With Michigan voters going to the polls in less than two weeks to decide the fate of the affirmative action in the state, you would think Michigan Student Assembly representatives elected from the Defend Affirmative Action Party would be more involved than ever in student government. They aren't.

Three of the five most prominent DAAP members in the assembly have stepped down from their posts. The other two have been skipping out on their MSA duties.

Each week there are four events MSA representatives are expected to attend: the opening and closing role call of the Tuesday night MSA meeting, office hours and one commission or committee meeting.

After 12 absences, members are sent e-mails telling them they have two weeks to come before MSA to explain their poor attendance record. At least three elected DAAP party members have received the notices, along with nine other assembly members.

If the assembly decides they have a legitimate extenuating circumstance, MSA may pardon their absences, but if they do not have valid excuses or don't show up, they will be removed from their positions.

Last night marked the final opportunity for them to plead their cases to the entire assembly. MSA President Nicole Stallings may excuse them at the MSA Steering Committee meeting next Sunday if they can prove their absence was due to illness, an exam or deaths in their families.

Two of the five prominent DAAP members, LSA Rep. Nicole Campbell and Law School Rep. Israel Moya, resigned earlier in the semester. Public Health Rep. Katie Taylor resigned recently and Rackham representatives Ben Royal and Kate Stenvig have not attended meetings or contacted MSA.

Royal, who was re-elected to his position last March, did not return calls for comment. MSA Vice President Justin Paul said that up until this semester, both Royal and Stenvig had been "very active."

Stenvig is working in Washington as a national organizer for the radical pro-affirmative action group By Any Means Necessary, which has strong ties to DAAP. She is organizing the participation of BAMN chapters across the nation in a march on Washington to defend the Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education. The march is slated for Dec. 4, the day the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on two school integration cases, which Stenvig said could segregate schools and challenge affirmative action programs nationwide.

"This is kind of everything," she said. "Which is why I'm in D.C."

As for her MSA term, which ends this semester, Stenvig said she is not sure if she had told MSA she would not be present this semester.

"I didn't really think that anyone expected me to be there," she said. "I think a lot of people thought I was graduating. I have two classes left that are independent study so I didn't have any classes to take on campus."

At the spring MSA election, Stenvig ran unsuccessfully as presidential candidate Monica Smith's running mate.

Smith, perhaps the most vocal of DAAP members, graduated last year and is now at Wayne State University Law School. She is involved in DAAP there but is "not really" involved in Michigan's party.

"I think we are a party, but I'm not sure that we're running this time," she said of next month's election.

In the past, Campbell, Stenvig and Royal have succeeded in getting MSA to pass resolutions pertaining to Proposal 2, such as last fall's resolution to support the state's investigation into claims that proponents of the ballot initiative had used fraudulent methods while collecting petition signatures.

Paul said MSA has passed a number of resolutions at the request of DAAP members concerning Proposal 2 or the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, and he is unsure as to why many DAAP members have not come to meetings.

"I don't know why they haven't been attending," he said. "Obviously if you're running for a student-elected position, you should be fulfilling your duties as an elected representative and part of those duties are attending MSA meetings."

After a representative is officially kicked out, their school's student government is responsible for finding a replacement.