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ASI budget review

Current ASI executives are planning to rewrite the budget for this year making changes based on spending habits of past executives and unforeseen expenses.

Between June 1 and Aug. 31, according to an analysis by The Collegian, ASI spent $3,564.80 on food alone. This cost includes food purchased during trips and also some purchases categorized as “discretionary” spending.

Food purchased during non-travel events during these months totals $1,381.92.

Lauren Johnson, the ASI vice president of finance, believes that the expenses were all valid, although ASI is not spending money on food like it was- — anymore.

“I’m confident that all purchases were made with the right intentions,” Johnson said.

Former ASI President Mackee M. Mason said executives would occasionally hold meetings outside of the office — over a lunch — because the business that needed to be taken care of could not be discussed in the office.

Mason had resigned because he was unable to properly fulfill his duties after being placed on probation for breaking the “substance free pledge” during an ASI retreat in Anaheim in July.

“It is common practice of any business,” Mason said in regard to the lunches purchased on ASI credit cards over the summer months. “When we did go out of the office, it was because it was absolutely necessary.”

Although it is in the ASI bylaws that all expenses turned in must include a receipt and an expense form, the documentation for some of the summer months have been misplaced, according to multiple sources.

There are no written justifications for the majority of the food purchased during these months.

Document Review

The Collegian originally requested documents from ASI on Sept. 12, including all expense forms and receipts from June 1 through Aug. 31 and an itinerary for the ASI retreat in Anaheim in July.

Those documents were received on Dec. 5 and Dec. 9; still excluded some of the receipts. Because of the missing receipts, it took more than nine weeks to compile the documents.

Pat Tift, administrative assistant for Administrative Services, said that Diners Club, the credit card company that ASI uses, could not retrieve the receipts.

“The receipts were never turned in to begin with,” Tift said.

However, Mason told The Collegian he did turn in the proper documentation over the summer. He said he is unaware what happened to the documents, but there was miscommunication between people in ASI.

“I turned in all the receipts,” Mason said. “They came up missing. I have nothing to hide.”

Mason also said that when he traveled he put the money on their credit cards instead of taking the per diem; the amount of money the university will reimburse for meals while traveling. He said it looks worse on the statements, but they actually spent less than if they had taken the per diem, which is $10 for breakfast, $15 for lunch, and $25 for dinner.

Mason believes that ASI spent a significant amount of money less than previous executives during the months he was in office.

“I didn’t need to get valet,” Mason said. “I didn’t need to get a five-star hotel. It didn’t make sense for me.”

While it has been practice for former presidents, Johnson and ASI President Graham Wahlberg said they are not spending money on food anymore.

Some of the money spent on food was categorized by accounting officials as “discretionary” spending even though there was no funding in that category for this year’s budget.

Johnson said that ASI is currently rewriting its budget to account for unforeseen (legal) expenses and will also be budgeting for discretionary spending.

Wahlberg said that this funding was supposed to be worked in, but was not done by former executives.
He said that meetings held outside of the office would not be happening anymore, however. “That’s just not going to happen under this leadership,” Wahlberg said.

Construction of new budget

Under the new budget that is being put together, Wahlberg said ASI will not be taking money away from the students; rather, they will be putting more money toward programs that will directly benefit students and the community.

He said that the money will be pulled from ASI’s reserves. Also, programs ASI is not continuing will no longer be funded. It is not yet clear what programs this funding will go to.

“We don’t really like to rewrite the budget if we don’t absolutely have to,” Wahlberg said. “But we want to give money back to the students.”

Currently, Wahlberg and Executive Vice President Beatriz Campuzano have not activated their executive credit cards. Wahlberg said he does not feel it is necessary.

Johnson said that the cards will eventually be activated. She said as of right now, her card is active. Also the card for Tara Powers-Mead, director of university affairs, is active.

Johnson said she is currently waiting on some figures for the new budget and then it will have to be passed by the Senate under the usual process. Once the Senate passes the budget, it will go to university President John D. Welty for approval. Johnson said she hopes to the have new budget by early next semester.

Former ASI employee asking for job back

The former Associated Students employee who served as executive director of ASI before being fired earlier this semester is asking for her job back.

Annie Tremp, who is not a student, filed a lawsuit against California State University, Fresno, Association, Inc., and Associated Students Inc. (ASI) for wrongful termination and harassment.

Tremp stated in her lawsuit that she was dismissed from her job after reporting underage drinking at the ASI retreat in July, among other charges.

Tremp’s lawyer, Michael J.F. Smith, told The Collegian in a phone interview Tuesday that Tremp has not asked for any amount of money at this point, only to be rehired.

