College Council (CC) decided Tuesday to form a group that will draft a bylaw governing photography and recording at its meetings.

CC Chair Eric Holmberg proposed a transparency bylaw at the meeting following the U of C Divest vote on April 19, at which photography and recording was banned. The proposed bylaw read: “College Council shall not prohibit photography or the use of recording devices at its meetings.”

Discussion regarding the transparency bylaw was tabled after CC representatives expressed concern over the language and timing of the proposal. Class of 2016 representative Holly Rapp argued during the proposal that a more “nuanced” bylaw should be drafted. Rapp said that the introduction of a transparency bylaw immediately following the divestment vote appeared “reactionary.” CC voted to table the question until the next meeting.

At the following meeting, an updated bylaw was introduced which would have allowed CC to ban photography or video recording with a two-thirds vote and to edit audio recordings to keep constituents anonymous. Some representatives were dissatisfied with the new bylaw, and others felt that the introduction of the bylaw immediately before Student Government (SG) elections was politically motivated. CC passed a motion to table the transparency bylaw vote until after the election.

Holmberg said during this week’s meeting that two transparency bylaw proposals have been proposed in the past month. Stating that the proposals need to be reconciled, Holmberg asked CC representatives to voice their interest in forming a group that would draft a transparency bylaw. The proposal would be prepared for the next CC meeting or for the ninth week General Assembly meeting.

Third-years Blaine Crawford and Peggy Xu, second-years Calvin Cottrell and Preethi Raju, and first-year Qudsiyyah Shariyf volunteered to help Holmberg draft the bylaw proposal.