Student Association members Skylar Swart and David Bruen proposed a bill last Monday addressing SA’s transparency with the public.

The bill, which is set to be voted on during Monday’s Assembly meeting, would make any legislation and SA’s voting process publicly through the organization’s website.

While SA already releases meeting minutes, this bill would specifically address distribution of votes and the full text of any past or present SA legislation — a standard practice for many university student associations.

Swart and Bruen said they proposed the bill to build SA’s transparency with the student body and to hold SA members accountable.

“We heard about some issues with SA transparency in the past with what bills were out there and who was voting on what,” Bruen said. “Our biggest goal is to encourage members to think about what they are voting on and why, especially now that anyone can access it.”

By giving students access to how legislation and vote tallies, SA is working to get more students involved in the organization by bringing attention to the problems they see, Bruen said.

“We hope that students will look at the issues more and see who disagrees, who agrees and bring any concerns or questions to our attention,” Swart said.

One of SA’s overall goals this year is to ensure the average student has an understanding of the basic principles of how the organization operates. This would also allow SA to hear and address issues members might not be aware of, SA Parliamentarian Josh Shub-Seltzer said.

“This organization isn’t meant to be secretive, and we don’t want what we do to be secretive,” Shub-Seltzer said. “Obviously we don’t know about every issue on campus so giving the student body a better understanding of what we are doing from day to day is really important.”

If the bill passes, it will be permanently worked into SA’s bylaws and go into effect immediately following Monday’s meeting.

Changing the bylaws will ensure that the bill’s goals last after the current SA administration, Shub-Seltzer said.

“At the end of the day we just want students to know that we are there for them,” he said. “I think a lot of students don’t know the potential this organization has to affect change on campus, and we want to do everything we can to make sure they are involved in that change.” 

DISCLAIMER: Skylar Swart is a columnist for The Daily Orange. She does not work for or interact with the News section, nor does she influence its editorial content as a columnist.

Published on November 3, 2019 at 9:52 pm

Contact Maggie: mehicks@syr.edu | @maggie_hickss