So now they want to play by the rules -- sort of

The Student Association Senate has scheduled another meeting to replace the one they couldn't hold due to lack of quorum. Here is the relevant text of the notice:

PUBLIC NOTICE
The Student Association of the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
EMERGENCY STUDENT SENATE MEETING
DATE: Sunday, December 10th, 2006
TIME: 6:00pm
LOCATION:
UWM Union Ballroom
2200 E. Kenwood Blvd.
Milwaukee, WI 53211

Agenda First Available on Friday, December 8th, 2006
By emailing: amandav3@uwm.edu
All meetings are open to the general public.
The senate may go into closed session pursuant to Wisconsin State Statute 19.85(1-6)
According to SA Senate Bylaws Article II Section VI, an
Emergency meeting must be held when requested by 5 senators.
"Emergency meetings shall be for the sole purpose of approving SFC or SAC actions..."

In another world, we could just accept this as is and move on. But in the world we have seen so far, it makes sense to post the section of the Senate Bylaws relevant to this situation, namely Article II, Section VI:

Article II -- Meetings

Section 6 -- Emergency Senate Meetings (for those of you following with your own copy of the Senate Bylaws, it's the second Section 6 -- i.e. the one after the Section 6 dealing with the State of the Students Address)

a. Emergency Senate meetings shall be called by the Speaker of the Senate or by the request of 5 senators, in writing, to the Speaker.

b. The agenda shall be written by the Executive Committee.

c. No senator shall be penalized for absences during emergency meetings.

d. There must be at least 48 hours between the time the meeting is called and the meeting itself.

e. Quorum shall consist of 40% of Senate Seats filled.

f. Emergency Senate meetings shall be for the sole purpose of approving SFC or SAC actions or taking up items requiring Senate action due to timelines outside the control of the Student Association.

So, when the meeting in the garage was to be held, it was for "items requiring Senate action due to timelines outside the control of the Student Association" clause that doesn't appear on the notice. Yet, here, the implication of the notice as written is that this clause doesn't exist.

If you want to be around when the Executive Committee creates this agenda, that will be on December 7 (i.e. tomorrow as I write this) at 3:30 p.m. in EG79I, 16 minutes after the Shared Governance meeting. Either there are so few items being covered by Shared Governance that their meeting will be extremely short, or the Executive Committee will have to set the agenda without the input of the Shared Governance Director.

But the big question is this: Why should all the other items wait until the next regular meeting? The only reason they weren't discussed was there was a lack of quorum, and the number who did show up (12) isn't enough for quorum even for an Emergency meeting (16).

As for timeline issues, the Election Commission Formation Act becomes nearly meaningless if not passed now. The Concurrent Service Act can possibly wait, but why should it? The Student Association Senator Award Act could run into problems if its failure to be addressed removes a senator who would have been eligible to remain had it passed. There are constituencies who would argue that these and other measures need to be addressed sooner if not later. Why create a notice that precludes them?

The next time, they'd better bring a band...

This publication came from Well Armed Sheep.

I went to the UWM Student Senate emergency meeting in the garage. The posting in the Union listed the purpose as "Discussion of Obtaining Legal Counsel". When we arrived, we got a single sheet of paper with the agenda on one side and a proposed piece of student legislation on the other side. Here is the full text of both; I will comment through parts of it, with full explanation afterward:

AGENDA
Student Association Senate
Emergency Meeting October 20, 2006 7:00 p.m.

