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.