"I can't think of one instance where [thosereinstated] didn't do a lot of work in theircommittee," Liston says.

It is the flexibility of the attendance policy,however, that is one reason why the council isstruck with absenteeism, some members say.

The policy allows each member to have his orher attendance record wiped clean with thebeginning of each new semester.

Thus, a council member who was absent from sixmeetings last semester, can miss another fivebefore being expelled again, although even thatexpulsion may not be permanent.

Gabay himself describes the first expulsion asmore "like as stern warning."

But the reinstatement policy doesn't givepeople incentive to take attendance seriously,according to Sayeed.

"If we started taking really strict attendance,and if we stuck to it, people would show up to themeetings, on time," Sayeed says.

And several council members agree that theattendance policy doesn't effectively compel themto schedule other commitments around the meetings.

Taking Action

To rid the council of its deadweight problem,the council's re-evaluation committee, whosemembership is split evenly between council membersand non-council members, is hammering out severalproposals.

One that will soon be discussed by thecommittee is to reduce each house's councildelegation by one member.

"We'd be smaller and probably faster and getmore done," says Sayeed, a member of there-evaluation committee.

Garza, another member of the committee, saysthat reducing each house's delegation will makeeach representative feel like a more integral partof the council.

"If you look at the reason why people leave,[one of them is that] they want to commit moretime to other activities," Garza says.

"And usually in other organizations, peoplefeel they can make a difference more easily andreadily. By decreasing membership, we can allowmembers to contribute more," Garza says.