1) Call to Order/Approval of the Agenda
2) Reports
3) New Business
a. The Financial Accountability Act of 2006
4) Adjournment

The Financial Accountability Act of 2006
(Comments in italics are mine)
Author: Sen. Daniel V. Bahr
Sponsor: Sen. Bahr

WHEREAS, segregated fee expenditures are governed by (UW-System)Financial Administration Policy F20, and

WHEREAS, the Student Association is charged with allocating segregated fees and ensuring that those fees are being spent legitimately, and

WHEREAS, the Student Association is aware of at least one illegitimate transaction that occurred at the direction of Interim Vice Chancellor James Hill between the UWM Student Union and the Department of Athletics totaling over $100,000.00, and

WHEREAS, the policy of the University, as echoed by Chancellor Carlos Santiago, is that an audit of a SUF (Segregated University Fee) department is permissible at any time under F20 and until such time as the audit can be completed the department must cease functioning (See below for explanation of this comment), and

WHEREAS, F20 allows equally for "SUFAC (Segregated University Fee Allocation Committee, appointed by the Student Association) or the Institution" to demand a financial audit, and

WHEREAS, both SUFAC and the Institution are equal in the eyes of policy F20, and

WHEREAS, SUFAC is a subcommittee of the Senate, comprised entirely of Senators, and

WHEREAS, all actions of SUFAC must also be approved by the Senate;

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Student Association is requiring a complete financial audit to be conducted on the following entities: UWM Student Union, Norris Health Center, Klotsche Center, Department of Athletics, and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Student Association orders the operatios of these departments must cease immediately in order to comply with the University's interpretation of F20.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Student Association empower the President to use all practical and logical means to enforce this order, and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that the Student Association order the President to use any and all private funds to ensure that we effectively address the constitutional crisis facing our government.

Events of the last few days
In light of the controversy over the Sandburg Halls Administrative Council's mysterious check to Senate Speaker Russ Rueden's company, as listed in the UWM Post Blog, there have been calls to audit other records stemming from last year's administration (i.e. when Rueden was Student Association President). As part of this investigation, the University has asked for records relating to the "private SA account" from current SA President Samantha Prahl. By this, she is referring to an account that any student organization can have for funds that aren't part of segregated fees, usually through the UW Credit Union.

Prahl is refusing to release these records for fear of setting a precedent that would allow the University to examine this account any time they felt like it. The University's position is that this account is a legitimate part of the audit per the Policy:

If SUF is received for ongoing operations of an organization, the organization must provide financial records of their entire operation, if requested by the 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.

--UW System Financial Administration Policy F20, Section II.

Therefore, since Ms. Prahl refused to release the records for the "private account", the University invoked the "failure to comply" clause and
denied Student Association the use of its University office.

This proposed legislation is an attempt to respond in kind. If failure to respond to all of an auditing agency's requests is enough to order their denial of University space, then the Student Association can do the same thing by demanding that other organizations submit to an audit. This, however, is flawed on the following grounds:

1) The policy states that the SUFAC can request the financial records, not the Senate that appoints them. While actions of the SUFAC may be subject to Senate approval, there has been no meeting by the SUFAC itself to request this audit.

2) The wording of the policy does seem to favor the University position. It does state the organization "must provide financial records of their entire operation" if requested. The fact that some of these records are not of segregated fees does not seem to be an issue.

3) This move appears to be one of retailation, not of legitimate concern. The alleged illegal transaction is one that has been a part of student government here for years. Back in 2002, money was taken from the Union budget (which makes money from its dining services) and moved to the athletic budget with the full support of the student government at the time. (They even used these payments to demonstrate their commitment to athletics on campus.) Samantha Prahl's claim is that these transfer payments continued without student approval in subsequent years. While I have found no votes to authorize this continued use of funds, neither have I found any votes to disallow it either. Anyone with information one way or the other on this is encouraged to share it with me.

It seems to me that the Student Association is taking an open secret (Union funds being used for athletics) and using this as a pretext to close the entire school. Even so, the question of whether other student organizations on campus are similarly shut down remains. Stay tuned for more details.

Student Association Emergency Meeting to seek legal counsel

For more on campus issues, see Well Armed Sheep.

There's a rather interesting note up in the Union. It's calling an emergency meeting of the Student Association Senate for tonight at 7:00 p.m., to be held in a garage just off campus (3301 N. Cramer), with the stated purpose of obtaining legal counsel. Rumors are flying about what triggered this particular meeting, but I will wait until I get reliable sources before commenting further.