The Student Association senate should keep any impeachment meeting open.

The SA senate will debate in the upcoming days if SA Vice President Tanya Smith deserves to stay in office. All of such deliberations should be made in the open.

The senate can legally close the meeting to the outside because impeachment is a personal issue. However, an open meeting will best serve the student body.

Remember as senate, staff and executive board members are so quick to point out the entire student body is part of the SA. Students deserve the right to know who is taking what position and why.

It is easy to close the meeting. Often senators do so to protect the accused. Even more often, senators close the meeting to protect themselves.

By keeping the meeting open, the impeachment debate is more likely to stick to SA issues. Senators are more likely to stay professional and not let the debate sink to personal attacks. If a senator won’t speak-up because the meeting is open—for whatever reason—then that senator has no business on the senate in the first place.

And the openness will show a good-faith effort on the senate’s part that this is not a witch-hunt.

Obviously, back-hall politicking and back-scratching will go on. It has up to this point. As long as that is within the boundaries of the law, that is fine and expected.

But NIU students have more to gain than lose by keeping the meeting open.