Editorial
Arizona Daily Wildcat
February 9, 1998

Let the sun shine in

Despite open meeting laws passed over the last 20 years, the business of the people still remains shrouded in secrecy too often.

A pending bill in the state Senate would cast a little more light on how executive branch appointed committees conduct business and put limits on the "executive" closed meetings of public bodies. The goal of Senate Bill 1049 is allow the public to know how "blue-ribbon advisory board(s)" reach their decisions, said its sponsor, Gary Richardson, R-Tempe. It would also force representative bodies to make a better effort to disclose what goes on behind closed doors.

Open meetings on last fall's Memorial Student Union referendum gave students the chance to know how their future was being managed. No matter the vote's outcome, it was an important precedent, spurring student voter turnout to a 10-year high.

The Associated Students Constitution requires our student government to comply, voluntarily, with state open meeting laws. President Gilbert Davidson told the Arizona Daily Wildcat that he wouldn't mandate executive-appointed committees to open their meetings, even if the new law passed. He prefers, he said, to leave those decisions to committee chairs.

Davidson ought to reconsider his position. Fact is, Davidson has the opportunity, before his term ends in May, to further include students in their government by opening committee meetings and better reporting Senate executive session business without the Senate bill.

The University of Arizona is moving toward "shared governance" meant to include administrators and faculty, as well as students, staff and professional personnel, in the decisions that affect the campus. Under such a system, control of information is no longer the key to power.

In that spirit and the spirit of S.B. 1049, the university should explore ways to open more decision-making meetings to the public light, so that our leaders make decisions based on input from an informed constituency. That kind of shift from the traditional attitudes of state institutions puts the UA in the position to move forward as one body, for the good of the community.