I just wanted to take a quick moment to convey my congratulations to the ALC and GLC for promoting greater transparency. Obviously, I would have liked to have seen the entire situation handled with a greater degree of maturity on the part of the ALC. I think they really tried to “stick it” to The Observer staff by giving the information to The Heights. This is very disappointing because I have faith that Jesse and his staff were as respectful as possible to the ALC at every step of the process. I’m not really sure what the ALC was trying to prove (that student newspapers shouldn’t ask for greater transparency?). At the end of the day it is The Observer’s job to try and create an atmosphere of greater transparency and openness.

Also, in respect to Meg’s comment on the editorial, you did read the correct Heights article but I don’t think you read the Observer editorial carefully enough. The editorial, as I read it, does not claim that The Heights should not have published the material. Rather, it simply states that the publication should not have allowed the ALC to insinuate that greater transparency was an internal idea. Simply put, I think that the Observer staff has a hard time believing that the Heights was genuinely ignorant of this fact.

Unfortunately, this has taken away from the fact that the release of the budgets is a major win for the student body, which yearly devotes a large portion of its student activities fee to the two organizations.