Transparency and the SG

As part of the student media, the main of goal of defacto is to promote transparency between the administration, faculty and students. But how can we expect transparency from the administration, when candidates to our own Student Government choose to stonewall the press when it comes to issues the electorate might find useful when electing their representatives?

A Martha Vineyard's Times report on the activities of the Martha Vineyard's District Court has come to our attention, according to which Jaba Shalamberidze, a current candidate for the Vice-Presidency of the Student Government and defacto reporter, was charged with assault and battery on July 23, 2009.

What shocked us is that neither Shalamberidze nor Elitsa Nacheva, who picked Shalamberidze as her running mate, agreed to talk to defacto on the issue. At a liberal arts university, like this one, where freedom of speech and transparency should be two of the main concerns of both of the administration and the student body, it shocks us that a candidate to the executive branch of the SG decided not to disclose information regarding such a sensitive issue.

Having in mind the recent decision of the elections committee to oblige the AUBG community to send all debate questions in advance to avoid "any kind of offensive campaigning towards any individual or office within the AUBG community," we are left to wonder what is happening to the SG when the freedom of speech is regulated, and the candidates are reluctant to talk.

By refusing to talk candidly with the student media, the Nacheva-Shalamberidze team are surrounding their campaign in a veil of mystery which we find unacceptable.