The Student Services Finance Committee and the UW-Madison administration recently butted heads over SSFC’s desire to discipline students it feels have misused university money.
After a recent incident in which a student employee misreported his hours, Chair Roman Patzner questioned SSFC’s role in the controversy.
Patzner received an e-mail from an administrator reporting that university student Peter Moran overlapped the hours he worked between his job with the Multicultural Students Coalition and the Vice Chancellor’s office. The duplicated hours dated back to October 2001 and resulted in 72.5 misreported hours.
SSFC was unable to obtain timesheets for Moran upon request.
“The university is taking the stance that the time sheets are protected by the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act,” Patzner said.
FERPA rules state any information pertaining to an individual’s status as a student at the university is unavailable to the public without the individual’s written permission. This information includes records that relate to university employment.
“SSFC wanted access on the grounds that [the records] were essential to the allocation of university funds,” interim Dean of Students Roger Howard said.
“It’s determined clearly under regent rules that the role of those committees is to regulate the allocation of [student] fees and the responsibility of the chancellor to distribute the fees.”
To punish the offender, SSFC voted to suspend Moran’s wages for one year, only to have the university determine this was outside the committee’s jurisdiction.
“They said SSFC is only responsible for allocating student funds, not taking disciplinary actions,” Patzner said.
The university conducted an individual investigation of Moran and found him not guilty of fraudulent activity. Patzner said he is concerned about why such actions are not considered fraudulent and doesn’t understand why the administration refuses to release any further information about the investigation.
According to Howard, Moran will be required to pay back the money he earned from the duplicated hours in full, but no further action will be taken.
“The university has never found sufficient evidence to proceed with a criminal investigation of the student in question,” Howard said.
Patzner said he is concerned that while SSFC is taking steps to hold people accountable for the student money they’re given, the university is taking steps to block them.
“I’m glad SSFC is worrying about accountability,” Howard said. “It’s the right question.”
Howard said he suggested a variety of ways for SSFC to assume responsibility for the money student groups receive.
“SSFC could make groups accountable for all money used by writing detailed budgets and by demanding proof of use,” Howard said.
Howard also suggested SSFC allocate funds on a two-year basis instead of a one-year basis to ensure they have time to evaluate a group’s use of funds before giving them more money.
