The Student Senate appointed two senators as alternates to the Council of Representatives at Wednesday's meeting.
Knott senator Brian Agganis and Cavanaugh senator Jordan Bongiovanni were unanimously approved as alternates to the Council.
The Council of Representatives passed a resolution at its meeting Monday which called for the formation of a committee to "consider attendance in ethics, including ... proper representation of the students by the members of the Council of Representatives." The resolution states that the reason for this committee stems from the fact that the Council "is yet to constitute its bylaws regarding ethics and attendance."
Until proper attendance policies for the Council are decided, the resolution provides for each organization within the Council to send an alternate in the event that their elected Council representative is unable to attend a meeting. When sent as a representative for their organization, an alternate will have full voting privileges at meetings.
Keenan Senator Dan Zenker, one of four Senate representatives on the Council, said the alternates provide for full Senate representation at Council meetings and also ensure that Senators will not be counted absent from Council meetings.
"Each member gets three unexcused absences, but now if we don't go, one of the alternates can go, and we don't get an unexcused absence," Zenker said. "They also take all of our voting power with them to the meetings."
The Council's resolution did not mandate that alternates had to be officially appointed, but Zenker said he thought electing alternates was a good idea.
"We just wanted to make sure that the Senate had official alternates. Now, we can keep them updated on what's going on [in the Council]."
In other Senate news
- Pasquerilla West Senator Jana Lamplota reported to the Senate that a meeting with Bill Kirk, associate vice president for Residence Life, regarding the Senate-sponsored petition to move the ROTC Presidential Pass in Review ceremony to an outdoor location will occur Tuesday. The Senate will present its petition to Kirk in order to show the amount of student support for the transfer of the ceremony from Loftus to a proposed South Quad location.
- The Senate Committee on Ethics issued new attendance rules to senators Wednesday. These rules include mandatory attendance records for all Senate committee meetings, and 24-hour notice from any Senator missing a committee meeting. The rules stipulate that Senators who reach four unexcused absences from a committee meeting or four absences from full Senate meetings will receive a written warning from the Ethics Committee. At five absences, the Ethics Committee will meet to determine a course of action to be taken in the matter.
