Well, this past week hasn't been so good for the Public Relations Man's Public Relations. I've been taking it pretty hard from both the extreme left (members of SDS) over my team up with Brent Johnson on the Humans vs Zombies Project, as well as the extreme right, over at PantherTalk Live. Nonetheless, we will roll on, and victory is on the horizon.
Today I learned that Student Association Senator Katie Krause, who readers of this blog will remember has been the subject of a SORC investigation for the last few weeks now, has submitted her formal resignation from the Senate, effective immediately. This comes a day after the University Student Court decided not to take on a case calling for a TRO on the investigation, and a look into the conduct of the SORC committee. It is strongly believed by many people in the administration, including myself, that this case was written on Krause's behalf by none other than Kyle Duerstein.
The case itself was weak, as are the constant claims of SORC abuse. Public meeting laws were not violated during the process, nor does anyone have proof to the contrary. If we are to believe public meetings laws were broken, the question becomes, how would notices have changed the process? As a member of the committee, I can testify that during the SORC meetings we have held, none went more than 5 minutes without entering closed session, which by state law dictates all spectators must leave for the duration of the session. Nothing would have changed. After exhausting every possible attempt to stall the proceedings, Krause finally resigned, knowing there was no way to win. A report of SORC's findings will be presented to the SA Senate, along with recommendations for future money handling, regardless of the resignation.
The Senate meeting tomorrow should be quite eventful. There are many pieces of legislation up for debate, including my "Borrowing Privileges Act" which if passed, will give undergraduates the abilty to circulate periodicals, magazines, and journals for a 48 hour period. There is also going to be a return of a Employee Accountability Act, which myself and Senator Ludwig have worked hard to improve. I have high hopes for its passage. Among other things, the Senate will inspect legislation seeking to improve the SAO organization renewal process.
In other news, I have taken over the responsibilities of the United Council Vote Intern, and look forward to doing my best to ensure many voters are registered on our campus. With the SFC process set to begin anytime now, and the Krause matter all but taken care of, I look forward to beginning work matters that will truly improve the life of the student body.
-Red Menace out.
P.S. My editorial "Time to tackle the Athletic Budget" will be appearing in the UWM Post this week, be sure to check it out!
THANK YOU!
12 years ago
Alex-
ReplyDeleteYour statement, which you presented as factual, that I wrote the Krause SORC case is incorrect, and demonstrates a libelous statement because of your wreckless disregard for the truth. Now, you can say that you have heard that I wrote the case, or you suspect that I wrote the case, but since I did not actually write the case, stating that I did is a lie and therefore libelous and can result in civil suit against you.
Also, I find your cavalier attitude about the law troubling. You are essentially saying that violations of the law don't matter if they don't change anything. Not true. Not true at all. That may be a standard for overturning the decisions of the committee by the student court, however, I believe the state of Wisconsin takes its open meetings laws very seriously, therefore, without regard for whether the process was influenced by violating the law, if the law was violated, punishment is appropriate.
I still haven't seen any of your or SA's outrage that a UWM Union Administrator felt it proper to apparently steal $1,400 of fund raised money from the Union Vault.
Kyle,
ReplyDeleteI debated whether or not to make changes to my statement, mulled over the options, and after asking myself what an honest person would do, have decided to change it, as you will see.
I went PanterTalk, and realized that there are quite a lot of claims you present as fact, such as:
"Except the real reason Kostal, acting on orders from Travis and his senior staff, is to eliminate this voice of dissent from the Senate so that less people will disagree with the self-proclaimed sacred one." From September 22. And even the last line of this comment I'm responding to:
"I still haven't seen any of your or SA's outrage that a UWM Union Administrator felt it proper to apparently steal $1,400 of fund raised money from the Union Vault." Don't think because you stuck the word "apparently" in that statement, you aren't claiming Michaels stole the money. I noticed you have begun marking your "opinions" in blue, but if you really want to be safe from a future lawsuit, you have years of blog postings to go over. Seperating opinion from fact on a blog, which most intelligent people realize is a opinion place anyway, is a waste of time.
I made the change to mine, because I want people to be able to read the blog, and have a very good understanding of what's going on. Aside from its obvious opinions, I want people to actually expect my blog to offer facts, something I doubt many people expect from yours. If you really do have such a care about proper journalistic practices, you'll be more careful about this too.
Thank you for making the change.
ReplyDeleteI made that distinction on one of my blogs and stated that I would not be making it on others.
I do say though that the reason I don't qualify my opinion every time on alleging that you are a follower, etc, is because it's been sort of an ongoing theme of mine for some time, so it's known by readers that that statement is opinionated.
Anyhow, we could spend all day splicing hairs. People do come to my blog for facts. Over 2,000 unique visitors came to my site in the 2 days following my story about Michals being the last person to handle the stolen Haiti money when he removed it from the Union vault without following proper cash handling procedures such as signing the money out, or signing a deposit receipt when the money was deposited.
I do think Michals stole the money. I think that because he was the last person handling it, he didn't follow the same procedures that he himself trains other Union staff that they must always follow, and he stopped cooperating with the investigating officer. That makes me believe that he's guilty of taking the money. But regardless of whether he actually took the money, I don't think it's too much to ask that the representatives of the students of UWM show a little outrage at least at the fact that he didn't follow the procedures he should have. Whether he stole the money or not, it's his lack of following procedure that resulted in the money being missing in the first place. I think it would be appropriate for the official representatives of the students, the people who collected that money for a charitable purpose, to show some outrage over the fact that it's missing either because Michals took it, or he didn't document what he should have which resulted in it going missing.
If SA can get all worked up (and deservedly so) and write a press release over the Athletic Dept. financial mismanagement, then surely you guys can get equally worked up over missing fund raising money that was mishandled and possibly stolen by a Union administrator.
On a side note, as much as we don't disagree, I do look forward to your op/ed about the Athletic Dept. budget problems. I would love to help you tackle that problem if you and the SA administration you work for can put aside our criticisms of each other long enough to actually do some good together for the students, and get the Athletic budget under control.
Alex,
ReplyDeleteYou only make yourself look more foolish everytime you blog. You basically admitted that I did nothing wrong and your only objective was to get me out of SA. Now that you have moved onto Senator Campbell it's even more obvious. You should be careful young man. You are upsetting some of the people upstairs (and in management).
Believe it or not, I have a few more contacts on this campus than you do. I am older than you and have been around longer. People have stopped playing into your game if you haven't noticed. Your time is up. :(.
Why don't you pick up a positive project? Like a "Take Back The Night". I still have people interested and contacting me. I would be more than happy to pass that onto you. THAT would be good for public relations! It would probably help you out with the student body, because word on the street is they are not happy that you are crucifying innocent people in order to get people who have differing opinions out of SA.
Just a few thoughts and suggestions. Believe it or not, I really don't have any hard feelings because SA isn't worth my time. I am in orgs that are drama-free and have timely change occurring. I also have a pretty busy schedule anyways between work and school, OH and my commute...
Well best of luck to you, and if you decide you want those contacts or info on people still interested in that event, shoot me an email, I'd be glad to give it to you.