Student body president suspends treasurer

Student SENATE Treasurer.

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• Posted by StillLoveLamp on March 4, 2009 at 12:17 a.m.
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Student body president suspends treasurer

United Students: 10% corrupt, 90% naive or uninformed

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• Posted by JConnor on March 4, 2009 at 12:29 a.m.
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Student body president suspends treasurer

You've got to be kidding. Alex Porte comes to our group meeting as a candidate for student body president/vice-president or something and talks about ethics reform in Student Senate. Then, he gets suspended from his job...in Student Senate. Surely I've missed something.

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• Posted by reycurtis on March 4, 2009 at 3:12 a.m.
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Student body president suspends treasurer

Wow, he releases a memo to the UDK... sounds real corrupt reycurtis. What it sounds more like to me is that there was something in there that McGonigle didn't want to be published to students. That scares me more than Alex does.

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• Posted by jayhawk2009 on March 4, 2009 at 8:03 a.m.
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Student body president suspends treasurer

Well, for once, "StillLoveLamp" (who I will henceforth refer to as "Mikey") was correct. For an amusing side note, though, look at Rules and Regulations and see how many times the Student Senate Treasurer is mislabeled as the "Student Body Treasurer".

Oddly enough, one of those places is Campus Fee Review Subcommittee; which is what the memo in question was about.

Pretty certain the Student Body President broke some open meeting State of Kansas rules, but it's not worth pursuing. No matter the result of the election, he's out in less than two months. The bigger concern here is this squabbling. Suspending the Student Senate Treasurer (unless he did something awful that I'm unaware of) the week of block is spiteful and shows that perhaps the SBP is gunning for his own name adjustment to "Student Senate President". I'd say to heck with the lot of 'em, if I wasn't geniunely impressed by the United Students platform so far (here's to hoping Envision can match). I doubt U.S. will back up their rhetoric, but if they did-- it's almost as if someone cares about student rights again. If only that translated into a dialog that truly engaged the campus...

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• Posted by OldGoldLegs on March 4, 2009 at 9:32 a.m.
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Student body president suspends treasurer

I think you got your numbers backwards, JConnor.

This suspension is ridiculous. Student Senate is ridiculous. I have no idea what Mr. Porte could have done to warrant a suspension, but Jahawk2009 might be on to something. Mr. Porte has done a great job as student body treasurer this year; it's been tough overseeing our budget during our own budget "crisis".

I just hope this isn't over campaign stuff. If that's the case, shame on you Mr. McGonigle. I've seen countless closed door meetings in the student senate office both this year and last year.

God I love spring campaign season. Always brings out the best in people. :)

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• Posted by sjschlag on March 4, 2009 at 9:32 a.m.
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Student body president suspends treasurer

Sounds like Porte is running for an office - tried to use confidential info for his political advantage - and got caught.

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• Posted by shutchins11 on March 4, 2009 at 9:32 a.m.
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Student body president suspends treasurer

Reycurtis - he got suspended by his opponent's best friend. I think that is what he meant by ethics reform.

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• Posted by JConnor on March 4, 2009 at 10:25 a.m.
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Student body president suspends treasurer

This isn't a country with security secrets or a corporation with trade secrets. Unless something deals with personel, there's no such thing as "confidential info" in the world of PUBLIC service. The SBP is right in that he can't talk about the suspension... but he's wrong in trying to keep a memo private.

I mean, do you REALLY want your elected officials doing governing in private?

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• Posted by OldGoldLegs on March 4, 2009 at 10:34 a.m.
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Student body president suspends treasurer

The reason McGonigle wanted it private was because he wanted to cut student media and SAFETY in order to keep the athletics fee at $80/year.

KU Athletics does great things for our university, but when we need to cut student fees because of the economy, and our choice is between campus safety and subsidizing a corporation that turned a 20 million dollar profit last year, I think the clear choice is making sure students are safe. According to the US Department of Education, KU Athletics made $86,009,257 last year and only spent $65,707,114. Athletics obviously not the most effective place to spend student fees if it means cutting other programs entirely. Athletics will survive and be fine.

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• Posted by JConnor on March 4, 2009 at 12:27 p.m.
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Student body president suspends treasurer

I think some people are jumping on the hysteria train here. Just because he suspended someone, doesn't mean Adam McGonigle is "corrupt" or hiding from students. Remember, people, this is not the end of the world. This is just KU Student Senate. Porte said this was "a serious, serious detriment"? Come on, we're not managing a country for goodness sake. That is just a little over presumptuous.

The fact is, Porte did something that he wasn't supposed to and got punished. If, IF, it's true that any past student body presidents or other elected officials did something wrong and it was overlooked, then I think that is the mistake on those surrounding the problem. Someone should have taken responsibility and reported it.

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• Posted by kupeach on March 4, 2009 at 12:45 p.m.
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Student body president suspends treasurer

Actually, peach, it is sort of a big deal. The committee that is charged with going over every single fee with a fine-tooth comb to figure out which to cut has a very big job to do and very little time to do it. I don't envy them. This is an important issue for students, especially if the accusations above that SAFETY and media are being cut in order to retain the ATHLETIC fee. That is an extremely big deal. If McGonigle was trying to keep that hush hush then he made a mistake in suspending Porte, because the top's been blown off. If it is true, then everybody with two legs needs to descend on whatever relevant committee meeting - closed doors or not - and demand accountability.

And for what it's worth, I was at the last finance meeting and listened to the report about how they were going to go through the fees and cut them. It sounds to me like an real attempt at honesty is being made (and the Kansan, for its part, reported that accurately), for which I commend them.

Let's just hope it's not smoke and mirrors.

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• Posted by Seraphim on March 4, 2009 at 1:02 p.m.
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Student body president suspends treasurer

I wasn't trying to say that the fees weren't a big deal. I think people are making a big deal over the suspension and what was behind it. To me, it seems like McGonigle suspended Porte because he acted unprofessionally and released a memo, not because of what was on the memo. But I could be wrong.

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• Posted by kupeach on March 4, 2009 at 1:16 p.m.
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Student body president suspends treasurer

The question is, Peach, why is it ok to suspend someone from doing a very important job that he is very good at just because he talked publicly about student fee issues? Shouldn't student fee issues be transparent to the body of students that pays them?

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• Posted by JConnor on March 4, 2009 at 1:21 p.m.
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Student body president suspends treasurer

If the suspension was made over the release of "confidential documents," the SBP needs to re-evaluate who he is working for. There should be NO confidentiality by Student Senate except in cases of personnel issues. This is a violation of the openness we are promised by our elected representatives in the Student Senate. This is not an issue to be taken lightly and the SBP has some explaining to do.

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• Posted by connerm on March 4, 2009 at 2:04 p.m.
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Student body president suspends treasurer

Alex Porte did the ethical thing in letting the Kansan know what Adam wanted to do. We call that "accountability". McGonigle did his damndest to keep it secret, and punished somebody for getting in the way of that. I don't know all the ins and outs of sunshine laws, but I would believe that this action violates them.

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• Posted by SilverJack on March 4, 2009 at 3:08 p.m.
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Student body president suspends treasurer

Sheesh. I kinda agree with peach. You aren't all saving the world, you know that right?

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• Posted by Muse on March 4, 2009 at 3:34 p.m.
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Student body president suspends treasurer

Muse, there's a difference between "saving the world" and ethical leadership.

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• Posted by JConnor on March 4, 2009 at 3:52 p.m.
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