As an increasing number of senators vacate their seats, the Missouri Students Association Senate discussed changes to its attendance policy and the senator election process Wednesday.
At its full Senate meeting Wednesday, three open academic college senator seats were filled. These seats were only three of the 11 seats senators vacated during the spring semester.
To increase senator retention next year, Senate Speaker McKenzie Morris announced she will enact a stricter attendance policy next semester.
Currently, senators are allowed four unexcused absences and an indefinite number of excused absences depending on what the senate speaker deems a valid excuse. A proxy can fill a senator’s spot during a full Senate meeting or committee meeting, which is then not counted as an absence.
The new attendance policy will allow only three absences and not allow proxies to fill a senator’s absence. If a senator has had three valid absences – a test, death in the family, etc. – the senate speaker can allow them a fourth absence if it is also a valid excuse, Morris said.
Morris said this new policy would raise the standard to be a senator.
“It’s more about accountability,” Morris said to the Senate cabinet Tuesday. “We’re not doing our job if we’re not here. Yes, we’re college students … but if you chose to do this, then do it.”
Morris’s new attendance policy is not the only change that could raise the standard for MSA senators. Operations Committee Chairman Ben Bolin wrote two pieces of legislation: One was a resolution creating a new at-large election process and one was an act creating a new academic college election process.
The resolution addressing the new at-large election process requires that applicants attend a minimum of two committee meetings before applying, requires that applications be sent to all senators before the Senate meeting and modifies the senator application questions, according to the legislation. Also, it abolishes the senator endorsement period, in which senators would recommend senators vote for an applicant before the voting period.
Senate approved the resolution with one vote in negation.
The act, which will not be voted on until Full Senate April 10, creates two academic college senate election periods with 25 seats open. One election period will be during the presidential elections in the fall and one will be in April during the spring semester, according to the act.
Senators will run for a yearlong term. If a seat is vacated prior to the end of the term, the seat will be added to the next upcoming election. A senator would fill this seat for six months until it was up for reelection at the end of the term.
The senate speaker can fill these academic college seats through the at-large election process, according to the MSA bylaws. This system has been used for every vacated seat throughout the year, however Morris said she would only use this system in emergency situations if the act passes.
During committee meetings, some senators questioned whether this would hurt senator retention, to which Student Government Coordinator Farouk Aregbe said it deters people who do not want to commit for a full year.
“The standard isn’t there (currently),” Aregbe said to the cabinet Tuesday. “If (you’re) going to run for something, and we say it’s from this time to this time … you better commit to it for a full year.”
Morris said this would better represent the student body because it is not just filling Senate seats.
“There is a very delicate balance between being representative proportionally and being representative through elections,” she said. “I think this is the happy medium.”