Associated Students of Madison's University Affairs Chair Carl Fergus proposed legislation that would push the university to consider restructuring its attendance policy Wednesday.
The current attendance policy states that individual departments can determine their own guidelines for attendance. Fergus said this led to harsh attendance policies that do not consider student needs.
To structure the proposition, Fergus said, the University Affairs Committee looked at policies from other Big Ten schools. The committee said a policy similar to the one at the University of Minnesota would work best at UW-Madison.
Minnesota's policy states that students will not be reprimanded for missing classes in certain valid situations.
According to the policy, such situations would include ""illness of the student or his or her dependent, participation in intercollegiate athletic events pursuant to the UW-Athletic Board's Student-Athlete Missed Class Days Policy, subpoenas, jury duty, military service, bereavement, and religious observances.""
The student would still be responsible for making up missed work in their classes under the Minnesota policy.
If the legislation passes, Fergus said members of ASM would seek support from other student organizations, professors and faculty members to implement it.
Fergus said he thinks the policy is reasonable.
""I think this is a pretty even handed policy. I think we can find a lot of support,"" he said.
Also at the meeting, Representative Ellen Leedle and former Representative Max Love said they did not think members of ASM should voice their personal opinions on the New Badger Partnership without making it clear that they were not speaking on behalf of ASM as a whole.
""It does seem a little bit strange that leadership of ASM is sponsoring their political views and personal opinions on blogs that could be construed as representing the official opinions of the government,"" Love said.
