With the abolition of the Government of the Student Body Senate’s “Connecting with Constituents” program and the substitution of a point system that awards points for a wide range of activities, GSB refined the outreach it does with the student body it is supposed to represent. However, another Senate bill that passed last week, which also would have improved interaction between students and GSB, met GSB President Jared Knight’s veto pen on Friday. That piece of legislation, the “transparency bill,” would have required the executive branch’s webmaster to upload current legislation, agendas, minutes and recordings of meetings to the website.

In what is perhaps an unusual effort to be constructive and call attention to an important issue, we will refrain from commenting on Knight’s response. It is sufficient to state some of his concerns, if addressed, would hash out details which probably should find resolution. As to a charge that GSB executives did not work with the Senate in crafting the legislation and vice-versa, we think it sufficient to say, clearly, the members of GSB should think of themselves not as members of exec or as senators, but as members of GSB.

If senators seek to override the veto, they should do so in a way that improves it.

The real issue is that we are in the year 2013, and the go-to source for any organization is its website. The Internet is the great repository of human knowledge, and webpages allow us to navigate it. GSB’s website is woefully inadequate. It does not begin to meet basic governmental functions, vital to any political organization that seeks to engage the people it represents. Remember, in opening meetings Vice President Katie Brown reads: “All students are members and participants in the Government of the Student Body and as such are encouraged to take part in discussion of senate bills and orders or issues affecting students.”

Rather than enabling students to be part of the process, the website only assists students with contacting GSB members and with understanding the process by which they can obtain a part of the money paid in student fees. You can’t read the bills which have been introduced. You can’t read the agenda for the next meeting and decide whether you should attend and voice your opinion. You can’t read the minutes and understand the issues senators had with a bill. You can’t watch video or listen to audio of a Senate meeting.

In short: If you want to discover what GSB is doing, you can’t.

Knight has graciously said all he or the webmaster needs is a request to upload particular documents, notwithstanding their current workloads. Granted, a student is always busy, especially when he is president of GSB, and a webmaster is always busy when building a website and moving content around. But we shouldn’t have to ask. Allowing us, as students who subsidize other students’ extracurriculars, to view basic governmental documents so we can participate, is the essence of democratic government.

Action cannot be delayed because the original bill was vetoed.