The Boca House of Representatives failed to meet the required quorum at their meeting on Oct. 18, which is the minimum number of members needed to consider the meeting official.

Only 14 members of the House were present, while 15 out of 30 were absent. Only one more member was needed to meet the quorum.

The lack of attendance meant representatives couldn’t approve requests for student organizations, including the Black Student Union’s (BSU) Comedy Show bill and approval for candidates from the Campus Recreation Advisory Board. Kaila Palmer, a student advocating for the BSU bill, noted that the low turnout not only prevented the bill from passing but also hindered support from their representatives.

“It was very disheartening to know that the representative [Medgine] Present reached out numerous times, recessed twice and still did not meet quorum,” said Palmer.

However, Palmer said the low turnout is an ongoing issue in Florida Atlantic University’s Student Government (SG), affecting both the House of Representatives and the Senate. She served as Pro-Tempore for the House from 2023 to 2024 and was a senator from 2020 to 2023 — where she noticed the trend. 

FAU’s Boca Raton campus governor, Raymond Adderly, apologized to the student organizations at the meeting for the “time wasted.”

“It is the respectful thing for members of the House to do their one constitutional job, which is to show up,” said Adderly, adding that it is already hard work to create requests and get approval from the House.

While this situation may not concern those outside of SG, he continued, saying that the meeting was a “discouraging day.” He emphasized that as if he were a regular student who needed the opportunity to get approval from the House, he could not do so due to the lack of attendance.

A discussion about participation should be performed among representatives, added Adderly, as he recommended that they should “soul-search” to see if they can fulfill their obligations in the House.

Rep. Jack Nixon agreed with Adderly, stating, “This is honestly sad to me as a new member of this House.” He then asked Adderly how to fix this problem.

Adderly responded that during his time in the House, he had observed fewer filled seats compared to the current legislative term. He noted that some members felt attending meetings was “beneath” them, as he strongly discourages this mindset amongst representatives.

“I think the issue is that the House needs to coalesce; people should talk and figure out who wants to do this business and who doesn’t,” said Adderly, emphasizing that the House can be effective with just 10 members since only five are needed to meet quorum, rather than relying on 30 members when only 14 are committed.

Palmer proposed that there should be a removal process to eliminate undedicated representatives. 

“For ‘x’ amount of unexcused absences, you will be removed from the body by a majority vote of the members in good standing,” said Palmer. “Representatives may appeal their removal, but they must speak in front of the House about why they should remain in their position.”

The Speaker of the House, Present, stated in the meeting that she was disappointed that a quorum could not be reached and that she had emailed representatives who hadn’t attended previous sessions.

She explained that members may be removed from their positions if they are unresponsive about their absences, which should help address the quorum issue in future meetings.

Michael Cook is the News Editor for the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected].