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About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 19, 2000)
N * w aws V* W w TldE ClACkAMAS P r ÎNT WedNEsdAy, J anuary 19, 2000 Report: Records regularly checked Epstein: Keyser discusses Continued from page 1 this, produces this report, and in this What does this report mean to report, he uses generally accepted theASG? accounting principles, follows all the The biggest controversy sur accounting standards—very high- rounding this statement revolves level stuff. If he sees anything in around ASG and its '$49,369' here that’s a problem, he let’s us over-expenditure. know about it. And ... the student I started my research at the activities account is not listed as a heart of the matter—within the problem nor do we think it’s a prob ASG office. After speaking with lem.” Bryan Fuentez, ASG administra “When this whole thing came up tive assistant and last year’s ... and I think it all came up as a re vice-president, I sult of that soon learned that whole thing he, along with a with the ASG (the con number of others president and who had heard of came everybody’s in the findings in volvement with as the report, were that and I think of that whole just as confused it’s one of those as I was. Fuentez things where with and I then pro some people are ... ceeded to speak saying ‘I’m mad with Peter and I’m going to Peter Angstadt Angstadt, dean see what I can Dean of College Services of college ser do to you now.’ vices and the I think that’s person in charge of all accounts kind of sad now that that’s happen at the college. ing. In a candid interview on Thurs "When I first heard that some day afternoon with Angstadt, the body was making accusations about two year member of the college ex the ASG’s budget and saying that plained the process, and shared his ‘We’re going to check out your feelings and trustrations on the is records,’ Norm called me and told sue at hand. me that. I said, ‘Norm, nobody has “Norm (Bemey, ASG advisor) to check out your records because called me and said, ‘Did you hear we check out your records on a regu the college did some kind of audit lar basis.’ I run reports on a regular on our accounts?’ and I said, ‘No.’ basis. I look at all of this information So I went over and looked at it and online about every other day so if somebody had copied pages of the anybody report and turned them into (the ASG gets out of and the Print) and showed in one control or area a negative balance of $56,000. gets out of "Well, in that area, as in a number hand, they of areas, we do run negative bal get a visit ances. What we do is set up budget from me. accounts—funds accounts—and Some people then as the year progresses, money have gotten comes in. Whether it be through visits from me fundraising, whether it be through and I just student fees. Because at the begin work with ning of the year when we set up them and say these funds, on July 1, obviously ‘What’s go we’re not collecting tuition, we’re ing on here?’ not collecting fees, we’re not col But student activities has never lecting a lot of things. So we do show been out of line—never been a prob negative fund balances. If you look lem. through [this report], it shows nega tive fund balances in probably a ‘Where’s the problem?’ hundred or so accounts- “I think people here don’t under "What happens then, is Mark stand, and it’s really kind of tragic, Brown, the CPA goes through all of the fact that you end a fiscal year on I think troversy) all about a result thing the ASG president Unlimited Internet Access $10! Clacknet, Clackamas County’s only Internet Service Provider, feels that education is important and is offering this special offer to students and faculty of Clackamas Community College. (OCC ID is required) Call today! (503)-723-0076 Clacknet 275 Beavercreek Rd. Building A #108 Oregon City, OR 97045 http://www.clacknet.com June 30 and then if you do have a negative balance then you’re either going to transfer fees or you're wait ing for fees or you’re waiting for tu ition to start coming in so you can go ahead and balance out that ac count. That’s done everywhere, by everybody, by every university and college so where’s the problem? “I know that (ASG) with all of its student and club accounts, you have no idea what those clubs are going to be making in terms of fundraising but you do know those clubs put in budgets. What we do is lump all of those accounts under one heading of ASG. Let’s say that you have 15 clubs that each have a nega tive balance of $1000. Well, then there’s a $15,000 negative balance right there. “To me, this seems kind of point less because if there were anything improper going on, the auditor would have been on it like that. He would have been in my office, writ ing me a letter saying that you’ve got real problems, and he would have said that to the Board (last Wednesday night).” Fuentez attempts to put it into sim pler terms: “If people are concerned that we’re spending $49,000," said Fuentez, “we get budgeted for a general student government fund I think around $13,000 dollars. There’s no way we’re spending $49,000.” What is the law? “Local budget law says that you have to make those transfers by the end of the year," contin ues Angstadt. "If you don’t make those transfers then it is vio lation of the local bud get law. And again, that happens. It’s a law that was passed five or six years ago and it really doesn’t work all that well. In many cases, operations such as ours that are re sponsible to government standards, we can’t get the money in by June 30. It’s one of those things where people say, ‘Yeah, that’s the way things go.’ What we could do though, is we could take money out of our cash flow or some other ac count and transfer it in just to make it whole but we just don’t do it.” “The important thing to remember is that they’re not doing anything illegal and I think that’s what, who ever these people are, need to un derstand that think that there’s some sort of criminal activity going on,” concluded Angstadt. What has been learned? