After some difficulty this semester in getting members to attend meetings, the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) Academic Assembly recently voted unanimously to revise its policy on excused and unexcused absences. According to the new policy, members can lose their status as assembly members if they accrue more than eight excused and four unexcused absences.

Assembly's old policy stated that members could accumulate 12 absences, excused or unexcused, before losing their position. Essentially, assembly members could have skipped six meetings in a 15-week semester before violating the policy.

At first glance, it appears as though assembly has adopted a no-nonsense position regarding attendance. The new policy seems to be an improvement of the old attendance policy, but there are still a lot of unanswered questions.

For example, what exactly will constitute an excused absence?

Sara Yerger, assembly vice president of operations, said exams would be classified as excused absences, for example. This is certainly understandable; previously scheduled classes and exams should have precedence over extracurricular activities, but what about group project meetings that are scheduled by group members throughout the semester? Would such a reason classify as an excused absence? The student must attend, but there is some flexibility with scheduling. The classification of an excused absence will be at Yerger's discretion, but as of right now the policy is rather ambiguous. The assembly needs to clarify the issue of excused and unexcused absences. Now that the assembly has its attendance policy squared away, it might be a good time to start passing legislation and working on initiatives that benefit the student body.

While an attendance policy to hold members accountable is important, the assembly would be make better use of its time by discussing issues such as rising tuition room and board rates and the campus' racial climate. The majority of the student body will not benefit from this latest example of poor time management.

Assembly is a handful of students given the privilege of representing a large base of students, and these members should be making every effort to fulfill their duties as assembly members. Although it is unfortunate that a stricter policy is even necessary, the new rules will hopefully be enough of an incentive for members to participate on a regular basis.

Traditionally, both branches of USG have difficulty retaining dedicated members. But once members make a commitment, USG should hold them responsible for fulfilling their duties.

If you sign up, show up.