Four hours into Wednesday’s meeting to elect a new class vice president, Student Union members moved to seal their discussion from the public.
An argument erupted around 1 a.m. when Treasury representative Judson Clark suggested expelling media from the meeting. Legislators discussed a variety of options before deciding to convene an executive session, effectively closing the meeting to the student body. The heated back-and-forth centered around whether reporters from Student Life should be allowed to take notes on the proceedings.
Clark said “nothing good can come” of the reporters’ presence. He expressed concern that “anything we say will be taken out of context.”
“Discussion should not be on any record of any kind. It is the reason we have the nominees step out,” said Clark. “We provide one unified voice so that all anyone knows what we personally think about them is never in the minutes.”
The candidates themselves were only allowed in the chamber to present their speeches and answer the joint committee’s questions. The candidates were not privy to speeches from their competitors.
After an hour of debate, Senate and Treasury members decided the reporters could stay only if they turned off their tape recorder, shut off their laptops and laid down their pens-thereby agreeing not to report on the discussion. One stipulation of an executive session is that no one present can repeat what was discussed behind closed doors.
The executive session excluded the five candidates, who waited in the hallway until the legislators announced the election of junior Pam Bookbinder, former speaker of the Senate.
The closed-door decision did not sit well with some members.
“I was very upset when we moved into executive session,” said Senator Tony Zand, a junior. “I feel that the discussion of students should be open. If the Senate and Treasury are going to pick a candidate they should be able to discuss that with the student body.”
Others pointed out that students had been invited to the meeting, and the two reporters should not be forced to leave for exercising their rights as students to attend.
“I just want to reiterate how ridiculous it is that we are targeting two individuals by telling them to leave,” said Senator Aaron Keyak.
SU President David Ader advised members to consider allowing the reporters to stay.
“I do recognize the need for outside people being here, and even if [the reporters] want to consider themselves Wash U students for the night instead of Stud Life reporters and shut off their laptops, maybe they could get the tone of the meeting and some things that went into it without direct quotes,” said Ader, a junior.
Some senators disagreed, contending that no one could speak freely about the candidates for fear that the information would be published.
“It’s a tough decision, but I think the feeling of the people in the room was they wanted to make a good decision, and if they were worried about their comments being misconstrued or getting out…we wanted to be as open as possible,” said Speaker of the Senate Marc Bridge, a junior. “I’m just not sure that people’s individual feelings are fair game for being reported publicly.”
Treasury representative Harsh Agarwal argued that discussion of the candidates should remain confidential “for the same reason that we don’t include discussion in the [meeting] minutes.”
“It should not be on any record of any kind,” said Agarwal. “All anyone knows about what we personally think about them are never in the minutes. That’s not nice.”
As a member of the SU Executive Committee, Ader could not vote for the new VP. However, he acknowledged that some of the discussion could cover sensitive issues.
“I’m not going to go one way or another on this, but I think that in discussion, sometimes some of the people here might have privileged information of which to discuss the candidates,” said Ader.
But other members argued that candidates should be able to separate personal problems from professional concerns.
“I highly disagree with the idea of a legislator saying something and not standing behind it,” said Keyak. “Whatever we do, I think someone makes a statement, if it’s on the record, they should be able to stand behind it.”
Yesterday, students said they were perturbed that the meeting had been sealed off.
“The student body should be able to have access to whatever went on,” said freshman Marissa Montgomery. “Their decision to elect that person has a big effect on all of us, and everyone should be able to know what went on exactly. The whole situation makes me suspicious.”
Senior Andrew Seidman said he was “disappointed” to learn of the joint committee’s decision.
“It sounds blatantly undemocratic on a variety of levels,” said Seidman. “I suppose the greatest outrage is that Student Life reporters weren’t allowed to record events.”
Dan Livengood, the president of EnCouncil, had encouraged his fellow engineers to attend the meeting.
“We wanted to be there to speak our voice,” said Livengood, a senior. “It was sort of our opinion that anybody and everybody as a student should be able to come and voice their opinions about who should represent the student body.”