“At this point, lawsuits have been served and Annie is just asking to get her job back,” Smith said.

Currently, according to Smith, litigation is under review because Association rules state that all issues should be handled in arbitration — private judicial process held outside of court — rather than in public court.

However, Smith said that since Tremp was an ASI employee — not a university employee — she is not held to the Association’s rules.

It is fuzzy who employed Tremp because she worked for ASI but was paid by the Association.

Smith said that there has been a tentative ruling in Tremp’s favor to address the lawsuit in civil court, but the process is currently on hold because ASI asked for a continuation to possibly seek alternative representation.

Lauren Johnson, vice president of finance for ASI, said that ASI is looking into everything to make sure ASI is represented in the best way.

“Our interests are different than the Association’s,” Johnson said.

ASI President Graham Wahlberg said ASI had to work out some kinks between ASI and the university, so they asked for the continuance.

He said that discussion of this lawsuit has taken up a large portion of Senate meetings but is in no way debilitating them.

“It has become at least a 20-hour-a-week job to deal with litigation,” Wahlberg said. “We are just kinda hangin’ in there.”

Debbie Adishian-Astone, associate vice president for Auxiliary Operations and Enterprise Development and person in charge of the Association, did not respond to The Collegian’s repeated requests for comment through multiple e-mails and phone messages.

According to Smith, the university has not made an offer to settle this lawsuit or give Tremp her job back.

Other university officials in Student Affairs have dealt with the students who were involved in the underage drinking, according to Carolyn Coon, Ph.D., assistant vice president for student affairs and dean of students.

Coon said that the names of those students are protected under student right laws, but as soon as the incident came to light, the university dealt with it.

Students who are suspected to have violated any campus policy see Joyce Ester, associate vice president of judicial affairs. Ester decides what action, if any, should be taken, according to Coon.

“Depending on the severity of it, students could be placed on probation or have a letter put in their file,” Coon said.

Illinois governor arrested

CHICAGO—Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, were arrested Tuesday for what U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald called a “political corruption crime spree” that allegedly included attempts to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.

Blagojevich and Harris were named in a federal criminal complaint that alleged a wide-ranging criminal conspiracy aimed at providing financial benefits to the governor, his political fund and to his wife, first lady Patricia Blagojevich.

Blagojevich was taken into federal custody by FBI agents at his North Side home Tuesday morning—one day shy of his 52nd birthday.

The arrests dealt a tumultuous blow to Illinois government, at once raising questions about the leadership of the state and the fate of the open Senate seat—which the governor alone has the power to fill under the state constitution.

The allegations against Blagojevich provide a sharp contrast to a Democratic governor who campaigned for office promising reforms in the wake of disgraced, scandal-tainted Republican chief executive George Ryan. The complaint against Blagojevich comes little more than two years after Ryan was sentenced to six years in prison on federal corruption charges.

Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn called on Blagojevich to step aside, at least temporarily, or resign because the governor is “seriously impeded from carrying out his oath of office.”

“I think he knows what he needs to do for the people,” said Quinn, a Democrat.

Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who had been viewed as a likely 2010 challenger if Blagojevich sought a third term, said the governor should immediately step down. Madigan, the daughter of longtime Blagojevich nemesis House Speaker Michael Madigan, also said she was moving forward on legal issues if the governor did not resign.

Despite facing myriad federal investigations throughout his five-year tenure, Blagojevich has maintained he committed no wrongdoing. On Monday, Blagojevich said any discussions he has had were “always lawful.”

The stunning, early morning arrests followed a series of Chicago Tribune stories revealing federal investigators had compiled secret recordings of the governor with the cooperation of a longtime confidant. In recent days, the focus of federal investigators expanded beyond a probe of allegations of wrongdoing involving state jobs, contracts and appointments in exchange for campaign dollars to the possibility that the Senate succession process had become tainted by pay-to-play politics.

Blagojevich and Harris were arrested simultaneously at their homes at about 6:15 a.m., according to the FBI. They were transported to FBI headquarters in Chicago. Blagojevich appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nan Nolan early in the afternoon and heard the charges read against him before being released on his own recognizance.

Spurring federal investigators to act was Blagojevich’s pending appointment of a Senate successor to Obama, whose resignation took effect Nov. 16. Blagojevich had said he expected to name a new senator around the end of the year.

Prosecutors said they had numerous recorded conversations of Blagojevich discussing the merits of potential candidates, including their abilities to benefit the people of Illinois as well as the financial and political benefits he and his wife could receive.

Under state law, the governor has the sole, unfettered discretion to name Obama’s successor. Despite his arrest, he continues to have the naming authority and some lawmakers discussed looking for ways to wrest it from him.

