The Associated Students of Madison’s Rule Committee opposed new legislation removing required committee attendance of Student Council members.
Currently, the bylaw has an inconsistency related to the practice of committee requirements and unexcused absences, as stated in the proposed legislation. The bylaws state nothing about mandated service on a committee, however, if a representative does not attend their mandated number of committee meetings, they receive half an absence for each additional absence, Sean Owczarek, spokesperson of the Rules Committee, said.
“The rules committee wants to clarify the current practice of mandated serving of all Student Council members on a committee,” Owczarek said. “This legislation proposes that we remove the portion of the bylaws that indicates that unexcused absences be monitored, which would ultimately be removing the committee requirement.”
The proposed legislation was not meant to affect Student Council member attendance at committee meetings but to resolve an inconsistency in the bylaws.
A debate followed regarding whether the absence penalty for missing a committee meeting was beneficial or harmful toward the productiveness and diversity of Student Council as a whole.
One side argued that attendance at committee meetings is crucial and provides Student Council members with points of information that will be relevant in the future.
“Committee requirements are really important for giving representatives a reason for being here,” Vice-Chair of Student Council Derek Field said. “We all chose to fill these seats to work on issues important to us. Committee meetings engage Student Council members and give us a reason for doing our work.”
On the opposing side, Steven Hughes argued that it is ineffective to force Student Council members to attend committee meetings they have no interest in.
“If Student Council members want to attend then they will,” Hughes said. “Forcing members to attend and having committee requirements restricts the diversity of Student Council.”
There are two separate roles in ASM, Student Council members and committee members, Hughes said.
Many people are hindered by these requirements and prevented from participating in Student Council because of extensive time commitments regarding committee meetings, Hughes said.
“Mandatory committee meeting attendance discourages graduate students especially from participating in Student Council because they don’t have enough time,” Owczarek said. “Many graduate students have families, have children, and they don’t have excessive time to be spent at committee meetings.”
Megan Phillips, chair of the Nominations Board, argued that there is power in numbers for many campus wide issues. Having a committee requirement can help generate power of numbers.
“Considering the recent student voter registration campaign, there is definitely a power in numbers,” said Phillips. “We need everyone we can get to volunteer and requiring attendance at committee meetings can provide this.”
The Rules Committee planned for an alternative legislation to be proposed at the next meeting if this legislation were to fail. In the next legislation there will be mandatory committee requirements for Student Council members.
Other legislation regarding budget alterations to the Voter Registration and Education Campaign was proposed by Chair Tom Gierok and Rep. Jessica Franco-Morales. This legislation was approved.
“Oct. 15 is the last day to register to vote,” Franco-Morales said. “However, our campaign does not end here. We still need funds to purchase literatures and pledge cards to advertise the election.”
