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None of the important issues were discussed during the general student senate meeting on Tuesday due to lack of attendance caused by Greek Week at the University of Maine.
Greek Week is a time for fraternities and sororities to compete against one another. When Greeks attend the specialized events, their fraternity or sorority receives points.
“If senators did not attend the Greek event, a lecture and a movie, they would be penalized by not receiving points [for their fraternity or sorority],” said Senate Vice President Brigham McNaughton.
According to McNaughton, at least two-thirds of the student senate must be present in order to discuss the important issues on the agenda.
“We had 13 senators, one shy of half,” he said. “We needed 14 present to vote.”
Some of the important issues that were laid off discussion included appointing or electing four new committee chairmembers by the senate. These seats included: two executive budgetary committee chairmembers, one student affairs committee chairmember and one membership committee chairmember.
McNaughton said that they “all would have been” appointed or elected Tuesday night if at least 14 members were present.
Vice President McNaughton called Tuesday’s meeting a “lack of quorum.”
“I feel that the senate should take priority over other events,” he said.
Vice President McNaughton ,asked head of Greek Life Gustavo Burkett, for the student senators to be excused so that they would still be able to attend the GSS meeting. However, that request was denied.
“Excusal was mandated by Interfraternity Council and Panhel Council documents are governing bodies of fraternities and sororities. They voted on the Greek Week rules, which included clauses about who could be excused for what,” said McNaughton. “Gustavo Burkett enforces the excusal policy, so it was both an issue with the documents and with the enforcement for not approving student senators. This was the issue that the general student senate ran into. It is my hope that these will be rectified for next year.
“It is frustrating that senators cannot be excused from events in order to fulfill their duties to students,” said McNaughton.
Student Senator Jesse Ouellette said he was upset that none of the very important issues were discussed and held back because of Greek Week.
“I think it was unfortunate when some of the senators didn’t come to the meeting because of [other] obligations,” said Ouellette.
After the GSS meeting was called to order, roll call was established. Despite the lack of attendance, McNaughton surprisingly adjourned the meeting for 10 minutes in hopes that more student senators would show up. Unfortunately, after that time, only one or two more people showed up.
The meeting ended early due to the lacking attendance of senators. A senator mentioned that this meeting was unordinary compared to the other GSS meetings because of Greek Week.
Brigham said that he hopes to organize a compromise with the Dean of Students Office so that the Greek senators can “fulfill [both] their duties as a senator and a brother or sister.”
Although half of the items on the agenda had to be placed aside due to lack of senate members who usually debate on these issues, the other issue addressed was elections.
Elections are scheduled for next Monday in which new senators will be sworn in. Each candidate will need to have a petition signed with signatures. The petitions are due Sept. 29. New senators will be sworn in on Thursday, Oct. 6.
