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SP.07.06
February 25, 2008

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
URBANA-CHAMPAIGN SENATE

University Statutes and Senate Procedures
(Final; Action)

SP.07.06          Revision to the Bylaws, Part A.12 – Meetings

BACKGROUND
The Illinois Student Senate (ISS) has created provisions which allow it to remove non-participating members. However, such removed senators remain members of the UIUC Senate, and because the ISS Bylaws stipulate that membership in the UIUC Senate automatically confers membership in ISS, these removed senators cannot be replaced on ISS until they are no longer members of the UIUC Senate.

At present,these non-participating senators cannot be removed from the UIUC Senate until they have missed two consecutive UIUC Senate meetings. Because of the scheduling of these meetings, by the time these non-participating senators have missed the first two UIUC Senate meetings and are removed from the UIUC Senate, much of the semester has passed.  During this extended time period, the academic units to which these non-participating senators belong are not represented in ISS, which meets on a weekly basis.

Because it would be beneficial to expedite the process of removing and replacing delinquent student senators, USSP proposes to revise the UIUC Senate Bylaws as follows.

RECOMMENDATIONS
The Senate Committee on University Statutes and Senate Procedures recommends approval of the following revisions to the Bylaws.  Text to be deleted is indicated in [square brackets] and text to be added is underscored.

PROPOSED REVISIONS TO THE BYLAWS, PART A.12

Part A – Meetings
12.

(a) Attendance is expected of all Senators at all regularly scheduled Senate meetings, and of all committee members at regularly scheduled meetings of the Senate's committees.

(b) A Senator who is required to miss a regularly scheduled Senate meeting should notify the Senate Clerk prior to the meeting. A committee member who is required to miss a regularly scheduled meeting of a Senate committee should notify the committee chair prior to the meeting.

(c) If a Senator misses two consecutive regularly scheduled Senate meetings during an academic year and has failed to notify the Senate Clerk prior to such absences as described in subsection (b), the Clerk shall notify the Senator in writing that because of irregular attendance, the Senator is presumed to have resigned from the Senate, effective as of the date of the letter.

(d) If a student is removed from the senate of the Illinois student government, the senate of the Illinois student government will notify the Clerk of the UIUC Senate.  The Clerk shall notify the Senator in writing that, because of action of the senate of the Illinois student government, the Senator is presumed to have resigned from the UIUC Senate, effective as of the date of the letter.

[d.] e.         Upon receipt of [the] a letter described in subsections (c) or (d), the Senator may, within fourteen calendar days after the date of the letter, notify the Senate Clerk in writing of his or her desire to continue serving as a Senator. Upon receipt of such a letter, the Clerk shall reinstate the Senator. If the Senator fails to respond to [the] a letter described in subsections (c) or (d) within fourteen calendar days after the date of the letter, the resignation becomes final.

[e.] f.          No Senator may be reinstated more than once in any one Senate term under the procedures outlined in subsections (c), [and] (d), and (e) above. [That is, upon dispatch of a second letter required under subsection (c) the affected Senator's resignation is final.]

[f.] g.          If a Senator's resignation becomes final under subsection [(d)] (e) or (f), the Senate Clerk shall notify the Senator's unit of that fact so that a replacement can be selected to serve the remainder of the resigned Senator's term.

[g.] h.         If a committee member misses two consecutive regularly scheduled meetings of a committee of the Senate and has failed to notify the committee chair prior to such absences as described in subsection (b), the committee chair may notify the Senate Clerk of that fact. The Senate Clerk shall then notify the committee member in writing that because of irregular attendance, the committee member is presumed to have resigned from that committee, effective as of the date of the letter. Upon receipt of this letter, a committee member may be reinstated using the same procedures and subject to the same limitations described in subsections [(d)] (e) and [(e)] (f) above. If a committee member's resignation becomes final under these procedures, the Senate Clerk shall notify the chair of the Committee on Committees so that a replacement can be selected to serve the remainder of the resigned committee member's term.

[h.] i.          At the end of each semester, the Senate Clerk shall cause the attendance records for that semester of all Senators at regularly scheduled Senate meetings to be published in any medium or publication chosen by the Senate Clerk.

University Statutes and Senate Procedures
William Maher, Chair
Bettina Francis
H. George Friedman
Peter Loeb
Vera Mainz
Carlos Ramirez-Rosa
Ann Reisner
David Rockwood
Elyne Cole, ex officio (designee)
Robert C. Damrau, ex officio
Larry Mann, Observer