Student Government Association "cracks down" on attendance policy


dsc_0568

Student Government Association President Charles Mahone presents a new amendment to the Senate during their meeting on Monday, Feb. 9, 2015 in Anspach Hall.

After creating a stronger Membership Committee, the Student Government Association is adding a stricter attendance policy to its Senate and House. 

Although last year there were no cases of excessive absences, SGA President Chuck Mahone said he intends to crack down on attendance to tightly enforce the “bad standings" status achieved when SGA members miss several meetings. 

 “When you’re in bad standings that means you can no longer speak during our meetings, you (and the RSO you represent) can no longer vote on legislation," Mahone said. "Also you cannot apply for the Student Budget Allocation Committee — so your organization can no longer attain funding.”

For members of the house, four meetings are allowed to be missed before the member in question is called before the Membership Committee. For senators, the number of absences drops to two meetings before they run the risk of being removed. Meetings are held every Monday throughout the semester. 

SGA has a general board meeting and then breaks off into sub-committees. A senator can accrue absences at both meetings each week. 

Vice President Mariah Urueta said the strict policy on absences is “completely fair." She said absent members can stall SGA initiatives. 

“If we have people that are missing a week (of meetings) and then the next week someone sends their proxy — if we have people that are coming and going, you can miss a lot of information,” Urueta said. “If people are missing or gone, it causes a big roadblock in our productivity.”

Once an SGA member has racked up a number of absences, they are then brought before the Membership Committee and it is debated how to handle the student from there.

The reason for the stricter policy for senators, Mahone said, is because they are held to a “higher standard” than members of the House.

If an SGA member attains more than their allotted absences, they are brought before the Membership Committee — a panel comprised of the Senate leader, the House leader, the Membership Officer, and two House and two Senate members. Together, the panel figures out whether or not a student deserves to be put in bad standings.

“A student (in bad standing) will come before (the committee) and be put to a vote,” said current Membership Officer and Gaylord junior Teal Olson. “They come before the Membership Committee and plead their case and then we decide from there if it was a legitimate absence or what kind of route we need to take from there.”

If two thirds of the committee votes that absence was not legitimate, the student is placed in bad standing, Olson said.

There is legislation attempting to be passed through the House and Senate, allowing Senators to increase their number of absences to four, although it has yet to be passed.

To avoid falling into bad standing, SGA members are encouraged to use proxies or individuals who serve as a stand in for the House or Senate member that cannot make a meeting.

Above all, Mahone said, the goal of the attendance crackdown was to be fair to RSO’s who attend meetings to receive funding from SGA.

“Really there should be no reason that (SGA members) are ever missing a meeting because they have someone to make their meeting,” Mahone said. “If (SGA members) do (have to be brought before the Membership Committee) then it shows that they’re truly not committed to SGA and we want to make sure that those student dollars are going towards organizations who are here every week.”

Share: 

About Jordyn Hermani

Troy senior Jordyn Hermani, Editor-in-Chief of Central Michigan Life, is a double major ...

View Posts by Jordyn Hermani →