By The Editorial Board

In the age of Julian Assange and Wikileaks, when honesty can often be the best policy, transparency continues to lie at the forefront of news. With the increased amount of information accessible to the average citizen through a plethora of news sources, information in the public realm has become plentiful. The result is an increasingly blurred line between public and confidential knowledge as organizations balance their wealth of information with their duties to the people they serve.

This issue is relevant in governments, corporations and universities alike. Recently, on Fordham’s campus, there has been a push for more transparency by many students, including the efforts to make the Student Activities budget public. Students, evidently, want to know where their money is going , especially the money paid in the Student Activities Fee, which all undergraduate students are required to pay  and how the university is distributing those funds among the various clubs, branches and organizations it hosts.

At the forefront of the push stands United Student Government (USG) Vice President of Finance, Muhammad Sarwar. Sarwar, who took office in September, has made numerous strides to increase transparency within USG. For example, students can not only access the Student Activities budget on USG’s website, but they can also view weekly decisions online. Sarwar has placed this information online as a effort to aid  students who have an interest in how their money is being allotted.  These actions point to an upward trend within USG to increase the visibility and transparency of their proceedings.

Many times organizations attempt to withold information from those seeking it because the data may be unpopular.   Fordham students, as of right now, have elected USG members who understand the importance of transparency, and we are fully confident that the representatives will continue this trend of making more and more information available to the entire student body.

We are in full support of full disclosure of information from organizations made possible with the money of others. Transparency is a most sensitive topic but, when dealt with professionalism, can improve organizations in multiple ways.