Editor’s Note: This story was updated at 4:25 p.m. on Feb. 14 to reflect information on online threats.
Student fee deliberations were postponed on Tuesday due to online threats to student safety for the Associated Students of Oregon State University Senate.
At 7 p.m. Tuesday evening, ASOSU wrote in a public statement on their Instagram account that “concerns were raised regarding students being able to participate in the meeting safely.”
The safety concerns were reports of online threats through social media, according to ASOSU Student Government Advisor Keri Simonet.
“Online social media threats were reported to Public Safety, and ASOSU agreed with OSU Public Safety’s assessment that the meeting should be postponed out of an abundance of caution until those threats could be fully evaluated,” Simonet said.
The meeting, which would have been held in the Memorial Union Horizon Room, was postponed before it began, according to Simonet.
Messages left with OSU Public Safety for follow-up have not yet been returned.
“We needed to pause and evaluate before we could move forward. After gathering additional information, we do not have new safety concerns,” the post states.
ASOSU said they will share information about the rescheduled meeting by Friday afternoon, and the fee deliberations agenda will not change.
The Barometer will report updates as we know more information.
Emerson Pearson • Feb 14, 2024 at 7:00 pm
It is unacceptable that this was not communicated to students as soon as ASOSU was aware of these threats. If students were in potential danger– danger that seemed legitimate enough that the meeting was canceled –then action should’ve been taken to inform and protect ALL students, not just students within ASOSU. Many students were waiting outside of the room, confused about what was happening. If this danger had been legitimate, they were directly at risk. Despite this, ASOSU didn’t post any sort of clarifying update about why the meeting was canceled until two hours after the scheduled start time. Ultimately, I am very disappointed in how this situation was handled.