I cannot express my anger at The State News enough over the recent articles and editorial regarding Academic Assembly's closed session during its election process this past Tuesday. If The State News editor in chief would've stopped whining long enough to pay attention, he would have noticed several mitigating factors regarding the purpose and structure of these closed meetings.

1) ASMSU rules do not allow for any actual business to take place when the meeting is closed. The only thing that goes on is discussion and debate. People aren't paranoid that what they'll say gets in the paper, they're paranoid that what they say will get back to the candidates and that they might take it personally.

2) ASMSU is not a public body, no matter what the ACLU says. The State News has tried before to raise a stink about closed sessions and has lost every time. Didn't the last editor in chief tell the new guy?

3) The only time you see closed sessions in ASMSU is during that single meeting each year when they do elections. Every other time, for every other issue, they meetings are fully open to the public. The State News reporters often choose not to attend these public meetings or choose to leave early.

In addition, The State News has spent so much time moaning about how they were shut out during elections that they failed to actually report on the election. So for the public's information, Jared English was elected chairperson, Tom Morse is internal vice chair and Daniel Weber is external vice-chair.

Maybe the S'News should act like a newspaper first and report the news, rather than fighting legal battles for a trifle.

John Sturk
political theory and constitutional democracy sophomore and former ASMSU member