The Undergraduate Student Government convened Monday to address upcoming events, censure one senator, and remove another.
The meeting began with the approval and swearing in new members. Five new senators presented themselves before the body and took their seats as official members of the Senate.
When the floor moved to Open Forum, Jarred Hirschfeld made a report on the University’s Board of Trustees. As a Student Trustee, Hirschfeld represents the student body in the trustees’ meetings.
“Next semester, there will be an $80 increase in general fees in order to accommodate the construction of the Student Union, a $33 million project,” Hirschfeld said. “This is actually a victory. When the Union was first announced, general fees might have increased on the order of $200-300. We were able to delay that and the fees have come down.
“The Union project will be completed on schedule for January.” Also, he said the Board will try to temper the increasing cost of health care so funds do not have to be diverted from other organizations.
However, if the Ohio legislature passes a proposed six percent cut in funding to state universities, the Board will have to appropriate $5 million elsewhere.
After the Open Forum, the Senate considered a resolution regarding the Conference on Student Government Associations (COSGA) at Texas A’M University. The Conference hosts workshops for government organizations from many schools. Several University senators, including Joel Freimark, see the conference as a misuse of USG’s funds. The Internal Affairs Committee will review it once more.
One resolution that passed was the removal of Senator Alissa Wechter. Former Senator Wechter was negligent of her duty to attend the weekly government meeting, according to USG.
Senator Joelle Kaminski faced censure under the same charge. However, the senator attended the meeting and offered an explanation for her absence. The Committee on Internal Affairs, which dealt with the cases of both Senator Wechter and Senator Kaminski, plans to investigate her explanation. The resolution was tabled until the meeting next week.