Owing to a strange coincidence, the ASSU Undergraduate Senate is on the verge of losing two senators. Shyam Ravindran and Jason Sinocruz, both sophomores, have expressed concerns that they will be unable to fulfill their senatorial responsibilities this quarter. Now, The Senate faces the difficult task of expelling the senators, granting them leaves of absence or waiting for their resignation.

After a lengthy discussion at last night’s meeting, The Senate was unable to reach a conclusion. Chair Josh Shipp, a junior, made it clear that the issue must be resolved by next week.

The cases of Ravindran and Sinocruz are quite different, making their temporal proximity all the more unusual.

Ravindran decided over winter break to stop out for the quarter “to pursue research,” according to Shipp; he is not formally a Stanford student at the moment.

Sinocruz is attending school this quarter, but for various undisclosed reasons cannot fulfill his duties as a senator and “is considering resigning,” Shipp said.

According to several sources, both senators would prefer a leave of absence to dismissal or resignation. However, neither The Senate bylaws nor the senators themselves seem clear on what, exactly, a leave of absence suggests. For instance, can an absent member still vote? What duties are available for an absent senator to fulfill?

The current Senate term will expire early in spring quarter, meaning that if either Ravindran or Sinocruz were to return next quarter after a leave of absence, only two or three meetings would remain in their term.

Senate advisers Nanci Howe and Morris Graves tried to frame the discussion in general terms, not specifics. In deciding the issue, Graves implored the senators to ask themselves, “What is going to be your general outlook? What are your goals as the Senate as a whole?”

After relating a story about a student organization that had to rewrite its bylaws after disobeying University guidelines for two years and allowing non-students to serve on its board, Graves added: “In many ways, The Senate is a role model for our student organizations, in terms of our expectations. If you’re prepared to allow a senator to perform even though he’s not a currently enrolled student, what kind of signal are you sending to other student organizations that are held to a different standard?”

Both Ravindran and Sinocruz were supposed to appear at last night’s meeting to address the other senators. According to Shipp, Sinocruz called him and canceled a few hours before the meeting, and Ravindran simply failed to show up.

“I think I’ve made up my mind now,” said junior Alex Moore, speaking about Ravindran. “I’m going to vote to expel, to be honest. I think he should be encouraged to stay, as much as possible, but some people in here chose not to sign up for abroad programs, etc.”

However, the issue may not come to an expulsion vote. The students may be granted leaves of absence or they may resign. A decision must be made by next week, though; a Senate law requires that an expulsion bill must be brought against any senator that misses three meetings. An absence next week will be both senators’ third.

Most statements at last night’s meeting were critical of Ravindran.

“You always have a choice,” said ASSU vice president Joey Natoli. “He knew what he was doing. When he ran for an elected office, he took upon himself a responsibility.”

Sinocruz, whose possible resignation was announced only last night, received less fire but little leniency.

“ I think leave of absence is an extraordinarily special case and neither of these cases warrant that,” said sophomore Chris Lin. “It’s not like they got stranded in some highland. These were conscious efforts by these senators whether to do extra things, whether to leave campus.”