The Student Union Senate passed the Attendance Improvement Act of 2009 at the Feb. 22 Senate meeting in order to improve current Senate attendance rates, according to Executive Senator and Acting Vice President Andrew Brooks '10. The bylaw amendment will "define the phrase 'extenuating circumstances' and restate the requirement of Senators to notify the President of the Union Senate of an absence due to such circumstances. In addition, the bylaw amendment will automatically add a censure resolution to be considered by the Senate should a senator accumulate two or more unexcused absences."

Before voting on the bylaw amendment, senators discussed how to decide the appropriate action to be taken against senators found in violation of the attendance policy. As written in the final version of the amendment, "Should a senator miss two or more meetings of the Senate without providing advance notice of an extenuating circumstance to the President of the Union Senate, a censure resolution shall be automatically added to the agenda of the next meeting of the Senate."

"This bylaw simply makes it mandatory that a resolution appear for censure upon a senator being absent twice . It wasn't an automatic censure, but rather it is a resolution that appears that [the senators] then have the choice whether we want to enforce or not. And so it leaves it to individual senators to decide if they feel comfortable passing it or not," Brooks explained.

The amendment is not retroactive, which means that senators will not be penalized for their previous attendance records, Brooks said.

The bylaw passed by a vote of 11-3 with two abstentions.

Nipun Marwaha, senator for the class of 2012, said that he voted in favor of the amendment because "other [senators] have been egregiously missing meetings; some of the numbers added up to . a 68-percent absence rate, and that's why I thought it was necessary to have some sort of action being taken automatically, because everyone is hesitant to punish a peer." When asked if he had any reservations about the amendments, Marwaha said, "If I was more involved in the writing of this bill, in particular, I would have probably added after a certain number [of absences] the question of impeachment would be automatic; not after two, maybe after, like, seven."

Senator for the Castle Nathan Robinson '11 said that he voted against the bill because he "thought it was only being introduced as an easier way to remove senators and punish those who didn't attend [Senate meetings]." He added, "I agree that attendance is an issue in the Senate, and I think that senators should attend meetings. I don't have a problem with efforts to ensure that senators attend meetings; I just believe that it should be done through encouragement rather than punishment."

When Brooks originally introduced the bylaw amendment at the Feb. 1 Senate meeting, he said he believed that some senators were taking advantage of the previous attendance bylaw, which instructed senators to "attend all meetings of the Senate and committees on which they are assigned, except in extenuatingcircumstances." Brooks said that "[some senators] have taken 'extenuating circumstance' to mean any sort of excuse." When the bylaw was first introduced, there was discussion about putting a cap on the number of excused or unexcused absences; Brooks suggested the cap be set at two. At the time, the discussion also included the idea that senators found in violation of this policy could be punished with censure or impeachment, Brooks said.

However, the final version of the bylaw did not include a cap on the number of excused absences before a senator faces consequences. Brooks said, "After meeting with various senators, [it was] decided . that we should not limit the number of excused absences. There are legitimate things that could come up, legitimate extenuating circumstances that could come up. We did agree that unexcused absences weren't acceptable." The issue of excused versus unexcused absences is addressed in the first section of the amendment, which reads, "Extenuating circumstances are situations that arise which are unusual and extreme. Situations that occur regularly or semi-regularly are not extenuating circumstances.