News
Forum creates open dialogue with students, Chancellor and SGA
The Pointer
jspra793@uwsp.edu
An open forum at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point DUC Encore, was filled with spectators eager to hear what student leaders and Chancellor Linda Bunnell had to say about a recent vote made by the Student Government Association.
Two weeks ago, SGA passed a unanimous vote of “no confidence” in Bunnell referring to a February traffic incident in Madison and an overall lack of accessibility and transparency of the Chancellor.
In her opening statement during the forum, Bunnell sincerely apologized for the traffic mishap.
“I deeply regret and believe that I made a serious mistake [in leaving the scene of the accident in Madison],” Bunnell said. “I hope others have learned by my example.”
An article by the Associated Press, released April 15, revealed that Bunnell had purchased three alcoholic drinks at the Madison Club prior to her car accident.
In the article, Bunnell said she only had time to drink one of the three beverages and that she was “not impaired” at the time of the accident.
SGA focused much of the forum on the recently received state and travel expense reports of Bunnell which were originally requested March 9.
“Very ‘erroneous’ and ‘wasteful’ dollars spent will be seen throughout the reports,” said Saul Newton, SGA speaker of the senate. However, no illegal findings were found in the reports.
SGA received the reports the day of the open forum, April 15, with an $880 service fee waived due to the “significant public interest,” as stated in the UW System Administration policy, for requesting public records. However, the SGA will incur a $29 copying fee for the less-than-100 page report.
“I was called by Mr. Diemer’s office of when I was personally going to have the money,” said Kirk Cychosz, SGA vice president.
Greg Diemer, present at the forum, is the UW-SP vice chancellor of business affairs. He also signs off Bunnell’s expenses.
Cychosz said that he was told by the UW System not to pay for the service fee, although it was not explicitly stated by Diemer’s office what kind of payment they were requesting at the time.
Expense reports were also requested from the UW-SP Foundation last week and were received by SGA two days later. SGA received no fees for these reports which were at least twice the amount of the Chancellor’s reports.
Some students voiced their concerns about how SGA handled the vote on the Chancellor. One called the open forum a “public mudslinging” against Bunnell. Another said it’s reaching national recognition and is damaging the reputation of UW-SP.
“We weren’t trying to be secretive to the students,” SGA senator Sam Glenzer said. “Our objective was to figure out the means of which to best convey our decision on the Chancellor in the most powerful way possible on behalf of the students.”
SGA President Katie Kloth reminded the audience that a vote of “no confidence” is an investigation and said, “If there’s nothing to find, then there’s nothing to hide.”
