Student Safety and Security Committee vows to increase openness, transparency

After coming under scrutiny last semester for failing to comply with North Carolina open meeting laws, the Student Safety and Security Committee will now be held to a higher standard.

“We’ve worked a lot with campus officials to make sure that we are in compliance with University and state laws,” said Tyler Jacon, chairman of the committee.

Last semester, the committee appropriated more than $20,000 in students fees to campus organizations, such as Campus Health Services and the UNC Executive Branch, through improper procedures.

The law requires public bodies to make their locations public and publish meeting minutes.

Student Congress passed a resolution in December that banned the committee from voting online and clarified the rules for conducting official business . The changes came after David Goldberg, a law student who serves on the Student Safety and Security Committee, voiced concerns about the committee’s use of online voting and its failure to publish meeting locations and minutes online.

When it comes to dealing with these issues, Jacon said the committee is in new territory. He said there could be new code to sanction members who don’t show up to meetings — an attendance issue drove many of the problems last semester, Jacon said.

“I didn’t want to see progress slow down because people weren’t showing up to meetings,” he said.

But Jacon said there are also strengths to the way the committee operates that they want to maintain.

“One of the great things about the committee is we have more flexibility so we can give students money more quickly when they need it,” he said.

Goldberg said the committee has come a long way in resolving the issues and hopes the changes can lead to more ways for student government to be more transparent.

“This isn’t isolated. It’s not just one committee. There’s a lot of these little committees with a lot of money and not much oversight,” he said.

Student Body Vice President Jacob Morse said issues with the Student Safety and Security Committee arose from a need for more interaction with the student body.

“It wasn’t that the committee was hiding anything,” he said. “It was just being run in the way it was always run.”

The UNC Executive Branch launched a new version of its website earlier this semester that includes links to student government committees and meeting times.

He said student government does as much as it can to inform students, including sending emails and using social media to share information.

Morse said the level of interest shown by students depends on the issue. Issues such as shortening the drop/add period have attracted a great deal of attention, he said.

But when it comes to more complex issues, he doesn’t hear as much.

“In some cases you’re only going to hear from people who consider themselves stakeholders.”

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