On Jan. 12, the Arts and Sciences Student Council received a check for $300 from Undergraduate Student Government for helping clean up campus. But the council never took part in the project, called Clean Sweep, and the group will not return the money.
“Although we had been signed up to participate in Clean Sweep, our club had never been contacted to participate in the event due to an issue with USG,” said Amanda Zayas, treasurer for the Arts and Sciences Student Council.
Clean Sweep is a USG program that pays student organizations to clean campus. USG pays for the project with student activity fee money.
The council was originally interested in participating in the program but was never chosen.
“Mistakes happen,” said Jordan Davis, USG vice president, in an interview with The Lantern. “Mistakes happen a lot, and as strong leaders, that’s what we have to get through, and we have to recognize our mistakes and move forward and say, ‘Hey, we won’t do it next time.'”
The council’s executive director and off-campus senator, Tracee Huffman, tried to discuss the issue at a March 10 USG Senate meeting.
According to the minutes, Huffman asked, “Do you have an update on the Clean Sweep payments?”
Davis replied, “We can talk about it after,” according to the minutes.
Davis did speak with her after the meeting, Huffman said in an e-mail. Davis told Huffman that she was sure the treasurer was doing her job well, that she didn’t believe the payouts were a widespread problem, and that either the Clean Sweep coordinator or the USG treasurer would contact the council.
After the meeting, Davis contacted Clean Sweep coordinator Adam Okuley.
Okuley explained the discrepancy to Davis.
Davis told The Lantern that Okuley admitted he had paid an alternate organization by mistake.
Huffman followed up with the issue at the March 31 USG Senate meeting.
“How much were the Clean Sweep payouts?” Huffman asked, according to the minutes.
“There was one mistake, the last one on the list, so Adam has corrected it,” Davis said, according to the minutes.
However, USG didn’t fix the problem until this week.
“It’s in the process of being resolved from my understanding,” Davis said. “From what we’ve delegated to Adam [Okuley] and Ben [Anthony], I’m pretty sure they’ve got it under control and they are working through it.”
On April 7, Anthony said in a correspondence to Huffman that the issue was isolated, that it has been taken care of and that the check was canceled.
But Zayas and the council had not been contacted about the issue as of April 7, and the check, in fact, has not been canceled.
“Since we did not receive any clear answer as of yet [April 8], the money remains unspent in our bank account,” Zayas said in an e-mail.
Council members know that the money is undeserved, but has no plans to return it.
“If she wants to write us a check back because she feels like the additional $300 is not what her organization wants to take up, then we will take it back,” Davis said.
This week, Anthony announced that he signed the council up to participate in the spring Clean Sweep, and the $300 check will be counted as payment in advance. The council, though, has no obligation to participate in the project.
