After failing to meet quorum last week, the Student Association Senate met officially Sunday evening.

However, several senators were not there. According to the Senate clerk’s records, only 23 out of 37 senators were present. Eighteen senators are needed to meet quorum.

In his weekly report, Speaker Robert Batey mentioned frequent absences by senators.

“Anyone who has over or is approaching the amount of absences that would require us to remove you from the Senate, I’ll be calling you personally to inform you of that,” Batey said.

Senators can miss up to three meetings a semester, or five in total. Batey did not indicate which senators fit into this category. However, he did say that senators can appeal to the rules committee to have an absence expunged.

Despite the lack of attendance, the senate passed three amendments to the SA bylaws and the SA constitution. Two of these amendments also dealt with meetings.

The SA approved a constitutional amendment that would require the senate to review any meeting cancellations by the speaker. Up to this point, the speaker could cancel a meeting in severe cases with no review.

Batey said this was changed to avoid abuses of power.

“If the speaker was to be under review, then he could keep canceling meeting after meeting and remain in power indefinitely,” Batey said.

The amendment also prevents the speaker from canceling two consecutive meetings unless the senate approves.

The SA also increased the time the election commissioner must hold a candidates’ meeting for fall elections from two weeks to three weeks.

Batey said two weeks is not enough time for the election commissioner to work.

“Once we have all of the names of the people that do want to run and they have all of their information submitted, it is barely enough time to get the ballots ready for printing and get everything checked,” Batey said.

Batey said that the amendment would also require the SA president to choose an election commissioner earlier in the year, which did not happen this year.

Sen. Jaclyn Curtis questioned if the SA would be rushed to inform students about the senate. Batey said this would be the case, but that the positives of having more time outweigh this.

In addition, the SA recognized the student religious organization Baha’i Club and the fashion-oriented club Empire Modelz.

The senate also added one more meeting to its agenda, making the semester’s last SA meeting May 4.