Several student senators have missed committee meetings this past year, but some say a lack of scheduling flexibility prevented them from fulfilling their roles.
Part 3, section 13 of the Senate Code of Procedures stipulates that should a student senator miss two consecutive Senate meetings, the Secretary of the Senate must declare their seat vacant. However, no such rule is included in the code for Senate committee meeting attendance.
Arts Student Senator Emmanuel Cantiller sat on the Curriculum Committee and the Appeals on Academic Standing Committee. He did not attend any of his assigned committee meetings during the 2021/2022 academic year.
In an interview with The Ubyssey, Cantiller said he was unable to attend his committee meetings because they fell within the working hours for his co-op job.
“I can’t even just pop in during the allotted times because I’m so busy,” he said.
Forestry Student Senator Tony Jiang sits on the Awards Committee and Library Committee. Jiang missed four consecutive Library Committee meetings from September 2021 to January 2022.
Jiang told The Ubyssey he was unable to attend the committee meetings in part due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. Jiang could not return to Canada until January 2022 and spent the first semester of the academic year in China.
While in China, Jiang said the major time difference prevented him from attending virtual Senate committee meetings.
Questions arose over sitting senators' engagement with their work during the 2022 senator-at-large debates. Newcomers questioned incumbents on participation in committees, as policies develop there before they are brought to full Senate meetings. Both Cantiller and Jiang were elected uncontested to their faculty senator seats for the 2022/23 academic year.
When asked how he caught up on what occurs at his assigned committees, Jiang said he read over the committee’s meeting minutes. These are often published several weeks after the assigned committee meeting date.
Cantiller said one way he caught up with the happenings of his assigned committees was by regularly talking with student senators who were able to attend. Yet he said he understands catch-up strategies such as these are less likely to enable effective student participation on committees.
“I think you would learn a lot more in Senate if you were consistent in attending all of the meetings,” Cantiller said. “If I had the opportunity to come to committee meetings, I would 100 per cent.”
Accommodating senators’ needs
When asked how each student senator is assigned to a committee, Cantiller said the process “mostly comes down to the Student Senate Caucus Chairs.”
Eshana Bhangu and Dante Agosti-Moro, the co-chairs of the caucus for the 2021/22 academic year, did not respond to requests for comment.
Jiang said that more can be done to accommodate students in each individual Senate committee.
“I feel like the chair of each committee could be communicating with student senators more and considering our time and schedule into scheduling of the committee,” he said.
In a written statement, Clerk of Senate Christopher Eaton said that in all cases but appeals committees, "the possible attendance of student senators is weighted equally to those of non-student senators."
Jiang also said that committee adaptability through the year could help committees that frequently observe low attendance.
“I think it’d be great to have a mechanism of recognizing how many people are attending each meeting and then maybe switching to another meeting time if there’s low attendance,” he said.
Cantiller said that while there is initial consultation on committee meeting scheduling, they are held static through the year.
Eaton wrote that “committees consider their meeting patterns regularly and ensuring the best possible attendance from all estates is always front-of-mind in those discussions.”
Yet, both Cantiller and Jiang said that greater flexibility in committee scheduling could help busy senators fulfill their duty in a more active way.
“Senate is what you can make of it,” Cantiller said. “You have the duty to do your part.”