Recently, the USG Supreme Court found the membership ban placed on former Sen. Jason Covener to be unconstitutional.

Covener was banned from the student government after he was convicted in 1999 of illegally obtaining and distributing private e-mail messages from USG members and other students.

The ban revoked Covener's membership from USG, banned him from entering the student government's office and censured him. However, the Court found the ban unconstitutional because the USG constitution doesn't allow any governmental body from refusing anyone membership.

Whether or not the banning is unconstitutional is a moot point. What needs to be addressed is the issue of the membership ban in the first place and what USG and students can do about it in the future.

In 1999, while Covener was USG Senate President, he plead guilty to keystroke logging. This process allows someone to view the keystrokes from a computer user and their response during a session. This is obviously a clear threat to USG security and to anyone to whom Covener has access.

In order to prevent anything like this from happening in the future, the student government should look into amending the constitution. By adding a provision that allows for the prohibition on membership on representatives, those in office will think twice before doing anything questionable. As it stands, representatives really don't have any reason to fully abide by the laws when they can plead guilty to a crime that threatened the organization's security and then be free to attempt to regain membership a couple years later. USG must protect itself from suspicious activity without the organization and show that it is willing to hold its members more accountable.

A possible amendment shouldn't be the only thing to emerge from this incident. Students should also take responsibility for electing trustworthy leaders to represent them.

Covener wants to be reinstated into student government and, therefore, students need to consider his history when casting their votes in this or any election.

According to current USG leaders, Covener hasn't shown any drastic changes since his return to the university. This, coupled with his previous track record, should be more than enough to prevent him from being reinstated.

This incident proves that USG should look into the kind of members its constitution allows. It also shows that students should do some research before voting in the USG elections. These people are representing us, and their actions should not be taken lightly. Covener proved that abuse of power happens, even in local government, and it's up to the students to make sure these people stay out of office.