Monday, April 13, the newly-elected Student Assembly representatives will be inaugurated in the Great Hall of the Sir Christopher Wren Building, officially commencing the 334th session of SA. As the 333rd session comes to a close, The Flat Hat has compiled data on attendance at weekly senate and committee meetings.
Regular attendance to meetings is mandated, per the Student Assembly Code. Excessive absences may result in a senator being subject to an attendance review or facing potential impeachment.
“An Article of Impeachment shall automatically be introduced by the secretary of the Senate after an undergraduate Senator’s eighth absence or a graduate Senator’s twelfth absence in a session,” the code states.
Committee meeting absences count for half an absence, and senate absences count for one absence. The code stipulates, “Should a Senator miss a Senate meeting, or some Senate-wide initiative which the Senate Chair deems mandatory, it shall count as an absence, regardless of it being excused or not.”
Tuesday senate meetings maintained relatively high attendance overall, with a 94.8% average attendance rate. Committee meeting attendance was generally lower, with Policy & Student Rights recording the lowest average attendance at 75.2%.
Due to the higher threshold of permitted absences, attendance among graduate senators was lower compared to that of undergraduate senators. Graduate senators averaged an 83.7% attendance rate, while undergraduate senators maintained a rate of 92.9%.
Most senators remained under the threshold of absences to warrant an attendance review or impeachment. Graduate Arts & Sciences Sen. Jenny Merriman recorded six unexcused absences from Tuesday senate meetings and four unexcused absences from Policy & Student Rights committee meetings, amounting to eight total unexcused absences. An attendance review was never conducted, as her final absence occurred during the last senate meeting of the session. Merriman posted the highest absence rate of all senators.
Merriman did not respond to a request for comment.
College of William and Mary Law School Sen. Brooks Alderman J.D. ’26 had three excused absences and two unexcused absences from Tuesday senate meetings, as well as four unexcused absences and one excused absence from finance committee meetings, totaling 7.5 absences.
Law school exams, family-related travel and serving as an editor for the Environmental Law and Policy Review were among reasons Alderman listed for missed meetings.
“When I attend the senate meetings, which is the overwhelming majority of them, I am fully present and making sure I read every bill, every piece of legislation that’s coming in front of us, so that when I vote on it, I’ve fully considered it, and I’m able to vote in a way that I think reflects both my own personal feelings on the matters as well as what I think would best be best for the Law School,” Alderman said. “I think I did just about as well as I could have; there were some moments where I had to balance priorities.”
Chair of the Senate Sen. Mayer Tawfik ’27 recorded the highest number of absences among the undergraduate senators; however, most were excused. He had two excused absences from senate meetings, as well as six excused and two unexcused absences from Student Experience committee meetings. Tawfik cited “significant personal circumstances” which necessitated travel to his home that led to the missed committee meetings.
“The two senate meetings [I missed] were due to fluctuations in my blood sugar levels[,] which rendered me unable to run the meetings,” he wrote in a text message.
Attendance for Senate meetings had dipped slightly since the 332nd session, but attendance in general has remained consistent across committees and senate meetings. Student Experience committee meetings have seen the most improvement in attendance across three years, climbing from 63.97% average attendance in the 331st session to 76.71% in the most recent session.
