When a bill or budget is filed at the state or national level it becomes public record. Entities at Missouri Southern who handle University funds – from the Board of Governors – to Student Senate must be accountable for the decisions that affect us all.

With the move to a password-protected Blackboard site, Southern’s Student Senate walks a fine line in making its records public. They have moved more responsibility onto themselves. Can they fulfill it?

For now, we have faith in the Senate’s ability to provide resolutions, allocation requests and online discussions as records to the public, but we hope future leadership realizes the responsibility they inherit.

Open records and meeting laws exist for a reason: transparency in government is the greatest protection we have from despotism.

While the Student Senate isn’t going to oppress us, sure. But it needs to conduct its affairs in the open, not on a password-protected Web site.

We, the people, have a right to know what our leadership decides. We have a right to know what compels them and how they arrive at their decisions. We, the press, have the right to bring our readers that story.