The Senate Ethics Committee met Wednesday night to discuss the creation of a code of ethics for the University ’s Student Government Administration.
The group, which consisted of members of all three branches of student government, said there was a problem because no code of ethics currently exists for the SGA.
After discussion, the group decided to begin drafting a code of ethics that was a standalone document from their constitution and their code of laws.
“We should have the ethics code, which kind of outlines what are the principles and core beliefs of the SGA, and more of a separate, more judicial, internal code that describes the violations and how to deal with them,” said Ryan Flamerich, SGA speaker of the Senate.
David Wilson, SGA vice president of student affairs, said he agreed that a code was necessary, but the procedures for violations of SGA code of laws should be outlined in a different document.
“When I think of a code of ethics, I think of moral guidelines,” Wilson said. “It does not need to cover procedures; it needs to cover guidelines.”
“Last month, with the investigation into the manipulation of First Year Council applications, the SGA experienced a situation where a strong, well-written ethics chapter would have been most useful in delineating how the SGA should handle an investigation,” SGA Attorney General David Simpson said in a press release.
“It quickly became evident that a nuanced process was necessary for handling future instances where SGA officials breach our governing documents, University Code of Conduct and other governing laws and regulations,” Simpson said in the release.
The suggestions for the draft of the code of ethics included points such as acting independently, acting professionally in all encounters and being honest in all things.
Wilson said the guidelines set aside in the code of ethics should be specific enough to cover the points they addressed, but also vague enough to disallow loopholes inherent in a lengthy and complicated set. He cited one suggested point, do not discriminate, and argued that including a clause that specified against whom the SGA could not discriminate left room for people to call attention to groups that were not included in the list and were, as such, left open to discrimination.
Flamerich also said in the case of an investigation of allegations against a member of the SGA, guidelines need to exist to govern that investigation.
The group agreed that the SGA attorney general’s office should conduct all investigations except those they voluntarily declined or those involving a conflict of interest in their office. In those cases, the Senate Ethics Committee would act as a failsafe and conduct the investigation.
Flamerich also opened debate over the instances in which SGA documents are shielded by FERPA, a federal law that, for the sake of individual privacy, allows a group to declare certain educational records confidential.
“We need to decide whether or not documents within the SGA are protected by FERPA,” Flamerich said. “This is an ongoing question, and we don’t know the answer.
“I think all SGAs in the state of Florida have all their members sign a FERPA waiver form, which states that all the educational records, their GPA, transcripts, all of those are educational records and are protected by FERPA. But anything that they do, anything in terms of SGA meetings or documents, anything SGA-related, anything in an official capacity, including official investigations into their actions, they waive the right to protection under FERPA.”
The group agreed that FERPA was being used to cover documents that were not what the law intended and said that they needed to take some time, both to iron out their code of ethics and to determine what documents qualified for FERPA confidentiality and what ought to be waived.
“We really need to make sure we do everything right the first time so we don’t have problems in the future,” said Lauren Hardison, chair of the Ethics Committee. “We will have more meetings like this, so we can compile everything and determine what would work for us.”
“This is the first time, in my knowledge of the SGA, that all branches of the SGA have come together to make real, substantive changes to the code of laws,” Flamerich said. “ I want everyone to be on board. I want everyone to have a piece of this legislation, because ultimately, we are one SGA.”
Lauren Hardison, chair of the Ethics Committee, agreed.
“We really need to make sure we do everything right the first time so we don’t have problems in the future,” Hardison said. “We will have more meetings like this, so we can compile everything and determine what would work for us.”
