansante, explained that despite record-breaking class sizes, many departments such as the language department have seen cuts to their program.
The secondary sponsor was President Dan Gordillo, who echoed Giansante and added: “The student learning environment is directly tied to the faculty’s teaching environment. It is necessary to provide the faculty with an environment that they can thrive in. If the faculty is thriving, the students are thriving.”
Additionally, Vice President Kiandra Martin spoke about her experience trying to schedule classes as an African-American Studies major.
“There’s like, 2 professors, 80 classes and 79 of them don’t really exist because there’s either not enough people interested in taking them or there’s not enough professors to teach them,” Martin said. “The school cares about us and I think we also need to care just as much about the people teaching us.”
Some members voiced their disapproval of the bill, such as Governmental Affairs Commissioner Donald Theisen, saying it is not the Senate’s place to weigh in on the issue and that their primary goal should be the students of Ohio University.
Luke Fredricks, the University Life Commissioner, agreed with Theisen’s reasoning.
“Issues like wages, benefits and working conditions are primary labor matters that should be handled by the employees and administration,” Fredricks said. “The Student Senate role should remain focused on representing student interests rather than engaging in employment negotiations.”
The bill passed with a majority despite the split vote.
In other Senate business:
The Senate voted to pass a resolution to create performance evaluations for commissioners.
The Senate voted to revise the Judicial Panel’s process of settling disputes within the Senate, including new investigative procedures intended to provide transparency and accountability.
The Senate had an informal vote to measure the temperature of a proposal to change the way the Senate budget is allocated each year. The informal vote does not affect any legislation but rather if any should be considered. The majority voted to keep the allocations in place.
