The Administration comments

This was sent to all UWM students:

Dear UWM students, faculty and staff,


On October 21, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published a story about
UWM and the Student Association (SA), Student government shut down: UWM police investigating possible embezzlement.

Because we value and respect student government, we believe it is important to share with you the perspective of the UWM administration regarding current questions relating to the UWM Student Association (SA). Federal privacy laws restrict us from disclosing everything, but many facts can be shared about what has happened over the past month and a half.

At the outset, we want to emphasize that our concerns in this situation are not about the role of student governance, but rather about our obligation to ensure that all students are represented with accountability, transparency and adherence to state laws and policies. The UWM administration fully supports the right of students to independently govern themselves.

Two separate but related investigations are currently under way. Both commenced September 6, the same day a Sandburg Halls Administrative Council (SHAC) representative discovered the existence of the $10,000 check written from a SHAC account to an entity called AcerPrudens.

UNIVERSITY AUDIT

The first of the two investigations is one being conducted by the UWM Department of Internal Audit with assistance from the UW System Office of Operations Review and Audit. Its purpose is to determine whether student funds were used in adherence to state law and UW System policy. Following SHAC’s report of the $10,000 check written to AcerPrudens, the auditors reviewed SHAC’s financial records. SHAC cooperated fully with the auditors in this effort.

Related to the audit, on October 9, the Chancellor requested that the Student Association also provide UWM officials with access to its financial records, in particular those relating to an outside bank account for funds privately raised. Such an account, which does not contain state funds or segregated fees, is permissible under UW System policies.

Authority for the Chancellor’s request is found in UW System Financial Administration Policy F20 (which can be found online at www.uwsa.edu/fadmin/fppp/fppp20.htm):

All student organizations receiving Segregated University Fees (SUF) support along with any student organization using University facilities, must agree as a condition of such support or use, to provide financial records, if requested, indicating specific revenues and expenditures for the particular event for which they received SUF support or the particular event they utilized a University facility. If SUF is received for ongoing operations of an organization, the organization must provide financial records of their entire operation, if requested by the Segregated University Fees Allocations Committees (SUFAC) or the
Institution. An organization's failure to comply with a request for financial information may result in the denial of SUF support and/or use of University facilities.

On at least three separate occasions after October 9, UWM Director of Internal Audit Paul Rediske communicated with Student Association President Samantha Prahl regarding the university’s request to access all financial records relating to the outside account. On each occasion, while Ms. Prahl suggested alternatives to UWM’s review of the records, she clearly indicated that the Student Association did not intend to turn over SA’s financial records relating to the outside bank account.

In light of SA’s response, on October 20, UWM administration took action to deny continued access to the SA offices pending resolution of its request for SA records. Part of UWM’s concern has been to ensure that the records it is seeking would be secure throughout any further delay in SA’s response to the request.

Please note that UWM’s action to suspend SA’s access to university funding and facilities was intended to impact only SA. No other student organizations are affected by that action at this time.

On Monday, October 23, SA’s attorneys contacted UWM administration to cancel the scheduled meeting between SA representatives and the auditors, and to propose that the requested records be removed to SA’s attorney’s office for review at that location. This proposal was under consideration, but has since been impacted by recent events in the criminal investigation as outlined below.

CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION

The second of the two separate investigations is being conducted by the University Police Department for potential criminal violations pertaining to the previously mentioned $10,000 check.

The latest development in that case came on the evening of Monday, October 23, when University Police executed a search warrant upon the SA offices. The warrant for the search was authorized by a Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge after being briefed on the case.

As a result of the University Police Department’s gathering of evidence, 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.

Previously in this investigation, on September 25, information gathered by University Police was presented to the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office, which then requested that certain additional information be gathered. As a result, on October 4, University Police executed a separate search warrant on a private residence, in addition to the warrant executed on October 23.

University Police will use the information gathered during the two searches to determine, along with the district attorney’s office, whether criminal charges will be issued.

We will continue to make every effort to keep the campus informed as future events surrounding the investigations into this matter unfold.


Sincerely,

Rita Cheng
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

I will be investigating this and commenting on this later.

UPDATE: 1:37 p.m., October 24
I will be attempting to read between the lines of this letter. The obvious part is that two separate but related investigations are happening. One is being done by the Internal Audit Division, and the other is a criminal investigation through the District Attorney's office. However, the search warrant in the criminal case has obviated the need for the lockdown of the SA office realting to the audit. This means one of two things:

1. The records of the "Private Account" believed to be in Union EG80 were not found there, thus making the lockdown meaningless.
2. The records were found and seized.

We will find out which is correct later.