Student Government Association President Darren Beckham took steps toward fulfilling his campaign promise of transparency Wednesday.

Beckham passed a new amendment to the by-laws merging the programming committee and the public relations committee and creating a new oversight and inquiry committee within the Association.

In order to avoid a lag in the process, Beckham also passed an executive order setting up a temporary committee while the new by-law awaits University President John Bardo’s signature.

The executive order has fail-safes that dissolve the committee in the case of Bardo’s administration vetoing the by-law or passing the by-law. If the bill passes, a permanent committee will be established in place of the temporary one. Beckham does not foresee the University administration vetoing the by-law.

Beckham called the executive order a “simple fix” to getting the committee active immediately. He wanted to get the committee up and running quickly because “there’s a lot of momentum to be gained in these earlier weeks.”

The new committee is two-fold. It would first allow SGA senators to take a more active role in what the executive team is working on. Second, it would allow senators to research more in-depth issues on campus usually reserved for executive members.

Although this is a new committee, Beckham says, “It’s really not anything too groundbreaking.”

Beckham also hopes that the committee will create a sense of trust within the Association and the public by providing some form of accountability.

He hopes there are no real concerns about how he is running SGA, however, Beckham said that he wants to be able to “empirically xqjob.

Although he said this is not an “ethics” committee and it has no sanctioning powers, Beckham believes it will be the perfect tool for “framing a case” for the Senate Review Board, SGA’s disciplinary board, especially if it is an executive team member in question.

Brandon James, the newly appointed chairman of the interim oversight and inquiry committee, said that he wants to make the committee “less of a ‘let’s spank SGA,’ and more of a ‘let’s work to have better partnerships with the University.’”

SGA Legislative Director Andrew Longhofer said that the committee demonstrates “that this administration intends to follow the rules,” but that “if anyone has any question as to whether or not that’s true, this committee exists to ensure that happens.”

Also on Wednesday, SGA appointed the director of public relations, the legislative director and the campus issues chair.