Trying to take the high road, SGA President Elizabeth Palmer even went so far as to announce that SGA will now have no more closed sessions during regularly scheduled Senate meetings. If you’re silly enough to believe this is true and honest transparency, think again. This is nothing short of a cop-out on the part of SGA which simply does not know how to handle the Open Public Meetings Act or understand where they fall legally.

Rowan’s SGA is a 501(c)4, a fact Whit editors discovered late Friday afternoon from Controller Joe Scully, Associate Vice President for Finance. Earlier last week, we were told by University counsel, the SGA lawyer and SGA President Elizabeth Palmer and Associate Vice President of Student Engagement and SGA adviser Carol Gruber that they were a 501(c)3, although none of them seemed sure what this meant. Telling people that you’re one thing when you are not is a dangerous thing, particularly it could imply that the student activities fee might be tax exempt.

Turns out, SGA just didn’t know any better and was misinformed.

It should go without saying that the legal status of SGA should be public knowledge to those who are most affected by its decisions. More importantly, those working for Rowan’s SGA should know what that status is and what the legal ramifications of that status means. If they are still confused, let us break it down for them. A 501(c)4 status means that that the student activities fee is not tax-exempt but viewed legally, Scully says, as a membership fee that one must pay for being a student at Rowan. In addition, SGA is legally able to endorse a candidate and take part in other political activities without jeopardizing its nonprofit status.

The Whit was told late Wednesday afternoon by the Student Press Law Center in Alexandria, Va. that SGA’s tax status also means it must comply with the OPMA. In 2005, the New Jersey Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Lafayette Yard CDC, a private non-profit, was subject to the provisions of the New Jersey Open Public Records Act and Open Public Meetings Law. The litigation arose because the board of Lafayette Yard CDC kicked a reporter for the Trenton newspaper out of a meeting on the grounds that, as a private non-profit, they were not subject to open records or open meetings laws.

The Whit found this information by making a simple phone call to the person they thought would know best on the subject. Wouldn’t you hope SGA would do the same thing?

The Whit would hope so too.

However, SGA is an expert in doing nothing.

Take, for example, its repeated announcements that Senate meeting agendas would be completed by the Friday before a meeting. That did not happen last week.

While the agenda very well may have been completed, it was not accessible in either SGA’s office or on its Web site. This past Monday’s meeting agenda was not made available until Monday afternoon — just hours before the Senate meeting.
SGA also seems to be moving at a glacial pace when it comes to revising its constitution. The Student Government Association’s constitution is a complete debacle, a fact SGA adviser Gruber agrees on. It is an utter embarrassment for an organization that receives $925,000 of student funds and whose mission statement says that the organization is in the direct interest of the students’ needs and is the students’ voice. The Whit has been told by SGA for over the past year that this constitution is “currently being revised.” This revision seems to be still on-going. If this is so, The Whit urges SGA to swiftly and safely complete the process while
making sure to include an OPRA and OPMA statement within it.

If this seems at all petty, please recognize that at its core this issue is not about The Whit. At every SGA Senate meeting, The Whit is there in a journalistic capacity representing the public. The students of this university should have access to all decisions made by SGA and where exactly their money is being allocated.

Although incorporated as a private entity, the SGA is empowered by Rowan University, a public school. Without Rowan, Rowan’s SGA would cease to exist. Its advisers are Rowan employees, the tuition reimbursed for top e-board members is for Rowan, the money for the student activities fees first goes through Rowan’s Bursar’s office. Therefore, the SGA effectively acts as an arm of a public university.

The SGA must not simply agree to act in accordance to OPRA and OPMA or throw around words like “transparency.” They must write down standards on this so the public will know their rights.

Not until there are standards written down that future generations of SGA e-board members, Whit editors and students alike are aware of and can follow will this matter be considered closed.