S.02-44

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MEMORANDUM

To: Senate

From: Albert Chan, Convocation Senator

Date: April 19, 2002 - amended May 1, 2002

Subject: Parking privileges for Student Senators

As a former student senator who served on eleven committees and had a 96% Senate

attendance rate over three terms, I find it very offensive that some students would run for

Senate for personal gains with little or no intention to contribute to university

governance.

Student senators have been given free parking privileges according to institutional

tradition. Meanwhile, no free parking privileges have been provided to faculty and

administration senators, who are at least as devoted to Senate as student senators.

Over the years, many student senators utilized their free parking privileges, even though

they missed most of their Senate meetings. I raised this concern with the Senate Review

Committee in 1999, however, the SRC found it impossible to regulate attendance due to

the

University Act

restrictions.

S

I took the liberty to review the student senator attendance record for the current Senate

year (June 2001 to March 2002) and discovered that the underlying problem still exists.

Here is a summary of the review:

There were fourteen student senators: three held office in June and July, one between

June and December, two since November and the remaining eight since June.

Four student senators had perfect attendance. In contrast, nine student senators (64%)

attended only half or fewer meetings held within their term of office and four of them

attended a quarter or fewer meetings.

Total number of possible attendance:

85

Total number of meetings attended: 40

Attendance rate: 47%

Given that student senators who occupy their positions and miss meetings prevent other

interested students from participating in Senate, it is inappropriate to extend free parking

privileges to these student senators. As a result, the following motion is now being

introduced to the Senate floor:

"That Senate recommends to the Vice-President, Finance and Administration that

effective September 2002, free parking privileges should be removed from

student senators who attended fewer than 75% of all the Senate meetings that

were held within their term of office during the previous semester."

M04i0 P.'!ed. ?

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