There’s something missing at the University . senators. More than one-third of the Student Senate is missing.
Recently the Student Senate has had difficulties with membership. Normally there are 21 positions on the Student Senate intended to represent both commuter and resident students.
There were 12 senators at Friday’s meeting, joined by a newly appointed resident senator, bringing the total number of active members to 15.
Just two of the 15 live on-campus.
Representation of all parties is an ongoing concern in any student government. However, the Senate is unique in that at-large senators also represent residents, which balance residents and commuter concerns.
“The Senate is not represented enough in the University community,” said Student Senate Chair Marcy Muller. “We try very hard to get our name out when we can and to get people involved.”
The Senate has started advertising around campus, letting the USM community know that there are open positions.
“We have been advertising, but we have not had enough resident student response,” said Muller in an email response.
It seems as though many USM residents choose to join the new Resident Hall committee, while commuter students feel as though they can be heard in the Senate, according to Chris O’Connor, assistant to the Vice President for student government and organization development.
Every spring the Senate organizes elections for USM students taking three or more credits to become a member of the Senate.
When students are elected in the spring, they are senators for the next semester year. However, events happen schedules change and a student may not be able to fulfill the Senate requirements.
“That leaves us in the fall with some people that are still considered senators on our attendance list,” said Muller. “To remove these senators we need either a resignation letter or they need to miss the indicated number of meetings.”
Earlier in the semester, the student Senate passed a new attendance policy. The revised attendance policy allows for three missed meetings with no proxies for absent senators.
A proxy is a person that would attend the meeting and speak and vote on behalf of the absent senator.
Last year’s attendance policy, a senator was allowed to miss five meetings. They could also have a proxy attend two of the missed meetings. The senator was removed on their fourth absence without proxies or on their sixth absence with proxies.
The new attendance policy will no longer be using proxies.
In the revised attendance procedure, a senator will be dismissed on the fourth absence if a letter of excuse is not submitted to the chair or vice-chair within a grace period of one week of the missed meeting. The chair will present the letter to the Senate, where Senate members will vote if the absence is excused or unexcused.
The Senate accepted the new attendance policy with a two/three-majority vote. The policy was implemented in all fairness, while the main objective is to find a group of committed USM students.
“We are only following procedure and trying to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and be fair,” said Muller
Staff Writer Erin Zwirn can be contacted at: [email protected]