Ohio University Student Senate

The Ohio University Student Senate represents the needs and rights of students at Ohio University through the advocacy of shared governance.

With 12 commissions designed to serve specific student constituency needs, Senate works to represent you as Ohio University scholars.

The 2007-2008 Executive Board

The 2007-2008 Executive Board
Will Wemer, Treasurer; Amanda Roder, Vice President; and Tim Vonville, President

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Impeachment of Student Senate Vice President, Amanda Roder


On February 20, 2008, the Student Senate Vice President, Amanda Roder, was found in violation of rules requiring her to ensure that senators have access to "material necessary for understanding the senate process," and for her failure to distribute an executive officer evaluation form to all senators during the fourth week of the quarter.

After a two hour discussion in executive session, senators voted to impeach the Vice president on two of five charges presented.
Had Roder been in violation of the fifth charge, gross of willful neglect of duty, she would have been removed from office.

Roder was found not guilty of violating rules concerning the makeup of the Student Trustee Selection Committee.

Impeachment began by senators filing a complaint with the Conduct and Discipline Committee. The committee then found sufficient evidence to find the Vice President guilty and presented the report to the entire senate, who then discussed the possible impeachment.

Having sat through this meeting and participating directly in the discussion, the issue came down to one of accountability.

As Academic Affairs Commissioner Chris Diehl said, "Senate was holding people responsible for their actions."

Sanctions were announced two weeks later in the form of public censure, probation and suggestion to the Senior Emeritus Committee that the Vice President be ineligible despite her 4- year involvement with Student Senate.
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Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)

Will Klatt, a sophomore Political Science and History major has been one of the more outspoken and radical voices on campus in the last two years.

"Tired of politics on campus and the lack of real commitment to represent students," Klatt has never been part of Student Senate but ran in last year's Spring election. He lost by 17 votes to the current Senate President, Tim Vonville.

While I believe Students for a Democratic Society is well-intentioned, I wonder why SDS and Student Senate can't work together if the true goal is student representation.

Having worked with one SDS member, Olivia Dawson, on the University Life Commission of Student Senate (she resigned this winter), I feel that the animosity between groups is unfounded.

"I feel that the conditions under which I was elected to serve have never and will never live up to the standards that the student body deserves," Dawson said at the January 30, 2008 Senate general body meeting.

While Student Senate is indeed, not perfect, I feel that you get out what you put in.

Dawson was currently being sent to Conduct and Discipline for her absence at commission meetings, general body meetings and overall neglect of duty in her elected Senator role.

As Senate President Tim Vonville expressed in the Post article covering her resignation, "It's unfortunate that she didn't feel as if Student Senate had the ability to make change."





Will Klatt, Head of Students for a Democratic Society

The 2007 Election

The 2007 Spring election occurred on May 17th, polling students at campus locations ranging from Baker Center to Ping and College Gate.

With two official parties, and a few independent candidates to choose from, voters were able to elect positions across party lines.

I ran with the Pulse Party, whose platform supported independent thinking to inspire growth and change, specifically in the areas of environment, shared governance, diversity and returning emphasis to the student.

Our party consisted of seven incumbent voting officers on Senate, six active associates of Student Senate and 20 Senate newcomers and student leaders (of which I was one).

Patrick Heery ran for President.

However, the winning party--TOGA--was headed by our now Student Senate President Tim Vonville.

TOGA wished to take a more "holistic look" at issues around campus, focusing on diversity, communication, student voice, budget transparency, academics, athletics and the environment.

TOGA's ticket made up two-thirds of the then current Senate members and one-third new members.

Independent presidential candidate Will Klatt also ran in the 2007 Spring election. He decided to run for president after he spoke to people running in the two parties and felt that "they were not really committed to reforming shared governance."

Klatt advocated common participation from the university community and sought to create a student popular assembly to organize and represent the voices of the students, demanding democratic reform so that students, faculty and worker would have veto power over the administration's policies.

Another independent presidential candidate was Shane Tilton. His goal was to tackle five issues; to increase graduate student representation on senate, to have more direct channels of communication and accountability between the student body and President McDavis, to have a strong commitment to university programming from the administration, to end the party system in student senate elections and to protect student information on campus servers.




2007 Election

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