The Notre Dame Student Senate convened for a brief meeting Wednesday night to debate a proposed amendment to the bylaws on senator attendance.
After roll call and announcements from student body president Daniel Jung, the assembly debated resolution SO 2324-08, which would update the Senate bylaws to require that proxies be members of the same dorm or organization as the absent senator. As it stands, anyone can proxy for an absent Senator — voting in their stead during the meeting — regardless of their dorm.
The resolution would also disallow other members of the Senate to proxy for absent members of the Senate, including non-voting members. Student body vice president Aidan Rezner explained that the goal of the resolution is to ensure that all votes are represented accurately.
Several senators expressed their concerns about finding someone from their own dorm who would be willing to proxy.
“I feel like on both fronts, I strongly disagree with this,” said Paul Stoller, class of 2024 president. “As it is right now, it is incredibly hard to find a proxy and I'm sure anyone who's tried to find a proxy knows that."
"It's my third year doing this, it's hard. So … I understand the rationale but putting more limits on this is just going to be a mess.”
Several senators also explained that by looking at the minutes beforehand, they can prepare their proxies to vote as they would, regardless of dorm.
Hall President's Council co-chair Peter Schimpf explained a situation where non-voting members can proxy for voting members of the Senate while still having their organization represented.
“Between the two co-chairs of Hall President's Council, only one of us has to be here to represent Hall President's Council, and we're both non-voting members. So [two weeks ago] [co-chair] Bridget [Schippers] was here representing Hall President's Council and I was here proxying for Paul [Stoller],” Schimpf said.
“In that case, there was no double counting of votes. I was very clear on what I was supposed to do and how I was supposed to represent his views on the issues.”
Judicial Council president Koryn Isa said that even if a senator looks at the minutes beforehand, they should still be required to send a proxy from their constituency.
“When the agenda is sent out, there is a potential to have to vote on something that you could not have told your proxy exactly how to vote for,” Isa said. “And to have a proxy that is not part of the constituency when you're trying to vote on something [that was changed from the original agenda], they just won't have the background to know what people from your team would want.”
The resolution failed to pass, with only six senators voting in favor of the bylaw change.
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