Wanted: One village of gnomes to search for the lost software licenses the undergraduate student government couldn't keep track of. If successful, gnomes could earn promotion to ASMSU leadership positions.

Last week, ASMSU's Student Assembly shut itself behind closed doors to discuss the organization's misplacement of software licenses.

The assembly then went on to approve spending nearly $800 to buy new licenses for Microsoft Office and other programs - licenses the student government presumably already owns. Officials say those licenses must be somewhere, and admit evidence of them could be found among ASMSU's records of past purchases.

"If I had a village of gnomes that could go find if these things existed - that would be great," ASMSU Interim Association Director James Perra told The State News.

Well, unfortunately, there are no gnomes. There apparently isn't an atmosphere of openness at ASMSU either.

Holding a closed meeting because officials might have been too embarrassed to admit a mistake was made is never a good enough reason for shutting the public out of government. ASMSU should have owned up to its mistake and dealt with the problem in an open meeting. Holding a closed meeting only shrouds the problem in speculation.

MSU undergraduates pay a tax of $13 per semester to ASMSU.

It's important to recognize that the loss of the software licenses isn't the fault of current leadership, but it is the responsibility of current leaders to deal with the issue appropriately and openly.

Sensitive information must be kept in a reasonable place, such as with ASMSU's business office, rather than with student leaders who change positions every year.

The $800 spent from Student Assembly's special projects account for the new licenses could have been used for programs or services for students.

Instead, it's being used to clean up another mess in ASMSU. Let's expedite the shipment of those gnomes.