At Tuesday’s meeting, the Student Government Association (SGA) Senate rejected a resolution calling for more public reporting of its activities but overwhelmingly approved a resolution to explore student attendance trackers.

In opening remarks, an anonymous UPD officer reported on a recent pedestrian-vehicle accident that occurred on a crosswalk. Although it was not serious, the officer said it was the third accident of this type to occur this year. He urged students to stop for pedestrians in crosswalks to prevent future occurrences, and shared that they are looking into the issue of scooters entering roadways in front of vehicles.

This began the resolution hearing process.

Senior Senator Parker Hicks presented the first resolution. Resolution SR 26/27-01 was an addition to  documentation that Hicks said is already partially there.

Hicks’ idea is for the executive board and committee to report more regularly on their activities and make them more public to the student body. He said this is not only for the student body but also so the organization has something to show students who are concerned about progress or effort on its end.

This includes highlights such as questions students may have about a passed budget, important notes from staff meetings, and prior ideas worth revisiting.

A few members expressed concern about this resolution.

Senator Benjamin McDowell said his name was once on this idea, but he hadn’t had time to fully review it at the time. After considering it, McDowell said he feels that the resolution is too repetitive and could’ve been a staff meeting instead. He also said he doesn’t think the student body should have to know everything, so this resolution seems like more work without the benefits.

McDowell said the student body will look around campus for what the student government is doing.

“They will know what we’re doing by our impact,” said McDowell.

The resolution was met with a flurry of other concerns, including whether it reflected mistrust in the SGA, whether it could become a separate staff position to lighten the load on executives and whether the vague language confused senators.

However, other senators supported the resolution, arguing that some documentation is already kept, so it wouldn’t add much work for the executive, especially since they feel students deserve to have their concerns addressed.

Resolution SR 26/27-01 went to a vote and failed 20-18.

The second resolution was presented by Chief of Staff Chauncy Betts.

Resolution ER 26/27-02 seeks to add an attendance tracker so students have a more convenient way to check class absences.

Betts provided a multitude of options to achieve this goal, from adding the tracker to Pack Portal through the IT department, using the Canvas tracking feature that many professors overlook and even teaming with the university’s computer programming students.

The main concern this resolution faced was that professors might be forced to start taking attendance, even if they had been less strict about it in the past.

Betts assured senators that the resolution applies only to classes that already require attendance and is intended to reduce stress for students. This mainly means 1000- and 2000-level courses.

Another criticism was that college students are adults and should be able to keep up with their own absences, especially in the notes app.

However, others said students pay thousands of dollars to go to this school, so teachers should have some sort of responsibility to alert students when absences cause issues.

Resolution ER 26/27-02 moved to a vote and passed by a landslide, with only one vote to fail it.

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