Although elected and appointed representatives for the Associated Students of Madison make commitments to advocate for students at weekly meetings, two groups within the larger organization have been dealing with low attendance this year.
While attendance has always been a slight problem for both the Student Council and the Student Services Finance Committee, it has grown into a bigger issue that could potentially affect the groups’ abilities to accomplish their duties.
ASM’s Nominations Board has had to fill eight vacant Council seats this semester, for example—four of which have been filled, one is in the process of being filled and three still remain empty. Nominations Board Chair Vanessa Studer said she also expects more seats to open next semester as students leave to study abroad.
SSFC has removed two of their fifteen members this semester alone for poor attendance. Several other members have come close to surpassing the maximum amount of excused and unexcused absences they are allowed.
SSFC Chair Colin Barushok said he had a few ideas why attendance may be lower this year.
“I would think it’s because the flavor of the committee is turning more activist these past few years,” Barushok said. “So the kinds of members who serve on the committee are more people who see themselves as activists versus people who see themselves as number crunchers.”
He also theorized that the low attendance could be attributed to the types of majors involved in SSFC.
“One day we had three members who were all at the same exam on a Thursday night,” Barusok said. “And I said, ‘I wish I could’ve known about this sooner, because I would have called up your professor and got you an excuse.’”
Between the two organizations, SSFC is hit much harder by low attendance because it needs eight of the 15 members to attend meetings in order to approve groups’ eligibility for segregated fees, as well as approving those groups’ yearly budgets.
Absences also affect the organization’s ability to move efficiently through budget hearings, given their very tight budget schedule. One of SSFC’s meetings was cancelled due to failure to meet quorum, Barushok said, so now they are meeting Thursday, the day before the campus-wide Study Day.
“I think that it’s unfortunate if people don’t come ready to do the work that they were either elected to do, or appointed to do, or chosen to do, because that really sets back not only SSFC’s timeline, but it’s unfair to the students that come prepared and ready to present to SSFC,” said ASM Chair Carmen Goséy.
For Student Council, the issues surpass general attendance. The body has had to fill many vacancies, and without quorum to approve new members, those members cannot be approved on time.
“Absences really hinder the work Student Council is trying to accomplish,” Goséy said.
Barushok said he hopes to add a question concerning attendance to the SSFC application: whether the potential member would be willing to sacrifice other engagements to attend meetings.
Although Barushok said he is not enthused about rescheduling a meeting so close to exam week, the budget schedule requires a makeup.
“We have to reschedule. We have to get these budgets done,” Barushok said. “We can’t give up on our groups. That would be not doing our job.”
UPDATE Dec. 13 12:20 p.m.: An earlier version of this article stated SSFC impeached two members, while the committee actually removed these two members. The Daily Cardinal regrets this error.
