An additional senate seat on the spring quarter election ballot may help international students find more representation in Undergraduate Student Government.
Last night, USG voted in favor of adding one new international senator along with increasing the number of diversity senators from one to three. The international senator will represent the interests and needs of the international student community and Ohio State students studying abroad.
“The Senate, until now, has not been able to adequately deal with the issues associated with the international students and OSU students studying abroad,” said North Campus Senator Mark Ryan. “I know of the struggles they face, and it’s a lot more than domestic students usually have to face.”
Academic, administrative, and social issues pertaining to the international student community are often times very different from those pertaining to the domestic student community, and are not effectively addressed under constituencies specific to a living area or university college.
Sponsors of the USG Senate resolution say the diversity senator seat cannot effectively represent the voice of diversity for more than half of the estimated 35,000 undergraduate students, considering that the off-campus constituency of about 13,000 students is represented by four senate seats.
Although Ryan considers the additional seat a success, other supporters of the resolution are unhappy with the outcome.
Under the new composition, there would be one USG senator per 1,000 students. With respect to the international student constituency, which is about 2,600 students, the board voted down the proposal of two international and two diversity senators, and instead, agreed upon one international and three diversity senators–a structure that will not coincide with the rest of the organization.
“In that sense, they are seeing the international student community as a secondary, minority issue to the general senate body,” said Kenneth Galloway, chairman of the International Institute for Democracy.
German Trejo Caballero, vice president of the University-wide Council of Hispanic Organizations, was surprised at the lack of support, and said he was shocked the diversity senator did not favor the addition of two international senators to the USG Senate body.
“The Senate failed two international students, Eddie Pauline failed two international students, and, most importantly, the diversity senator failed two international students,” Trejo said.
Chantelle Porter, the diversity senator, said she thinks the international community is important, but is unsure if having two international senators would be necessary.
“I think it’s more important to have more that encompass a broad range of issues than to start singling out different umbrella groups,” she said. “I would rather have one (international senator) and three (diversity senators) than dilute the diverse population, because that’s still a big group of people.”
According to the Office of International Education, nearly 3,000 international students from more than 120 countries are enrolled at Ohio State, and, on average, 1,155 undergraduate students study abroad annually as international students to their host university.
With the passage of this resolution, the incumbent senator will represent the international student population and add a diverse voice to USG.
