By Susannah Waite, Editor-in-Chief
Student senators approved a resolution this week to protest the university’s space allocation policy.
The resolution stems from student feedback on the enforcement of the University Special Events Policy, created in 2009, but not enforced until July of this year, according to Student Publications’ archives.
Student government officials are unhappy with policy enforcement at the Meinders School of Business, said Robin Ladd, SGA President.
Senate Resolution 002, passed Nov. 27, addresses student concerns about the newly implemented room rental policy restricting the access to MSB space for other student organizations.
“The resolution is basically a position statement from Student Government Association, stating how we feel about the recent changes in the space allocation policies,” Ladd said. “Our goal is to show the administration that we care and our students really care.
“We need to come to a solution now.”
Go here for a copy of SR 002.
Student organizations are being treated unfairly, Ladd said.
“We need to come to a solution that doesn’t punish students,” she said.
Contractually, officials are not obligated to allow organizations or individuals outside the business school to host events in the building, said Steven Agee, dean of Meinders School of Business.
“There was a written agreement between Herman Meinders, as the benefactor and philanthropist who donated money to the university, and OCU, signed by President Tom McDaniel and by Herman Meinders,” Agee said. “One paragraph of this construction agreement dealt with the fact that this building was to be used exclusively for a business school and things related thereto a business school.”
The agreement read: “For such time as the Property and the Building is owned by OCU, OCU agrees that the Property and the Building will only we used by OCU to operate a School of Business and activities related thereto.”
The university does not provide maintenance and upkeep for Meinders School of Business, Agee said.
“We pay that out of our own share of tuition revenue,” he said.
A study also found that 45 percent of all non-business-related meetings, conference and events were hosted in Meinders School of Business, Agee said.
“Since we ended up paying all the costs of these meetings and conferences, we said that’s not equitable,” he said. “There’s no fairness to this, where nearly half of the meetings happen here and we pay 100 percent of the costs.”
Meinders School of Business has since enforced the University Special Events Policy, requesting a rental fee from all entities unrelated to the business school or recruitment.
Ladd and Agee sit on a space allocation committee that was formed to look into issues that students, faculty and staff may have with the current policies.
“The university has discussed setting aside a fund to allocate for use of facilities around campus,” Agee said. “If they want to set aside funds for facilities, not just for the business school, but for any school, that is something they should look at.”
Leave a Reply