The student government senators who are elected by students and paid with student fees to represent student interests are required to set aside three hours per week so that constituents can meet them, discuss campus issues and better understand how the ASUO works.
But many senators have trimmed back chances for their constituents to do that, according to data compiled by the Emerald that shows senators missed or didn’t record nearly 25 percent of their office hours this term.
The senators the Emerald spoke with said office-hour documentation is deceiving because many members forget to write their names on sign-in sheets and because the documentation is poorly kept.
Senators who aren’t holding sufficient office hours, attending required meetings or developing outreach strategies for their constituents are not being punished because no one is compiling the data that could result in their suspension or termination.
Two officers on the Senate are supposed to report non-fulfillment of duties, but they’re not. Senate officers blame subcommittee heads for not enforcing the rules. They also said individual senators should be taking responsibility for their own obligations.
According to data compiled by the Emerald, the 15 students currently on the Senate were absent a total of 19 times last term among 45 meetings, excluding two committees with minutes that couldn’t be compiled because they didn’t list meeting attendees. This term, they have also missed nearly a quarter of their office hours: 58 hours of the 246 required.
Senate President Stephanie Erickson said meeting minutes allow the Senate to keep track of absences, but the Senate ombudsman and vice president both said they are technically violating Senate rules because they’re not keeping track of how many absences each senator has. It’s ultimately the responsibility of committee heads and individual senators to meet their job requirements, they said.
Erickson said she doesn’t have to check whether senators are fulfilling their job requirements because she knows them all personally.
“You know who people are, so you know when people aren’t doing their job,” Erickson said.
Not held accountable
The Senate ombudsman, ASUO President-elect Jared Axelrod, compiled a report last term to check whether each senator was adequately representing his or her department and to make sure senators were meeting office hours and budget hearing attendance requirements. One senator was removed for not being in the correct seat, and another was asked to hold extra office hours for missing a meeting between the Athletics Department and student government that discussed how many tickets students would receive for next year’s football and men’s basketball games.
But Axelrod didn’t report whether senators were meeting their office hours requirements, he said, because the logbook for signing in and out was still in the works. He also didn’t report the number of absences each senator had for the various subcommittees.
Academic senators make up half of the Senate. They represent particular majors, such as journalism and law, and they are expected to represent their constituents in those departments and the departments themselves.
There are six academic senators, but none of them have posted office hours in their respective departments this year.
Axelrod said it isn’t his job to make sure the office hours are posted, despite rules that state that he is required to supervise Senate office hours. He said the Academic Senate chairman and individual senators should post them.
As ombudsman, Axelrod is charged with filing non-fulfillment-of-duties charges against senators who don’t meet job requirements, which include holding at least three office hours per week. Records show that 13 of the 15 senators haven’t met their office-hour requirements this term.
He said it’s not a rule that office hours be documented, only that they be completed.
“Each senator needs to take a sense of personal responsibility for themselves,” he said, adding that it’s individuals’ faults first, then he deals with non-fulfillment of duties as ombudsman.
Regarding meetings, Axelrod said most of the senators were new this year so they didn’t know the full extent of their obligations.
Job duties violated
Senate Vice President Sara Hamilton has violated one of her duties by not informing the Senate president of office hour and meeting violations.
She said she’s in the office five days a week and keeps an eye on other senators, but said she’s not going to attend all the committee meetings just to make sure everybody’s going. Hamilton said it should be the committee heads’ responsibilities to ensure that people are attending, she said.
“You don’t go poking your nose into someone else’s business,” she said, adding that it’s understood by senators that it’s Axelrod’s job to keep tabs on attendance and office hours.
Hamilton said she doesn’t look at the office hours schedule to make sure everybody’s in the office when they’re supposed to be, but she said she would report it if she noticed people not making their office hours.
The Senate rules state that Hamilton and Axelrod, the vice president and ombudsman, are both required to tell the president when other Senate members aren’t doing their jobs.
Reviewing outreach
Also as ombudsman, Axelrod is supposed to “review each term the outreach strategies employed by the senators to reach and inform their departments of Senate action,” according to the rules. He has not done this, he said.
“(Outreach) should be taken out … or just changed so it’s not as vague,” Axelrod said.
New system proposed
Missing two regularly scheduled meetings in a single term constitutes non-fulfillment of duties charges, according to the Senate rules.
At least three senators missed two committee meetings last term, and two students who aren’t senators but are members of the committee that decides budgets for student programs should have been fired for missing eight meetings each.
Axelrod said he’ll recommend a weekly or bi-monthly check-in to keep track of absences next year’s Senate.

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