Student government group procedures criticized

A member of a student government committee that handles tens of thousands of student fee dollars says that the group has broken open meeting laws and lacks transparency.

The Student Safety and Security Committee, part of student government, has appropriated $21,724.05 in student fees to groups this semester.

But the committee has often failed to publish the location of its meetings online, not taken meeting minutes or not published those minutes online.

North Carolina open meeting laws require public bodies to make their minutes available.

David Goldberg, a law student who serves on the committee, said the way in which money is appropriated — and other committee activities — have violated the meeting laws, which apply to any UNC student government committee.

In October, the committee also appropriated $4,000 to Campus Health Services for condom purchases and $4,800 to the Executive Branch for “Safetober Fest” T-shirts.

Those appropriations votes were taken online after attendance issues left the committee without the necessary quorums for votes, said committee chairman Tyler Jacon.

“I’ll admit, I was not doing what I was supposed to do … but that’s not widely done in student government,” Jacon said.

Jacon said he was not adequately informed about the required processes when he became chairman this year. He said he acted similarly to past chairmen of the committee.

“The only literature I was supposed to go over was chapter eight of the student code that has a tiny thing on student practices,” he said.

Goldberg said these practices have led to transparency issues — most recently with a $11,692.05 appropriation for an HIV post-exposure prophylaxis medication for UNC sexual assault victims.

He said there was not enough discussion about the appropriation for the medicine, which will be enough to treat five patients.

“The law is clear and it’s clear for a reason,” he said. “The meetings should be open, public, and minutes should be conducted and explicit.”

Goldberg said the committee must support sexual assault survivors, but the way the money was appropriated is concerning.

“The issue is, the leadership of the committee orchestrated these events to quiet that discussion and the process violated the N.C. open meetings act,” he said.

“We’re spending $10,000 of student fees without a discussion.”

Speaker of Student Congress Connor Brady said appropriating thousands of dollars through an online vote is concerning.

He said if online voting happens, it is supposed to be announced in a timely manner.

Brady will present a bill to ban online voting at Student Congress’s meeting Tuesday, he said.

“It’s a strange way of doing things,” he said. “I can’t imagine Student Congress voting online. I don’t think that’s fair to the students that elected us.”

Goldberg said the merits or drawbacks of funding the medicine was not discussed enough among SSSC members before appropriation, and voting online added to the problem.

“The fees need the benefit of a couple more people,” he said.

“Because the procedure that’s been used throughout this committee is we’re spending a lot of money to benefit a few people and not having the hard discussions we need to have, and we’re not having them in public.”

Because the committee is independent, the committee’s actions are not up for approval by other student government branches.

Each of the committee members is accountable to the student government branch that appointed them, said Student Body Vice President Jacob Morse , who appointed Jacon.

“I don’t think (Jacon has) led the committee in any malicious intent,” he said.

“If we want to conduct ourselves in a transparent and open manner, and that includes the committee … if there’s something we could be doing better, we’re open to that.”

Jacon said he is working with other student leaders and University Counsel to ensure that the committee follows student code and state law.

“I’m looking into what we need to do to be compliant,” he said. “We’re looking at what we did wrong and where we need to improve.”

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