Abstain from abstaining

Last week at the Nov. 2 Senate meeting, six senators abstained from voting on the renewal of the Student Health 101 magazine. Abstaining from a vote means, “to choose not to vote,” according to Merriam-Webster dictionary.

Monday night, Deena Kennell, adviser to Student Senate, explained to the senators what Robert’s Rules says on abstaining from a vote. Robert’s Rules are the parliamentary procedure rules Senate says they’ll follow.

Robert’s Rules says that it is a senator’s duty to vote when he or she has an opinion about the matter being discussed. 

Senators should abstain from voting when the issue being discussed affects the senator personally, in a way that doesn’t affect the rest of the senators.

As elected members of Student Senate, senators have the duty to advocate for those the senators represent.

Abstaining from a vote, when you have an opinion or a say on the matter, is letting your constituents down. There is no excuse for not voting, except when, like Robert’s Rules states, the senator personally benefits from the vote. Excuses such as not wanting to make people angry or feeling like a vote no won’t make a difference in the outcome is no excuse to abstain from voting.

We can appreciate when Liberal Arts Senator Nathaniel Brown abstained from voting at the Sept. 28 meeting, when the senators were voting on allocating money to a club he is CAB representative for.

But abstaining from a vote because you’re scared or worried about what others might think of you if you vote no, is not acceptable in our books.

Students on this campus elect the senators we want to see stand up for what we want, to take a stand, and to let the students’ voices be heard. By abstaining from a vote, students’ voices aren’t being heard and constituents are being let down.

Even if the vote is determined, based on the number of votes, before all the senators have voted, voting no at least shows senators care and are letting the students’ voice be heard.

The Eagle asks senators to take a stand and vote. We ask senators to have an opinion and make that opinion heard.