Oswego State Student Association operated without meeting the minimum number of senators at the start of this semester by enacting a new provision for the first time.
SA enacted the Skeleton Crew Provision, which passed late in the spring semester, for the first time at the Sept. 10 senate meeting in order to conduct senate business without meeting the minimum number of senators required by SA bylaws. SA typically requires 12 senators at meetings in order to reach quorum requirements. The provision is still in effect.
Edward Kelly, chief justice of SA supreme court and SA vice president during the 2018-2019 school year, said quorum is meant to ensure there are enough senators to adequately represent the campus.
“As a student body, as a student government, we want to make sure we’re representing students to the best of our ability,” Kelly said. “If we only have two or three students there, that’s not really representing the student body.”
However, Kelly said quorum requirements are always an issue at the start of semesters, when the shuffle of a new semester meant some senators could no longer participate and recruiting new senators could take weeks.
“The reason why [the provision] was made was because [in] the beginning of 2019, we didn’t have enough senators because some students had [to leave senate] because of class or other reasons, so we didn’t have the numbers to hold a meeting,” Matthew O’Donnell, SA vice president, said.
Prospective senators, depending on if they are representing a specific residence hall or are at-large, which represents the campus as a whole, must collect and submit signatures from students of their constituency. Residence hall senators need 50 signatures from residents of that building, while at-large senators require 100 signatures from any student.
Lacking senators at the start of every semester last year led Kelly to pursue a solution to the perennial issue, which resulted in the Skeleton Crew Provision passed at the end of spring semester, when Kelly was vice president.
“At the beginning of every academic year, we get slow,” Kelly said. “It’s difficult at first for people to get signatures in and recruit senators. That takes a little bit of time, we’re not going to get that in the first two weeks of classes.”
Without enough senators, SA cannot meet. According to senator Maryjay Ololekan, no senate meetings would lead to disappointing the students and student organizations that make up their constituency.
“If senate is closed or canceled, that’s like SA’s government shutdown,” said Ololekan, who is also the chair of the Rules and Judiciary Committee. “You can’t have a government shutdown every week. Nothing is getting done.”
Once quorum is met, the provision must be immediately revoked per the provision rules. Then, according to the provision text, all senate business conducted under the provision is reviewed by the Rules and Judiciary Committee for compliance with SA bylaws with an investigation into any violation being conducted by the judicial branch of the SA government. After the review process, a bill must be submitted to the senate body detailing the Rules and Judiciary findings.
The provision was an effort to keep SA running without interruptions, which were a problem during his time as a senator last year, according to O’Donnell.
“Between me, the last vice president, Edward Kelly, and the Director of Veterans Affairs Rob Davies … we had two decisions, we could either just lower the number of quorum that was required, or we could come up with a provision that allows to hold a meeting no matter what the number is,” O’Donnell said.
Kelly understands the concern that SA could ignore quorum with these rules, but that too few senators is a temporary problem.
“There is that fear, but we have never in the history of senate, since 1960, have not been able to make quorum for an entire year,” Kelly said. “I’m not saying it can’t happen, because obviously crazy things do happen, but I don’t foresee that happening.”
The Oswegonian file photo from 2018
