Student senators validated the Ohio Public Interest Research Group (OhioPIRG) reaffirmation drive petition Tuesday evening. After several days of confusion over what action Senate should take considering a number of invalid and questionable signatures discovered in the petition, senators now plan to approve the petition at their meeting this Sunday.
Senators were unclear that under the 1994 alternative funding guidelines, Senate is the only body that has to approve OhioPIRG's petition. According to senator first-year Russell Menyhart, he as well as other senators consulted with Robert Haslun, the college secretary, who told them that the Student Life Committee (SLC) and the General Faculty (GF) had to approve OhioPIRG's petition after Senate's approval. "I'm sorry if I mislead anybody. I have a poor memory," Haslun said.
College junior and co-chair of OhioPIRG Susan Moran said that she and senators discussed with Joel Whitaker, the student assistant to President Nancy Dye and a former Senator, about the logistics of approving the petition on Sunday evening and Monday. He said that he informed senators and representatives of OhioPIRG that according to the 1994 version of the alternative funding guideline, Senate is the only body that needs to approve OhioPIRG's petition. This was clarified to Senate officially Monday afternoon.
Earlier this month, OhioPIRG members bombarded students on-campus to sign their biannual reaffirmation drive petition. In order for OhioPIRG to continue its fee structure, the organization needed to collect signatures of two-thirds of the student body. OhioPIRG representatives desired to increase their fee of $4 per semester to $6.50 this year. The fee is included on students' term bills although they have the option to waive it.
Last week, various senators worked in their office validating signatures on OhioPIRG's petition, matching student names to their student identification and mailbox numbers. A growing number of invalid and questionable signatures arose throughout the week. Invalid signatures included graduates, alumni and duplicates whereas questionable signatures included incorrect mailbox numbers and incorrect information in general.
Since OhioPIRG organizers and members attended a conference in Connecticut over the weekend, senators were initially unsure how to handle the situation over the lack of valid signatures. At the Senate meeting last week, two OhioPIRG representatives were present to discuss with senators the invalid and questionable signatures senators found over the weekend. Senators were under the impression that in order for OhioPIRG to continue funding, it was necessary for Senate to approve the petition that evening. Several senators said that following their initial approval, the petition would have to be approved by the SLC and the GF this week (see above story).
"We never thought this would be an issue," Moran said about Senate's worry that they would not have their petition approved by the two groups this week. Moran said, "We knew Sunday night that we needed approximately 15 more signatures. There were 24 invalid signatures overall." Since Sunday evening until Tuesday, OhioPIRG representatives have asked additional students to sign the petition in order to make-up for the number of invalid signatures.
Senators proceeded to schedule an emergency SLC meeting Monday morning in order for the GF to approve OhioPIRG's petition in time, since GF meets only once a month. Senators were concerned that OhioPIRG's petition would not be approved before the semester ended. According to Moran, OhioPIRG's deadline for the petition's approval is the end of this semester. At the SLC meeting, however, senators informed faculty members who were present that the meeting was canceled since OhioPIRG did not enough signatures for its petition to be reviewed, said Kamm.
Several senators felt that OhioPIRG should have not stopped collecting signatures once members reached the number requirement. Johnston said, "We were given the petition with only eight extra signatures less than a week before the matter would have to go through GF."
Senator junior Joshua Kaye said, "Some senators resented being told by OhioPIRG that we were being irresponsible and that we were not doing our duties."
Moran said that she doesn't believe any senators were responsible for the confusion. "I think they've done an incredibly good job," Moran said.
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