Fischer, Swanks to run unopposed for OSA
March 3, 2021
OSA election next week
Next week, the UW Oshkosh student body will vote for new Oshkosh Student Association leadership.
UWO students Jacob Fischer and Caprice Swanks will be the only official candidates on the ballot Tuesday and Wednesday. It will be the second year in a row that the OSA election has been uncontested.
Additionally, Tim Torgerson and Steven Schlosser are both running for at-large OSA senate positions, Liz Jacobson is running for the Women’s Advocacy Senator position and Daniel Barker is running for the Student Veteran’s Advocacy Senator position.
While the deadline to officially declare and file to be on the ballot has long since passed, students who aren’t on the ballot can still be elected. In the OSA Assembly meeting Tuesday night, OSA office manager Tyler Klaver announced the minimum number of write-in votes needed for a candidate to be considered has been lowered to 12 write-ins for senate positions and 25 write-ins for presidential and vice presidential positions.
Voting in the OSA election will open on March 9 at 8 a.m. and will run until March 10 at 8 p.m. A link to the ballot on Titan Connection will be sent to all UWO students on March 9.
Resolution seeks to provide clarity for tech use in classrooms
The OSA senate has begun working on a technology policy to solidify and make clear exactly what technologies may be used in classrooms.
“There’s nothing that definitively, specifically talks about whether or not you can or cannot use your computer in the classroom to take notes,” OSA president Ian McDonald said. “You’ll sometimes run into professors who will say, ‘there’s a technology policy in my classroom to not use a computer.’ I’m very much opposed to that.”
“It’s time to put something down so that, as a student, you can be protected against a professor who might not allow technologies in the classroom,” McDonald said.
McDonald specified that the resolution would only cover laptops and tablets being used for note-taking purposes, and would not offer the same protections against cell phone usage.
“It can’t be a distraction, and it can’t be a safety hazard,” McDonald said.
Under the resolution, technologies would be allowed in lecture halls and classrooms, but would not have the same protections in lab environments where they may be exposed to dangerous substances.