Prosecutors alleged Blagojevich sought appointment as secretary of health and human services or wanted an ambassadorship in the new Obama administration, or to be placed in a lucrative union-affiliated job in exchange for appointing Valerie Jarrett, a close friend and adviser to the president-elect to the Senate seat. Jarrett eventually took herself out of the running.

Fitzgerald quoted a Blagojevich conversation in which the governor said the Senate seat is “a bleeping valuable thing. You just don’t give it away. … I’ve got this thing and it’s bleeping golden.”

Obama spoke briefly about the arrest Tuesday in Chicago.

“Obviously, like the rest of the people of Illinois, I am saddened and sobered by the news that came out of the U.S. Attorney’s Office today,” Obama said. “But as this is an ongoing investigation involving the governor, I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to comment on the issue at this time.”

Blagojevich also was alleged to be using a favors list, made up largely of individuals and firms that have state contracts or received taxpayer benefits, from which to conduct a $2.5 million fundraising drive before year’s end when a new tougher law on campaign donations, prompted by the governor’s voracious fundraising, would take effect.

Blagojevich and Harris also allegedly conspired to demand the firing of Chicago Tribune editorial board members responsible for editorials critical of Blagojevich in exchange for state help with the sale of Wrigley Field, the Chicago Cubs baseball stadium owned by Tribune Co.

By Jeff Coen, Rick Pearson and David Kidwell / McClatchy Tribune

Campus gives turkeys to help feed the hungry

This holiday season Fresno State will be giving back to the community in efforts to help the Poverello House and the Community Food Bank.

“With the economy how it is right now, we thought it was a good idea,” Ganesan Srinivasan, director of agriculture operations, said.

The Give a Gobbler drive, which will continue until Dec. 23, supplies both organizations with turkeys donated by the Rue and Gwen Gibson Farm Market at Fresno State. The university’s effort responds to the need of the Central Valley’s less fortunate in the difficult economic times.

President Welty set a goal of 100 turkeys to be donated to the two organizations. As of Tuesday, 50 turkeys had been purchased.

“The economic downturn has caused a sharp decline in food donations to charitable organizations that feed families in need throughout our region,” Welty said in a press release. “Sadly, this shortage is happening when demand is up sharply because more people face hardship.”

“This is the only place in town that sells the turkeys that are grown on the university,” said Melody Jaime, an employee of the Farm Market.

The turkeys at the farm market usually run $1.19 per pound, which would be around $35 for a 25-pound turkey.

“With the $25 donation, the charities will get a whole turkey,” Jaime said.

The money that is donated will be passed along to a local charity in the donor’s name. The College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology and its University Agricultural Laboratory will deliver the turkeys on Dec. 23.

Poverello House is a private, nonprofit organization that has been serving the hungry of our community since 1973. Community Food Bank serves as the center of many agencies such as food pantries, shelters, and community kitchens.

Poverello House makes 1,200 to 1,400 meals a day and needs around 1,500 turkeys in its freezer by Jan. 1.

“This is an incredible collaboration,” said Katherine Weakland, Poverello House development director. “Partnering with [Fresno State] can lead to continuous work, which is wonderful.”

Srinivasan, proposed the idea to get people to contribute to charities.

“The partnership is intended to promote a better understanding of the poultry industry, as well as provide a well-rounded academic and practical experience for Fresno State ag students,” Srinivasan said in a press release.

This is the first year for the university will be working with both the Poverello House and Community Food Bank in efforts to help the needy during the holiday season. Fresno State partnered with the Poverello House for the first time last year, donating 50 turkeys to Poverello on its own.

“This is the first year for this campaign,” Srinivasan said. “This year we are asking people to give as well.”

Through the Give A Gobbler drive, the community and the university will be able to provide for the Fresno community’s hungry and less fortunate and support our agricultural program.

Daring you a merry Christmas

I’M GOING TO SAY IT.

Hang on, let me get our lawyers on the phone.

Ready? Here goes:

I’d like to wish all our readers this year a merry Christmas.

It’s not politically correct, I’m aware. It could be perceived as forcing religion on people. It might even be seen as discrimination against Jews.

So why not just say “Happy Holidays?”

Because being offended by the word “Christmas” makes no sense.

Most people know that the tradition of bringing greenery inside has roots in mythology from a variety of cultures. The Norse believed in a great ash tree that encompassed the world, which throughout time turned into the tradition of burning the Yule log. Egyptians brought palm fronds indoors during the winter solstice. The Romans adapted the Egyptian custom as part of Saturnalia, a celebration of the god of agriculture, but used fir trees instead of palms.

