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UWM defends student government shutdown
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by Tom Schalmo
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
The provost at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee sent a comprehensive letter to students and faculty Monday regarding the shutdown of its student government.
In the letter, UWM Provost Rita Cheng says the university's concern is not with the role of student government but rather their "obligation to ensure that all students are represented with accountability, transparency and adherence to state laws and policies."
According to Cheng's letter, the university is conducting two "separate but related" investigations. First, the UWM Department of Internal Audit and the UW System are performing an audit of the Sandburg Halls Administrative Council, or SHAC, to determine if they follow system policy and state law.
"SHAC cooperated fully with the auditors in this effort," Cheng wrote.
Cheng also confirmed the university is investigating a $10,000 check written out to AcerPrudens, a private marketing firm in Milwaukee owned by former SHAC President Russell Rueden.
SHAC and its president are responsible for two accounts — one that holds student fees, and another that is an "outside bank account" reserved for fundraising money. SHAC is independent component of the UWM Student Association.
Current SHAC President Jesse Dercks said while Rueden was in charge, Rueden did not make the fundraising account open to the public. This allowed him to have a $10,000 check written to AcerPrudens without anyone else in SHAC knowing.
Now, Dercks said SHAC has renewed its policy to maintain open records, admitting that his position, created by Rueden, currently holds too much power.
"I have more power than it makes sense to give to one person," Dercks said, adding he is working to reduce that power.
University police searched a "private residence" on two occasions after warrants were executed Oct. 4 and Oct. 23. University officials would not confirm whose residence it was, but Dercks said it was Rueden's.
With much of the investigation focusing on the SHAC and Student Assocation President Samantha Prahl acting cooperatively in the efforts, Cheng wrote the university is working to reopen association.
"It appears that at this time there is no reason to continue to deny SA representatives access to university facilities, and we will work with SA to allow the offices to reopen," she wrote.
No timetable was offered as to when exactly the offices will resume business.
Cheng was unavailable Tuesday afternoon, and UWM spokesman Tom Luljak has not returned repeated phone calls placed by The Badger Herald since Sunday.
On the UW-Madison campus, Associated Students of Madison Finance Committee Chair Sree Atluru said the governing body should take action in decisions regarding student fees rather than university administration.
"If it's something that comes from student fees, it should have been student initiated," Atluru said.
ASM member David Lapidus said the university should take a hard look at what happened.
"It's a very serious accusation that needs to be investigated," Lapidus said. "If someone is convicted, they should be punished with the full extent of the law."
Atluru, who is also a member of the Student Services Finance Committee, assured the type of embezzlement that's been alleged at UWM could not happen here.
"There are checks and balances within ASM to make sure this doesn't happen," Atluru said. "I have no access to money, the chair of ASM has no access to money, and the chair of SSFC has no access to money."
In addition, Atluru said ASM has a "professional staff" that deals directly with funding and remains neutral on student issues. Lapidus agreed, saying he "seriously doubts" such embezzlement could occur at UW-Madison.
Anonymous (October 26, 2006 @ 8:05pm):
As a UWM student following the stories on the investigation into the embezzlement of student funds published in the Badger-Herald, I have noticed that whenever a story is printed regarding this matter, the quotes published from the ASM seem to always be critical of the UWM administration for trying to audit the accounts of the UWM Student Association. There is the general implication that UWM students should have been the ones to take action in the matter rather than administration. Based on these articals, I do not believe that the people on the Badger-Herold staff or the ASM members interviewed really have much of a grasp on how apathetic UWM's student body can be or for how long a clique of people have controlled our student government.
Your ASM represetatives say that UWM Administration was wrong for stepping in and temporarily deniying SA the use of campus resources. I, on the other hand, applaud this act. If we had been forced to wait for the student body at UWM to initiate an investigation into this matter, we would have been waiting until hell froze over. Granted, a few students have expressed deep concern in the few days since the UWM Administration temporarily locked the SA out of their office. But the majority are still entirely oblivious to the situation. As of the time of this writing, the "Campus Democracy Coalition", which is probably the largest and most certainly the most active group to speak out and organize against this corruption, has only 171 members in its Facebook group, where it seems to be gaining most of its base. "SA...Stealing My Money 10 Grand at a Time", another Facebook group, has only 188 members- and most of them are the same people who are in the CDC. Out of over 28,000 students, that is a pitiful amount.
And the sad thing is, this is not the first scandal to affect this group of student "politicians". There have been a series of unfortunate incidents dating back to at least 2004 and probably even earlier than that which have involved suspiscion of this group of people. And yet they still managed to gain control of the government... And most UWM students, to date, have never heard their names.
You students at Madison may think you are impervious to this sort of corruption- and who knows, you very well may be. But it has happened to us here in Milwaukee, and some may even draw parallels to the type of politics that exist these days on a national scale. So I am asking you, based on my experiences, to keep a very close eye on your student government. And not only that, I am also asking you to make sure that your friends do as well. Because without some kind of a collective watch group, your own student organization ASM very easily could end up in a scandal involving the embezzelment of YOUR money, much as ours has at UWM. Your student officials may tell you otherwise, but all it really takes is a close knit group of people coming into power over a gradual period of time and remaining there. Keep a close watch.
-Jeanette S. Brickner, Senior, UW- Milwaukee
