The United Residence Hall Council presented legislation Monday night that

would disqualify resident assistants from serving as executive officers in

the council.

The bill was presented because of fears resident assistants would

potentially have to enforce policies they might be working to change in the

URHC. The bill would also open more leadership opportunities in URHC.

Currently, four of eight executive officers are resident assistants.

We applaud URHC for presenting such legislation, for ensuring no conflicts

of interests arise. Still, we wonder if the bill will be effective in doing

what sponsors set out for it to do. For example, will quality leaders have

to choose between the executive council and being a resident

assistant?

Will the best leaders be in each of the jobs? Will it affect how many

people apply for each job?

At the Beacon, we are constantly aware of conflicts of interests. But

for a moment, allow us to be the devil’s advocate.

As students want to be involved on campus and fight for causes that

interest us. As reporters, we struggle to stay away from reporting on such

causes and keeping our objectivity.

We know all too well the concerns of the URHC.

But we’ve also found that we can’t ask quality reporters to leave the

newsroom just because they have outside interests. We make sure they are

aware of the conflict and implore them to constantly seek to be

objective.

Should URHC do the same? We understand the situations are different.

Executive council members/resident assistants shouldn’t enforce the passage

of bills just for their benefit. But we also believe students know their

limitations. Once made aware of the potential conflict, we trust they would

step away from it and let others take control in certain cases.

Ousting quality leaders isn’t the answer.