Senate meeting focuses on OhioPIRG petition

According to the agenda, all student senators planned to do on Sunday was to vote on approving the recent Ohio Public Interest Research Group (OhioPIRG) reaffirmation drive petition and discuss various issues in work groups. Instead, the discovery of some invalid signatures on the OhioPIRG petitions forced Senators to devote most of the meeting to defining what constitutes a valid signature and who is a student. Those issues were not resolved and the meeting ended abruptly. (see accompanying story)

Senator first-year Russell Menyhart told senators at the beginning of the meeting a group of senators, including himself, had uncovered a number of invalid signatures on the petition. According to Menyhart, although some signatures had not yet been checked for validity, the number which had already been assessed as invalid placed OhioPIRG under the 1,904 signatures mark needed to obtain further funding.

Senators demanded an actual count, and at that point sent four senators and members of OhioPIRG to finish validating the petition.

Senators separated into work groups while the signatures were checked.

The quality of life workgroup addressed a number of issues, including the campus smoking policy, the domestic partnership policy and off-campus students. Senator senior Alex Freuman reported to the workgroup that he had spoken to Manager of Housing and Dining Sandra Houghland to ensure that Dascomb Hall will in the future be clearly designated as a non-smoking dorm during the housing lottery process. Some residents of Dascomb have expressed frustration this year that they were not clearly informed of the dorm's non-smoking status before moving in .

The Student Academic Affairs workgroup spent most of their time dealing with the possible development of new concentrations, including International Studies, Ethnic Studies, Queer Studies and Disability Awareness Studies.

"We can't get any new departments," said senator junior Joshua Kaye. "International Studies isn't going to be a department. The school is looking to cut departments, not create departments. International Studies isn't the most important issue."

According to Kaye, the most important issue is building new concentrations which would draw togther existing curriculum under the heading of a coherent discipline.

"The goal is to get networking on the issue," said senator sophomore Bill Stevens. The workgroup created investigative groups to find out what progress different communities had made in developing curricular goals.

Senate approved two appointments recommended by the Students Appointments Committee. Senator junior Badeti Tibone was appointed to the Athletics committee, and first-year Kyl Dinsio. was allotted an open space on the Health Plan committee.

Senate also voted to scrap the position of internal secretary, presently held by senator sophomore Chuckie Kamm, assigning her duties to administrative assistants in the future. Senators created a new position of Internal Coordinator to oversee administrative assistants. The plan is contingent upon the Student Finance Committee's approval of administrative assistant positions.