Most famously, the Germans brought evergreens indoors as a reminder that spring was not far away.
“So what?” you say. Santa Claus still has his roots in ancient Christianity, and then there’s the whole issue of the word itself bearing the name of Jesus Christ.

While Coca-Cola developed today’s best-known image of Santa Claus, it’s true that Old Saint Nick is based on St. Nicholas, patron saint of children. St. Nicholas of old — if he even truly existed, which is not clear — was celebrated for his generosity toward the poor and the wrongly accused, according to the Saint Nicholas Center.

The tradition of hanging stockings hearkens back to people leaving small goodies, such as nuts or fruit, in children’s shoes in remembrance of St. Nicholas’ good heart.

In this era of Christmas lists and bigger, better gifts, we need to stop to remember those who need help. Instead of teaching our children to sit on Santa’s knee and ask for things, we should teach them that reaching out to help and expecting nothing in return is one of life’s most rewarding experiences.

As for “Christ”mas, well, I’ve yet to meet anyone who attempts to convert people by greeting them in such a way. Yes, I have seen campaigns to “keep Christ in Christmas,” but such displays of belief are what America was settled for. I have plenty of friends that are not Christians that choose to still celebrate the season’s spirit of friendship and appreciation without getting caught up in what the title actually means. Those friends also have yet to have an issue with me for choosing to celebrate my faith during December.

So merry Christmas. Whether or not you choose to leave the religious aspect of the holiday, take the message of warmth that is inherent to the greeting. If you don’t, we may end up celebrating the way country singer Brad Paisley portrays in one of his songs: by singing, “I’m Dreaming of a Caucasian Holiday.”

And a Caucasian holiday in itself sounds like grounds for a lawsuit.

Heather Billings is a senior at Fresno State majoring in mass communication and journalism with emphases in print journalism and digital media.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Library request system an inconvenience to students

How long is the Madden Library supposed to take to complete? I am so inconvenienced by the inaccessibility of books and the wait time to get them that my grade has suffered.

At a school where I am paying thousands of dollars for tuition, I expect to have library resources available.

When I need a book for an assignment, I don’t want to give up an arm and a leg and buy it in the Kennel Bookstore; with those prices, I could take out a second mortgage!

I commend the school for rebuilding a library to make improvements, but until that time they need to make better arrangements.

When I need a book for an assignment due Thursday, and I have to wait more than a week to even find out if they carry it, I wonder why I am paying so much money to receive so little.

The Madden Library was essentially a good idea, but severely poor planned. Is it too much to ask that I want to check out a library book in time to do an assignment?

Amanda Ramos
Freshman
Pre-nursing

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Philanthropic efforts targeting local communities worthwhile

You donate a handful of change to a Trick or Treat UNICEF box. You support federal government financial aid to Africa. You applaud international adoption and missionary efforts. And yet, you refuse to even glance at the man asking you for a dollar in the parking lot and complain about the socialistic nature of welfare and universal health care.

How can humans distinguish between charitable donations or relief work and welfare or universal health care?

Why is it less socially acceptable to help the impoverished within our own borders than without?

Recent studies show that 36.2 million Americans go hungry each year — or 12.2 percent of our population (MSNBC).

Millions of our own citizens, each year. Who are we to condemn warlords who hoard gems and gold and neglect their starving, dying people when we are guilty of the same?

It is nigh impossible to ensure that our contributions of food and money will reach our international relief targets.

This is not to say that international aid is worthless — it is certainly a valiant effort. However, if we concentrated our efforts on people in our own neighborhoods, we could improve the quality of life for millions of human beings.

Kathryn Barretto
Freshman
Biology

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Americans need to stop ‘trying to sell’ secularized Christmas

When I went looking for Halloween decorations, I was expecting ghosts and witches, skeletons and bats. However, when I opened up the newspaper, there was Toy-R-Us’ “Big Toy Book,” complete with snow and Christmas elves.

It was two months before the holiday, and there were already advertisements!

Christmas used to be a celebration of the birth of Jesus. Sure, there were presents exchanged between family and friends, but the way it is now, we will be buying Christmas trees in July.

Why do people always twist a good thing in order to make a profit? It is not even that Christmas is being secularized; it is that we are trying to sell it.

I still care that people are forgetting the true meaning of Christmas, but it should not be so ridiculously profit based.

I realize that not all people are Christian, and we should not force them to be, but Christmas should still be about more than money.

People had Yule celebrations and religious celebrations before Christianity; they exchanged gifts and had feasts with friends. Now it is all about presents.

Christmas has changed from a time of friendship to a time to outdo everyone else with the expense and flashiness of gifts.

