Members of ASMSU's Academic Assembly will vote on whether to approve revisions to the assembly's Code of Operations Tuesday.
Since January, members of MSU's undergraduate student government's Code Committee have reviewed and revised the document.
The code sets rules for ASMSU officials and stipulates how Academic Assembly should be run.
The Code Committee's revisions, including a change in the fall, are the first in several years.
The Policy Committee also reviewed the recommended changes and assembly members had the chance to voice their opinions during the last meeting on March 11.
One issue that brought heated debate centered around how many absences should be allotted for members.
Currently, each member is given three unexcused and three excused absences, but the committee wanted to change the wording to say members may simply have six absences, no matter what the reasoning.
Attendance is taken at every assembly, committee and council meeting.
Documented excused absences require advance notice, which allows ASMSU officials to know if they will reach quorum, said Kristen Daddow, Academic Assembly representative for the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Quorum is the minimum number of members needed to make decisions in meetings.
"It removes any kind of incentive to have cordiality to the chairs," said Steve Lovelace, Academic Assembly representative for the College of Arts and Letters.
The assembly also debated whether the members' privileges portion of the meeting should happen after the meeting is adjourned.
Members' privilege allows representatives to discuss issues not relating to ASMSU.
Some members thought the change would be good to allow members to leave early if they needed to.
"It's nice if you want to stay, but some people have to leave," said Adam Raezler, Academic Assembly representative for James Madison College.
But not everyone agreed members' privileges would be appropriate after the meeting had technically ended.
"It seems funky to have adjournment and have people staying around," Lovelace said. "If people have to leave, we don't penalize them."
Other members said they liked the set-up the way it is.
"It's always been a tradition," said Jeanette Lantzy, Academic Assembly vice-chairperson for external affairs.
Lantzy said she liked hearing about what people were up to in their personal lives.
Other recommendations made by the Code Committee:
• Make the Budget and Standards Committee a nonstanding committee, which does not require regular meetings.
• Make the Outreach Committee a standing committee, meeting regularly.
• Have announcements come before members' privileges.
• Require a representative, rather than a vice chair, to have a nonvoting seat on the Executive Committee of Academic Council.
• Make changes to the job descriptions of the chairperson's office to better outline and explain what their responsibilities are.
Items on the Code of Operations which were approved:
• Ask the Code Committee of the next session to review the pay rates for the chairperson's office.
