By Colleen Bohen
The Student Government Association (SGA) announced their bi-weekly cabinet meetings will now be open, allowing senators to attend for the first time.
Previously only the committee chairs and executive board of SGA were present at the meetings.
President John Whitcomb said the meetings are for the senate committee chairs to give reports on the progress of each of their committees, to set the agenda for the senate meetings and to discuss any important issues SGA may be dealing with.
SGA decided to open up the meetings because there have been some complaints and accusations hinting there might be some things going on at the “secret” meetings that are not being released to the public, Whitcomb said.
He does not feel these allegations are true, but said it couldn’t hurt to open up the meetings anyway.
“This is a chance for more people to feel involved with the processes of the SGA,” he said. “It will provide a good learning experience for the other members who may eventually have a position in the cabinet to see what goes on at the meetings. It will also provide them with a chance to challenge us [the cabinet] and ask questions in a more intimate setting.”
Senators have mixed reactions regarding the new open meeting policy.
“I honestly felt that yes, cabinet should be open,” Sen. Bradley Smallberg said. “I personally didn’t care too much when it was closed, but some people felt very strongly that it should be open, so I took their side and I like that it’s open now.”
Sen. Matt Anderson agreed.
“I absolutely, 100 percent support it,” he said. “This is a place of education and people should be able to get experiences and when you have a closed meeting you’re excluding people and not allowing them to get that experience.”
Anderson said he felt SGA’s role was to look out for the best interest of students and the new policy would be an attempt to do just that. The prior policy of “making decisions behind closed doors” raised too many questions, he said.
“The open meetings give everyone a chance to see what’s going on, and will provide a learning experience that they might not otherwise have,” Anderson said.
Not all senators, however, feel the new policy is necessary.
“To be honest, I think cabinet should be kept closed,” Sen. Neima Mansouri said. “There are certain matters that are for executives only and should be kept just in cabinet. Senators don’t necessarily need to know everything.”
He said the cabinet meetings could have remained closed because the senate gets a written cabinet report at every meeting from the secretary.
“Senators do know what’s going on, and we get to see what was discussed,” he said.
Even though the cabinet meetings were not always open, Whitcomb said the members of the cabinet were always available for questions and nobody should hesitate to ask.
While the meetings are now open, space is limited because the meetings are held in a conference room that is much smaller than the room used for senate meetings, he said.
Interested students who are not members of the SGA will also be permitted to attend the cabinet meetings if space is available, he said. However, admission to cabinet meetings does not mean non-members will be given “free reign to talk.”
“I would encourage anyone to come to a senate meeting with any concerns that they might have,” he said.