The University of Michigan Central Student Government met over Zoom Thursday evening to discuss swearing in new members, attendance policy for CSG meetings and motions to recall representatives before the meeting was adjourned early.
There were several calls to delay or appeal the swearing in of Rackham student Curtiss Engstrom, the Rackham Student Government nominee who would fill the Rackham representative vacancy in CSG. This vacancy follows the recall of former Rackham representative Felipe Moretti, who was recalled due to excessive absences. CSG Speaker Mario Thaqi, an LSA junior, said the swearing-in was procedural and not up for debate during the meeting.
“I’d encourage you to take it up with RSG leadership or make a case for (Central Student Judiciary) so they could make a decision on it,” Thaqi said. “But unfortunately, I’m not going to be entertaining that today.”
Engstrom was sworn in as a Rackham representative in CSG.
There was a motion to recall School of Social Work representative Nicolás Juárez due to excessive absences. A motion to recall is automatically called after four unexcused absences; Juárez had nine absences. Juárez was not present at this meeting to comment.
Rackham representative Kaitlin Karmen objected to Juárez’s recall and initiated a debate before the vote. Karmen asked for leniency in the attendance policy for new members and said she felt party divides were affecting CSG’s ability to serve their constituents.
“I do understand that CSG has rules, but I think there’s room for understanding here as we are just beginning our year of working together,” Karmen said. “This whole ‘Save CSG’ versus ‘Shut It Down’ nonsense isn’t going to help anything be accomplished. I would ask that we all show each other some understanding and not vote to recall democratically elected representatives because of some silly party division that isn’t even real.”
Engineering representative Nina Clark said she felt even new CSG members should make attempts to follow CSG’s rules and expressed concern about the amount of meetings missed by Juárez.
“Despite being new to CSG, I still put in a lot of effort to familiarize myself with the rules,” Clark said. “While I’m definitely not a rules expert, I do think that maybe we do extend some grace under certain circumstances. Personally, I feel like nine absences is a little excessive considering that (is) missing pretty much all of the meetings.”
LSA representative Margaret Peterman closed the debate by raising concerns about a growing divide within CSG and called on members to focus on the interests of the student body as a whole, not just the interests of their party.
“This has not ever been and should not ever be a student body government that should be dividing themselves explicitly into party lines,” Peterman said. “I feel like that would be dangerous to create that in the future. I think one of the best parts about CSG is that there (are) not really solid parties. So I would just encourage everyone to kind of put aside party names and not define yourself based on the party that you ran … Try to serve your students as best as you can and to just do that the best way that you see fit.”
The motion to recall Juárez failed with 15 votes in the affirmative yes and 19 votes against.
LSA representative Lillian Conybeare was the next motion to recall. There was an objection but no call for a debate. Only 19 members voted, not meeting the necessary 23 members to continue the meeting. After a 10-minute recess to allow members to rejoin, CSG Vice Speaker Eric Veal Jr., an LSA sophomore, called attendance again, which did not meet a quorum with only 22 members remaining.
The meeting was adjourned before representatives could discuss elections, community concerns, committee reports, nominations, introductions to two resolutions and minutes from previous meetings, according to the agenda shared before the meeting.
Summer News Editor Edra Timmerman can be reached at edrakmt@umich.edu.
The post CSG discusses attendance policies and recalls appeared first on The Michigan Daily.
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