The University Undergraduate Student Government voted on and passed two resolutions during its final general assembly of the 2017-2018 academic year. The first resolution, Senate Resolution 2017/2018 – 05, was introduced to the general assembly April 9 and supports the ban of plastic bags at the University.
USG debated the resolution in detail at the previous assembly, so the resolution faced very little discussion after being read by Senator Eugene Gorman. The assembly did hear from the Environmental Action Group, which addressed resolution line 22 and advocated for the use of reusable bags over paper bags, during lobby time. The resolution passed unanimously during a roll call vote.
Senator Richard Carter then presented Senate Resolution 2018/2019 – 06, which serves as an advisory for the University to act on a credit hour discrepancy found in Ohio Code 3333-1-02. He additionally motioned for the resolution to be considered emergency legislation due to the relevance of the issue and its potential effect on the coming academic year.
As currently defined by Ohio code, a semester credit hour will be awarded to a student for a minimum of 750 minutes of formalized instruction time, which also requires a student to work twice that amount of time outside of class (1,500 minutes). A one credit hour class held for 50 minutes over 15 weeks meets these requirements.
The definition of “formalized instruction time” allows for multiple methods of instruction to be used to make up for potential contact hours missed in classes that are canceled. Carter believes this will force extra work on students to make up for classes that get canceled for holidays or an instructor’s personal reasons.
“Right now, the University is right on the edge of students earning the minimum contact hours to earn one credit. If we drop below that, the University can give you the credit hour, but the state will not recognize it,” Carter said.
No senator in attendance objected to the declaration of this resolution as emergency legislation, and it passed facing no opposition.
