Since the start of spring quarter, three senators in the Student Government Association have left the organization due to a new attendance policy implemented at the beginning of the school year.
Shaza Loutfi, who was one of two SGA senators representing the College of LAS, refused to resign from SGA, believing her last absence should have been excused.
According to the SGA attendance policy, the only absences that will be excused are those concerning illness or family emergency and must be approved by the president or vice president. Loutfi’s last absence was a trip to the United Arab Emirates to visit family who had just fled Syria.
“In essence, I was expelled from SGA for visiting my Syrian refugee family,” Loutfi said. “I literally have not seen my family in almost four years now and at times can only guess if they are alive or dead. When this opportunity came to me suddenly in mid-March, it wasn’t even a question – I had to go. And even though it resulted in my expulsion from SGA, which deeply saddened and upset me, I do not regret going at all.”
While two of the senators – who violated the attendance policy by missing three SGA meetings – resigned from their post, Loutfi was automatically expelled from the organization after refusing to resign.
“It’s a stupid policy,” Jonathan Slater, the newly appointed senator of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (LAS), said. “The punishments for breaking it are far too harsh. For instance, there is no intermediate step between being in good standing and automatic expulsion with the loss of the privilege to serve on SGA in any capacity during the remainder of their DePaul career,” Slater said.
The new policy was passed unanimously at the beginning of the year when SGA voted on the new constitution, which happens annually.
“The reason why (the policy) was added was because, at the beginning of the academic year, many elected SGA members were missing multiple meetings,” said Casey Clemmons, president of SGA. “SGA’s internal Constitutional Revisions Board (CRB) drafted and proposed changes to resolve that issue.”
Of the three senators, one member chose to proactively resign due to a Thursday night class that would interfere with their ability to attend SGA’s weekly general body meetings. If a senator chooses to resign instead of facing automatic expulsion, they are still eligible to hold SGA office again while at DePaul.
Slater proposed a motion to overturn Loutfi’s expulsion that was seconded by Bobby Robaina, the senator representing transfer students. To overturn the expulsion, the motion needed to have a supermajority, or two-thirds of the organization’s vote. The final tally was 8-for-13 against, so the motion was defeated.
“(Loutfi) exceeded the two allowed unexcused absences and while she chose not to resign and therefore was automatically expelled, this situation was handled just as all of the other cases were,” said Clemmons.
Despite losing three members to the attendance policy, Clemmons said the transition has had little effect on SGA.
“Over the summer and at the beginning of the year, [SGA Vice President] Sarah [Rens] and I created an extensive SGA Guidebook, which is provided to all new members of SGA,” said Clemmons. “The guidebook, which is just under 50 pages long, is part of the thorough transition process that we go through with every member.”
While Loutfi agrees that the policy has not had a large effect on SGA overall, she does see it affecting the representation of the College of LAS. The college, the largest in the university, usually has two senators, however Slater is currently the school’s only representative. Slater is new to SGA, stepping into his position at the beginning of the quarter to replace the member who proactively resigned.
“Right after my appeal was rejected, I attended a meeting with (Slater) because he would not have been able to discuss the initiative,” said Loutfi. “Had Jon (Slater) not stepped up, both the LAS senator positions, the representation of the largest college at DePaul, would have been left vacant.”