Tilton offers alternative for voters

(Note: This story originally appeared in Speakeasy Magazine and was written by Megan Krause)

If you don’t seem to be on beat with Pulse and you aren’t into the whole Toga thing, then Shane Tilton may be the man for you.

Just like US presidential candidates, Ohio University student senate presidential candidates can run without a party affiliation. Shane Tilton is one of the few taking this path.

Tilton is a graduate student set to graduate in 2008. Zanesville born, he earned his undergraduate degree in 2000 from Muskingum College in Speech Communication. Currently he is studying Telecommunications.

According to Tilton, he has six main issues that he hopes to address when he is elected president. Of these six issues, one really hits home for Tilton. “The main [issue] that really fuels me through this election is graduate student representation on student senate,” he said.

Being a graduate student himself, Tilton hopes to see more of his kind represented in the student government. “I felt the best way to kind of equalize the situation is to have a graduate student run for president,” Tilton said.

Another issue that Tilton would like to see dealt with is the party system in the student senate. According to Tilton, there have been problems in the past with the parties disagreeing on issues. Because of this friction important issues have been put on the back burner.

Tilton sings the same tune when it comes to student senate elections, which lead him to run independently. “It’s just simpler to just let everyone go individually and let the best person win,” he said.

Tilton also feels strongly about the issue of protecting student information. According to Tilton, he had an experience at OU where his identity was compromised. When something like this happens on campus, it may be three of four months before the students it concerns are notified of the mishap. After seeing this first hand Tilton “will be an advocate for the students and protect sensitive information.”

Giving Resident Assistants more benefits is another change that Tilton hopes to make. This would include granting them priority scheduling and presenting them with Bobcat Cash. According to Tilton, the benefits that RAs at OU receive are considerably less than the compensation offered at other universities in Ohio. These changes would be made in hopes that, “we could have a stronger support system for the RAs,” Tilton said.

Tilton says he also wants the administration to completely back OU programs. This issue came up due to the controversial cuts in the athletic budget. “If you make that kind of verbal commitment you have to back it up,” he said. However, the issue affects all OU programs, not just athletics.

Tilton plans to work with the administration to achieve his goals. “The simplest thing to do is work within the system,” he said. He plans to help get people the tools that they need in order to fix their problems.

One of the main reasons Tilton is running for president is to preserve the name of Ohio University. “I was tired of OU getting all these black eyes from the press,” he said. “I wanted to protect my education.”

Tilton clarified that he is not placing the blame completely on President McDavis. However, he felt that issues that were at the root of the problems were not being addressed. “If I were president I could at least let students know what was going on,” he said. “I thought I could provide a great service by doing this.”