In previous years, under different leadership, WSUSA executives clashed with The Signpost over whether or not journalists had the right to attend executive meetings and report on them.

A reporter from The Signpost was politely excused from the Sept. 5 Weber State University Student Association executive meeting. Former student journalists Alexis Rague and Rachel Badali wrote an article describing a similar occurrence published in an October 2016 issue of The Signpost.

Among new business in the senate, a bill was proposed that would allow members to close all or part of executive meetings, whether or not they be personal discussions. Primarily, however, WSUSA wants to keep student’s private matters private when they come up in discussion in the meetings. The bill also gives the option to keep matters awaiting resolution confidential.

A vote has yet to take place on the bill. Current WSUSA President Jordan Slater continued to encourage The Signpost to attend. However, he noted reporters may be asked to leave when the board is discussing individual team members, in order to protect their privacy.

“We want to be transparent,” Slater said.

Senator Crittenden wanted to know why the senators felt the need to close part of the meeting from the public. According to the meeting minutes from Sept. 10, WSUSA reported the need is strictly to protect student’s privacy in certain circumstances.

There are two ways of keeping informed of what happens in WSUSA executive meetings: being on the board oneself, or allowing the reporting agency at Weber State University, The Signpost, to cover these meetings, held every Wednesday in the Student Involvement and Leadership Center, in their entirety.

The Signpost cannot account for what is or is not said in these meetings when asked to leave, and, because of this, the public will have no knowledge of protected occurrences within the executive branch.