The Student Union is off to another rocky start. After Union officials spent a week explaining its disturbing lack of alarm at faulty Senate elections, the body is in public relations trouble yet again. The issue this time? Secrecy.

During both of the newest Senate’s first two meetings of the year, Senate Chairman Joel Fajardo has made a considerable issue of the body’s ability to eject those members of the public it sees fit to ban, arguing he should be allowed to close parts of public Senate meetings to non-Union personnel. After senators voted to remove Daily Free Press reporters from the body’s first meeting, the Union Tribunal Monday night upheld the Senate’s right to eject any member of the public when the body feels the action necessary. In the Tribunal’s decision, the Union’s judicial body held that, according to Robert’s Rules of Order, the Senate chairman is allowed to remove members of the public he deems disruptive to Union business, with the Tribunal’s consent.

The Union’s focus on who can and cannot attend their meetings thus far this year runs counter to what this Union’s focus should be. At a time when the Union is slowly recovering from the bad reputation it developed through years of resignations and overall inaction, senators should be working to create a Union environment that will encourage student involvement and inquiry, rather than discourage it. Students are already apathetic to the Union — senators should not be thinking of ways to more officially exclude the rest of the student body. Passing resolutions allowing for arbitrary exclusion of the general public sends a cold message to the few students currently thinking about becoming active in campus politics. The Tribunal’s ruling that Fajardo can call the Boston University Police Department should members of the public refuse to leave is an unnecessarily extreme and intimidating threat that could further turn the student body off to the Union.

Senators are elected officials who spend a portion of every student’s Undergraduate Student Fee. Students should be given a chance to hear the Senate’s decisions or, at very least, read about them the next day. They should be allowed to ascertain just how well their senators are representing their views and wants. Senators’ attempts to exclude portions of the student body show a somewhat shoddy commitment to democracy.

To their credit, Union Executive Board members have been critical of Fajardo’s drive for power. Union President Ethan Clay later urged senators not to exclude members of the public, as they had on Oct. 1, when they made a motion to enter Executive Session. The E-board should continue to urge senators to think about the damage resolutions like the one passed Oct. 1 inflict upon a slowly rebuilding Union.

After Union officials enthusiastically endorsed questionable elections, the senate’s attempts to close portions of Union meetings call further into question the Union’s dedication to the democratic principles it so often touts. Public discussion of competing interests and ideas is a cornerstone of more than 200 years of American democracy. If the Union is truly interested in following the American model, as Fajardo himself has claimed, Union members must more carefully consider the implications of their policy decisions.