The Justice

This past Sunday the Student Union Senate voted in favor of the Attendance Improvement Act of 2009. This act changes the Student Union bylaws to establish a cap on unexcused senatorial absences from Senate sessions and create a mandatory censure procedure for senators that violate the cap. The Senate was wrong to pass this act. Rather than institute this principally autocratic policy, the Senate should promote democratic principles by updating and easing the current process for a recall election.

You could argue that due to Article IV, Section 1 of the Student Union Bylaws, prior to the passage of this act, senators had been required to attend meetings, and by not doing so they were-without even considering principle-liable for censure or impeachment. Executive Senator and Acting Vice President Andrew Brooks '09, who introduced the act to the Senate, pointed out in an interview with the Justice that "if your representative is not there, then you're not being represented." That's true.

However, the Senate cannot determine whether its members are adequately representing their constituencies. Invoking that segment of the bylaws to justify a senatorial censure-or perhaps impeachment-is needlessly undemocratic. With specific regard to attendance, a senator's foremost accountability must be to his or her constituency. We elect our senators. If we feel that our senators are inadequate in their service to us, we-not the Senate-must be the ones to rebuke them. We, the electorate, should remove inadequate senators from the Senate.

And we theoretically have the mechanism to do so: recall elections. Article X, Section 1 of the Student Union Constitution states, "An elected official's constituency shall have the right to recall that official." However, the current recall process is tedious and outdated. The way it stands, there must first be a petition signed in person by at least 15 percent of an elected official's constituency. Using our online UNet accounts to sign such a petition, as is done in an election, would make this outdated process significantly easier, efficient and participatory. The next step of the current recall process, which requires the secretary to validate the petition, would be completed automatically if the petition were completed online through our UNet accounts. Finally, the actual vote for recall, which requires two-thirds of the constituency, is a high yet fair percentage to meet for a recall.

Continued...

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