During Tuesday's Student Senate meeting, Student Body President Jordan Johnson was first to sign a waiver granting UF students access to his previously unavailable records that were protected under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, more commonly referred to as FERPA.
FERPA, a federal law, protects students' educational records from being viewed by the public.
Johnson encouraged senators to sign the voluntary waiver, which would allow items such as voting records and recordings of Senate meetings to be put online.
"This is a big deal," he said. "We had a lot of people to go through and research to do."
Although members from the Progress Party and the Orange and Blue Party said they are pleased with Johnson's decisions, they've progressed with their own initiatives to promote transparency.
"We've been releasing our voting records on our Web site since the very first date," said Sen. Dave Schneider, Progress Party leader.
Orange and Blue Party leader Jonathan Ossip said signing the waiver is a step in the right direction but is not enough since it does not include SG-related e-mails.
He said there is a bill sponsored by the Orange and Blue Party in the Judiciary Committee, a group in charge of choosing and approving bills that will be discussed in Senate meetings, that would call for a more comprehensive FERPA waiver.
"The only reason you wouldn't want your voting records to be available is because you're not proud of what you've done," he said.
Johnson said records will eventually be online. However, because this is a large structural change to the Web site, not everything will be available immediately.
Nury Hyre, an economics senior, said she was shocked records weren't public already.
"This school promotes technology and student access to knowledge and information," she said. "Not having the voting records online goes against what UF stands for."
