We cried foul when the now-infamous Student Government Gmail scandal dropped on SG election day, and then we screamed for change. Our only demands were transparency and fairness.
A few weeks and one historic SG election later, it would seem the reorganized Student Senate is trying to shake off any talks of corruption and get itself back on the straight and narrow. So it seems.
To accomplish this, newly elected Student Senate President Jordan Johnson has created the Replacement and Agenda Transparency Committee.
For those of you who haven't memorized the inner workings of SG, this means that Johnson has created a committee to oversee the committee that was involved in the Gmail controversy that occurred during the summer.
It's almost difficult to find fault with this action because, in name, this is what we've been waiting for. The problem is that a committee already exists to investigate the practices of other Senate committees - the Rules and Ethics Committee.
Johnson's newborn committee doesn't have the power to investigate; it can only recommend changes.
Ultimately, it doesn't really do anything. One senator even declined to join the new committee because he doesn't think it will have any effect.
It looks like SG wants to take steps to regain the confidence of the student body, and we can't complain about that. This just isn't the way to do it. Creating a committee with the word "transparency" in its title isn't going to fool anyone, especially if members of the Senate are so willing to denounce it.
We like where Johnson's head is, but the Senate will need to be a bit more convincing to alleviate our suspicions.
