Student Government Legal Status Questioned

Despite its name, University officials say the Student Government Association isn’t a governmental body and doesn’t have to post an agenda as required by the Texas Open Meetings Act.

SGA officials aren’t sure if the law applies to them, and said they’re looking at other University of Texas system schools across the state for guidance.

Beginning this semester, Patriot Talon reporters asked the SGA to post its meeting times and agendas at least 72 hours in advance to comply with the law and better inform the student body.

Currently the agenda is issued minutes prior to the weekly meeting. The intent of the law is to give members of the public enough time in advance to participate in government.

“It is our legal guarantee that the public’s business is conducted openly and without secrecy,” Texas Attorney General Greg Abbot writes in the TOMA handbook.

Government entities are categorized by several factors regarding their spending procedures and elections.

According to the TOMA, if an organization believes they’re not a government body, they have to seek advice from the attorney general. Neither University officials or SGA members have done so.

An attorney for the Student Press Law Center, a non-profit organization in Virginia that represents student publications and advises on legal issues pertaining to their rights under the first amendment. Adam Goldstein, an attorney for the SPLC said because SGA members are elected, spend taxpayer’s money, and send recommendations to the administration, therefore maintaining government records, they are a governmental body.

“It seems pretty clear the SGA is a governmental body and holds information for a governmental body,” Goldstein said.

Legal Opinions

The SGA is funded by the Student Services Fee, a mandatory fee for all students enrolled in the University. Senators pass resolutions, which then can be forwarded to administration officials, who then make final decisions.

Members of the SGA include representatives from the colleges, housing complexes and freshman, who are all elected by the student body or appointed by the SGA executive council.

In 2004 the Talon requested open records from the SGA, and University Compliance Officer Mary Barr said the SGA didn’t have to comply because it was not subject to the act.

In a previous article, Barr said the University does not have a right to access the SGA documents, they can’t be legally forced to open those documents. Barr then said if the Talon would have to send a written request to the University’s compliance office to get an attorney general’s opinion.

Goldstein told the Talon in that case Barr’s request constituted an illegal request because the University should not comply with requests for agencies it claims not to represent.

The SGA members then released the records instead of asking for an attorney general’s opinion.

UT System’s answer

When asked again last week, Barr again said the SGA is not subject to the Open Meetings Act. And in response to a request from the Patriot Talon submitted an undated letter from the UT system’s general council.

In that a system lawyer argued that the SGA did not meet the criteria for being a “governmental body.” “The UT Tyler Student Government Association is not an entity within the executive or legislative department of the state.

“Its members are expressly not employees of the state. It’s role, with relation to the University of Texas at Tyler or UT System … is limited to making recommendations to the institution and/or the board of regents.

“In fact it is not even authorized to speak on behalf of the University of Texas at Tyler,” according to the opinion given to Barr

That document and Barr’s written response were sent to Goldstein to review.

SGA’s answer

SGA president Kerrie Ambort said she’s looking into the matter, but has doubts about the SGA’s ability to comply with the 72 hour rule.

“If we were to follow that [TOMA], everything in the SGA would have to change,” Ambort said. She said the 72-hour rule would place undue pressure on the SGA, because their agendas are currently decided on the day of the meeting.

She said SGA executive council members do no meet until Wednesday morning to decide the agenda items, and the general assembly meetings are Wednesday evenings.

“I am currently in the process of contacting other UT System campuses and seeing how they run their agenda,” Ambort said. “Whether or not this 72 hour rule applies directly to Student Governments is under more research and investigation by our adviser and the SGA officers.”

The Patriot Talon contacted the UT Austin student newspaper, the largest campus in the system, to determine how they interact with their SGA.

Leah Finnegan, editor of the Daily Texan, said she has an open relationship with her SGA members “For lack of a better term, what [the UT Tyler SGA are] doing is wack,” Finnegan said.

“We’re all students and want to see good things happen on campus. I meet with the president of SGA often, and while he could being doing things behind our back, he makes a great effort to be (mostly) transparent.”