Poor SAC attendance prompts attempt to revise constitution

The Student Activities Council has been plagued by poor attendance this semester, prompting two proposed amendments to its constitution that would clarify the number of members needed to pass motions or future amendments. Many SAC members have missed one or two of the four meetings held this year, despite the fact that groups whose representatives miss two meetings suffer a 10 percent budget cut and risk losing SAC recognition. Eight representatives have missed two or more meetings and have been declared "unrecognized," only five of which have been re-recognized. Another 55 representatives -- out of the 137 membered group -- have missed one meeting. SAC Chairperson and College junior Steve Schorr attributed the poor attendance to a failure of communication, rather than a lack of interest in SAC issues. "I think it's almost always an accident," Schorr said. But accident or not, the poor attendance has led to some confusion over the number of people needed to pass motions at meetings. Two clauses in the current constitution say a majority of voting members -- a simple majority for regular motions, and a two-thirds majority for constitutional amendments -- must ratify an item for it to take effect. But it's not clear what "voting members" means. Some interpretations hold that a motion needs support from 50 percent of the SAC body to pass -- but since so many members are frequently absent, this makes passing motions harder than intended. Under this interpretation, for example, at a meeting with only 120 of the body's 137 groups in attendance, a motion would need support from 69 groups to pass -- or 57 percent of those present. The amendments would define "voting members" as any member present at a meeting, eliminating this potential problem. They would have no effect on SAC quorum -- 50 percent of all groups would still need to be present for any business to take place. Many SAC representatives agreed with Schorr's assessment of the attendance problem. Wharton senior Winnifer Thomas-Cox said the Wharton Entertainment Industry lost recognition after their representative was absent from two SAC meetings -- once because the group had recently changed presidents and the second time because their representative was told that missing part of a meeting would be counted as an absence. Thomas-Cox said she felt "out of the SAC loop" and that parts of the SAC attendance policy were unfair. The Wharton Entertainment Industry plans to seek re-recognition. College junior Joe Sciulli said a representative from Chord on Blues may have been absent from two meetings because -- since a cappella groups don't get money from SAC -- they don't feel an obligation to attend. And College junior Chantal Dunn said the University Choral/Choir Society has two absences because of a previous engagement and no knowledge of the meeting, respectively. Some representatives said they thought the amendments would increase attendance and encourage responsibility among members.