For the past semester “transparency” has been Missouri Southern’s buzzword.

This was going to be a new chapter for Southern, one of openness and communication.

With that, we’d like to give a quick shout-out to the Faculty Senate for being one of the first to really throw the doors open.

In this week’s meeting Dr. Carla Huntington, Faculty Senate president, told the Senate that she had no intention of seeing her name turn up in the pages of the paper for barring a campus reporter or for ordering the removal of the student representative.

“My understanding is that we do not have a closed session here,” she said.

Good move, Carla.

No one likes to air their laundry in the open, but it dries faster if you do.

Also in the spirit of “transparency” the Student Senate examined (and tabled) a resolution to hold senators accountable for their votes by registering them electronically and making those voting records available to the public. However, they’ve got a way to go. As of press time, the new paperless Senate’s LioNet site didn’t even include the most recent resolutions.

Maybe the rest of the school will pick up the Faculty Senate’s banner and we can start to see the “open” era we’ve heard so much about.

Because if you keep the laundry locked up, it starts to stink.