In the recent fervor over recall elections, a group called the Student Empowerment Alliance (SEA) is petitioning to recall the executive and senate branches of the Undergraduate Student Government (USG).

SEA's reasoning behind the recall stemmed from what they called USG's failure to lobby for higher state appropriations and vice president Takeem Morgan's court appearance over bicycle theft charges.

SEA organizers also said they were pushing for the recall because of what they viewed as USG's lack of progress this semester and because appointments, instead of elections, are being used to fill the many vacant senate seats, thus impeding democracy.

The recall process will require over 1,000 signatures, and the most recent information says that the SEA has over 400 so far. But SEA has stopped commenting on the recall or its progress, even though it plans to continue its actions.

This policy of secrecy does not allow students to be informed of a recall that is supposedly being carried out to benefit them.

By not releasing information on the progress of the recall, SEA is leaving room for students to make assumptions about the process. Many might assume the recall is yet another example of USG dealing primarily with internal conflicts and not issues that affect students. Members of SEA have said that stopping in-fighting within USG is one of the reasons they are pushing for the recall.

If this is true, members should be vocal about their progress to prove that their efforts are directed at helping students. If members are concerned about democracy within USG, they should uphold one of the tenets of democracy -- the free flow of information.

If the recall goes through, it will cost USG $1,000, money that could otherwise be spent on student activities or programming.

A recall election would be a serious loss of money, and the intent of the election should be to ensure students are represented as they wish to be represented. Without knowledge about the impending recall, many students cannot know about an issue that affects them.

Essentially, the recall election, if done obscurely and with little student knowledge, will undermine any notion of democracy. The secrecy of SEA contradicts the group's original goals, and does little to stop the internal fighting of USG.

Instead of spending money on a recall election, focus should be placed on student interests, and keeping $1,000 for activities that Penn State wouldn't have otherwise.