Even in the dorms, we are not talking about having Christmas parties or baking cookies, but about what gifts we are giving our roommates.

We are missing even the secular point of the holiday: friends, food and fun.

Jessica Harmon
Freshman
Linguistics

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Students should ‘take accountability’ and bus their own tables

I am a student who lives on campus at Fresno State. Thanks to the University Courtyard, I have easy access to things around campus, like the dining hall they provide for the residents.

When students go to have a meal, there is a little sign at the desk saying to clean up your table when done eating. To my surprise, most people don’t bother to clean a single thing from their tables when they’re done.

Sometimes there is a large group that leaves everything from plates of food, to cups and napkins for the workers to clean up. It is bothersome to see so many residents do this because they’re only making the workers’ jobs that much harder each day.

It is hard to take accountability of all the people who don’t follow the simple request since there are so many who leave without cleaning their tables.

Everyone who eats there pays money to have food and a clean place to sit. It is solely up to the residents to be respectful about what the University Courtyard is asking, and that is to take your plates to the kitchen area.

The dining hall workers make the food and keep the place sanitized, so follow their request and clean up your table.

Don’t make their jobs harder than it has to be.

Eric Fujihara
Freshman
Criminology

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Fresno State women’s soccer poorly represented in Collegian

Fresno State women’s soccer. Did you know Fresno State had a women’s soccer team? Did you know that they won the WAC in their division?

I willing to bet you did not.

This is, sadly, because soccer is not an important sport in the athletic world here in the United States. Even though it is the widest-played game in the world and is the fastest growing sport in America, Fresno State seems to have missed the memo.

The edition of The Collegian that had the article about the women’s soccer team was on the last page in the corner and had no more the 200 words, while the football team had a front page section.

I do not know about the games or the times of this team because of the attention paid to other sports on campus. Let Fresno State Bulldogs be proud of all of our accomplishments. The women’s soccer team has a lot of talent and the student body as well as the citizens of Fresno should be taking an interest in this highly talented team.

Victoria Guerrero
Sophomore
History

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Trampling deaths make Black Friday a black day

Black Friday has now come and gone and to discover what I had predicted I went out to see what all the fuss was about myself. I knew that there were good deals, but nothing like what I saw. Our economy is terrible right now and no one can afford to buy anything or go anywhere, but things changed when it came to Friday, November 28, 2008. There were thousands of people out on the streets and in those stores all for the booming sales. But, is all of this really worth it?

Is fighting the crowds worth your life? The news had said that there was a Wal-Mart employee who got trampled over by the crowd pushing and shoving their way in and they killed him.

Now, who would be to blame for that?

There also was a count of two guys being shot at in a Toys-R-Us store. Is saving some money really worth risking your life for?

It is something that you should think about before the next Black Friday rolls around.

Amanda Pimentel
Sophomore
Liberal Studies

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Students need to reject broken financial aid system

Education should never be considered a privilege; but with tuition fees rising students are finding themselves making decisions on whether they should attend college or not.

All of this could be avoided with the help of financial aid.

But wait! Financial aid is anything but aid.

Much of the middle class families today make enough to cover bills, but this so-called aid thinks that somewhere in your parents’ pockets are thousands of dollars waiting for you.

So when it comes time to fill out that FAFSA form the computer system determines if you’re eligible. Why are we letting a computer system determine our financial need?

And to top it off, the system is so screwed up that some people are forced to lie in order to get the help they need. It makes me frustrated when I see that there are students getting more money than they need.

Much of that extra money they get could be used for other students rather than a shopping spree for some.

Students, I am asking you get out there and help fight this so called “aid.” And I understand that the parents should support us but not many of us are so lucky, also, getting a job here in Fresno is almost near impossible.

We need to get out there and voice ourselves because once again, education should not be a privilege but a free right.

Quintessa Guzman
Agriculture Education
Freshman

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Expensive tuition a good reason for students to grow up

Yes the economy is bad. Everything is bad. Tuition keeps rising and financial aid doesn’t do a dime thing about it. Many struggle with it but stop complaining!

There is always a way to pay for your education.

Go to community college and work at Burger King.

Apply for scholarships if you can’t pay for all of tuition.

I’m not saying it’s going to be easy but where there’s a will, there’s a way. Whining and complaining don’t get people anywhere. People who don’t take action have no right to complain.

So stop it. Quit it. Act like a college student. Act your age. Be an adult. It’s about time.

Things will no longer be done for you. You have to do them yourself.

So if you don’t like the way student fees are increasing: join a student club, start a petition or get a job.

Monica De La Mora
Sophomore
Nursing

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