Editorial:

MSA: Closed doors kill democracy

Published April 30, 2004

There is no excuse ' no explanation, no sound reasoning, no possible justification for the Missouri Students Association's attempt to exclude students and reporters from hearings that will determine the fate of impeached President Brian Laoruangroch. MSA Senators' rabid determination to rewrite November's election, with or without the rest of the campus, is more than irresponsible ' it is fundamentally undemocratic and quite possibly illegal.

More importantly, it represents a gross abrogation of MSA's responsibility to the student body. No responsible senator should have even begun entertaining crazy talk about erasing student votes as Senate fancies. But slamming the door in students' faces makes it easy to think that Senate is beginning to treat student votes not as mandates, but rather as suggestions it has the flexibility to ignore. If Senate is able to follow through on its reprehensible plans, it could ax an elected leader while leaving those who elected him forever questioning whether he had it coming. At the very least, students deserve the chance to hear the facts and make up their own minds" closed hearings will offer only conjecture and uncertainty.

Senate's grand design robs students of the right to weigh the case and reach an opinion independently, and locking out reporters means no one will have access to an objective account of what happened. Ex-post-facto speculation and rumors of decidedly biased origin will be the only information students could possibly receive ' ever. Senate wants to keep information to a minimum during the hearing itself, but it also is doing its best to ensure its motives remain secret forever" it does not intend to release a transcript of the hearing. What happens in the dark stays in the dark.

Not even the perpetrators can muster a convincing defense. Grasping at the same straws with which others have done their own stonewalling, senators say the specter of public scrutiny is too intimidating and would make Laoruangroch's critics think twice before voicing their complaints. Give us a break. Any dereliction of duty severe enough to warrant removal is worth discussing in front of the student body. Likewise, any grievance not worth the heat of the public eye can't be very important. A bashful corps of impeachment advocates hardly justifies Senate's approach, and it is an especially weak counter to the myriad legal questions Senate secrecy raises.

MSA's bylaws allow for the closure of judicial meetings only. Impeachment is a political process" Student Court never convenes. Senators displayed an aversion to candor and raised plenty of questions when they forced their constituents into the role of mere spectators. For an organization so obsessed with its inner workings, we're baffled by Senate's failure to comply with its own rules. Furthermore, there is no definitive evidence that it doesn't violate the Missouri Sunshine Law.

That fixation on internal business is the result of a powerless body desperate for a reason to take itself seriously. MSA loves to play government. But if student leaders want to be treated like adult lawmakers, MSA needs to act like a real government. Congress can't draw the curtains and kick out the president, just as the Missouri General Assembly can't empty its galleries and boot the governor.

No measure of righteous indignation or fabricated concern for privacy will offset the massive failures inherent in Senate's decision to marginalize students and horde powers it doesn't actually have. Leaving this closed-door policy in place would signify a perversion of student government, a massive overstepping of MSA's boundaries, a callous disregard for students, an aberration of accepted impeachment processes and a violation of MSA bylaws. MSA Senate has to swallow its pride, admit its mistake and open these hearings to the press and any student who wants to come. There is no middle ground and no room for compromise. If Senate won't yield, it should expect a fight ' too much is on the line to let MSA off the hook this time.