Spring Break
Union attendance bylaw changed
by Harry Shipps
News | 3/3/09
Posted online at 6:13 AM EST on 3/3/09
The Student Union Senate passed the Attendance Improvement Act of 2009 at the Feb. 22 Senate meeting in order to improve current Senate attendance rates, according to Executive Senator and Acting Vice President Andrew Brooks '10.
The bylaw amendment will "define the phrase 'extenuating circumstances' and restate the requirement of Senators to notify the President of the Union Senate of an absence due to such circumstances. In addition, the bylaw amendment will automatically add a censure resolution to be considered by the Senate should a senator accumulate two or more unexcused absences."
Before voting on the bylaw amendment, senators discussed how to decide the appropriate action to be taken against senators found in violation of the attendance policy. As written in the final version of the amendment, "Should a senator miss two or more meetings of the Senate without providing advance notice of an extenuating circumstance to the President of the Union Senate, a censure resolution shall be automatically added to the agenda of the next meeting of the Senate."
"This bylaw simply makes it mandatory that a resolution appear for censure upon a senator being absent twice … It wasn't an automatic censure, but rather it is a resolution that appears that [the senators] then have the choice whether we want to enforce or not. And so it leaves it to individual senators to decide if they feel comfortable passing it or not," Brooks explained.
The amendment is not retroactive, which means that senators will not be penalized for their previous attendance records, Brooks said.
The bylaw passed by a vote of 11-3 with two abstentions.
Nipun Marwaha, senator for the class of 2012, said that he voted in favor of the amendment because "other [senators] have been egregiously missing meetings; some of the numbers added up to … a 68-percent absence rate, and that's why I thought it was necessary to have some sort of action being taken automatically, because everyone is hesitant to punish a peer." When asked if he had any reservations about the amendments, Marwaha said, "If I was more involved in the writing of this bill, in particular, I would have probably added after a certain number [of absences] the question of impeachment would be automatic; not after two, maybe after, like, seven."
The bylaw amendment will "define the phrase 'extenuating circumstances' and restate the requirement of Senators to notify the President of the Union Senate of an absence due to such circumstances. In addition, the bylaw amendment will automatically add a censure resolution to be considered by the Senate should a senator accumulate two or more unexcused absences."
Before voting on the bylaw amendment, senators discussed how to decide the appropriate action to be taken against senators found in violation of the attendance policy. As written in the final version of the amendment, "Should a senator miss two or more meetings of the Senate without providing advance notice of an extenuating circumstance to the President of the Union Senate, a censure resolution shall be automatically added to the agenda of the next meeting of the Senate."
"This bylaw simply makes it mandatory that a resolution appear for censure upon a senator being absent twice … It wasn't an automatic censure, but rather it is a resolution that appears that [the senators] then have the choice whether we want to enforce or not. And so it leaves it to individual senators to decide if they feel comfortable passing it or not," Brooks explained.
The amendment is not retroactive, which means that senators will not be penalized for their previous attendance records, Brooks said.
The bylaw passed by a vote of 11-3 with two abstentions.
Nipun Marwaha, senator for the class of 2012, said that he voted in favor of the amendment because "other [senators] have been egregiously missing meetings; some of the numbers added up to … a 68-percent absence rate, and that's why I thought it was necessary to have some sort of action being taken automatically, because everyone is hesitant to punish a peer." When asked if he had any reservations about the amendments, Marwaha said, "If I was more involved in the writing of this bill, in particular, I would have probably added after a certain number [of absences] the question of impeachment would be automatic; not after two, maybe after, like, seven."
Be the first to comment on this story