Undergraduate Student Government Downtown senators have passed a piece of legislation which has indefinitely closed senate caucus meetings to the public in a move they say will increase their productivity.
Last year, every senate caucus and corresponding discussions were open to the public. However, two USGD senators, Bryce Newberry and Oscar Hernandez, brought Senate Bill I — which would close caucuses — to the table.
Prior to last year, senate caucuses were closed to the public and were only opened up for the 2015-2016 academic year, Newberry said. Some information is discussed during caucuses that is not meant to be shared until the general senate meetings, which have always been opened to the public with a live stream through their YouTube channel, he said.
"It allows us to speak more freely about our opinions and different things that are going on," Newberry said. "The Information in caucus that is important and relevant for students will be information provided during the general meeting session."
Therefore, anything concerning the student body will be presented in the general meeting session, which still remains open.
However, not every USG within the ASU community is on the same page.
Ephraim Infante is the senate president of USG West. She said she believes conversations within caucus and general meetings should be exposed to the student body as an implementation of transparency.
"Our caucus meetings, as well as our general meetings, are always open to the public because we want to increase transparency," Ephraim said. "For USGW, we definitely want to keep caucus open to the public, just because we are student voices, and in order to be student voices, we need to be as transparent as possible, and we can achieve that by having all open meetings."
In USGD, caucuses are an opportunity for senators to come together and talk about specific topics without the executive board being involved.
One of those senators is Martin Cordova, a senior student at the Downtown campus.
"A closed caucus meeting is for us to meet up and talk about our own projects, plans with organizations outside of the school and internal things," Cordova said.
However, Cordova said there are plenty of opportunities for students to stay updated on what is new with USGD, despite having its caucus meetings now closed. It's only a matter of seeking information, he said.
"If they're really concerned about what we're doing, we have our general senate meeting where we open up that section to students where they can speak with us and ask questions if there are any concerns," Martin said. "But we also have budget allocation meetings, where students will also learn how the funding is being handled."
Reach the reporter at gmijares@asu.edu or follow @thewillmijares on Twitter.
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