The undergraduate student government had a packed agenda for its
meeting Tuesday night, but nothing was voted on, nothing was
approved, nothing was rejected ““ no action could be taken
because not enough councilmembers were in attendance.
With only seven out of 13 Undergraduate Students Association
Council members attending the meeting, council failed to meet
quorum. Two-thirds of the officers must be present in order for
council to be able to vote on any action items.
Council then adjourned within 20 minutes of the announced
meeting time as it failed to meet quorum, in accordance with USAC
bylaws.
Action items in the agenda that could not be voted upon included
approval of mid-year base budget allocations for student groups,
approval of a revised USAC Election Code and a resolution to
support the University of California Nuclear Free Campaign.
“Not having quorum is a definite disappointment,”
said President David Dahle.
“I really wanted to take care of the base budget and
Election Code stuff … and next week’s meeting will be
packed,” he said.
Most councilmembers agreed that delaying the action items was an
inconvenience.
“It’s difficult because there were a lot of
important things to take care of … for one time of the week,
elected representatives should be there,” said Financial
Supports Commissioner Andrew LaFlamme.
Facilities Commissioner Adam Pearlman agreed that working with
council as a whole was an important part of councilmembers’
jobs.
“(The officers’) liaison with council is a bulk of
their job,” said Pearlman.
Having attended only his third meeting as USAC’s newest
councilmember, Pearlman said he hoped low attendance will not
become a pattern.
But some councilmembers said that sometimes not attending a
meeting is inevitable.
Unfortunate circumstances do come up, Dahle said.
But only certain reasons are understandable, Pearlman said. He
questioned the reasoning behind some councilmembers who
weren’t at the meeting but were in the building earlier that
day.
A few councilmembers couldn’t make the meeting due to
extreme circumstances.
“I feel so bad,” said External Vice President Chris
Neal who along with Cultural Affairs Commissioner Robbie Clark had
been snowed-in and stuck in the East Coast during the time of the
meeting.
“I have been at all the meetings I could have been
at,” Neal said, adding that the president should consider
occasionally checking in on councilmembers who don’t attend
meetings.
“It’s the president’s role to keep council
together,” Neal said.
This is the second time Council has not met quorum. But on
several occasions this year, Council had to wait about 10-15
minutes after its scheduled time until quorum was met.
“Its a shame,” said General Representative Adam
Harmetz. “Attendance has been low, we’ve been close to
not reaching quorum many times … it reflects badly on
council.”
LaFlamme shared the sentiment.
“It looks like its becoming a trend,” he said.
“Everybody, myself included, must budget their time so we are
able to come.”
But overall, though council attendance has just been OK, it
hasn’t been worse than past years, Dahle said.