Despite having already removed multiple members this school year, Student Services Finance Committee passed legislation Thursday allowing unlimited excused absences rather than a bill that would have made it more difficult for members struggling with attendance to return to the committee.
The failed bill stated that an SSFC member who is removed would be ineligible to serve on the committee for the rest of the session, as well as the following one. Under the proposed legislation, if a removed SSFC member tried to rejoin during their ineligible period, the committee would hold a hearing which could end in the student’s immediate permanent removal.
“If there’s greater demand to sit on this committee, then I think that we should allow new voices to come to the table to talk about the very important work that we do, rather than have an old voice who got removed because they demonstrated that they didn’t care enough about their own committee to meet attendance standards,” Secretary Kyle Watter, who introduced the amendment, said.
The motion failed 5-4.
SSFC did, however, pass legislation allowing committee members an unlimited number of excused absences.
Members will need to fill out a form 24 hours before missing the meeting for the absence to be excused. Watter said under this legislation, members are only penalized if they aren’t communicating.
“I think the major benefits of it is it makes an unlimited number of excused absences,” Watter said. “So as long as you’re telling us where you’re going to be, and you have a good reason and it’s within 24 hours or if it was an emergency, then that’s fine.”
The motion passed with eight yes votes and three abstentions.
SSFC also passed the adoption of policy and procedures in a unanimous vote, allowing for standing laws to be combined into one document.
Rep. Jordan Gaal said this will make SSFC’s policies more accessible to members.
“Right now our policies live in a lot of different places and not really in one central location where they’re easily accessible,” Gaal said. “This puts them in one document and combines them with the standing rules.”
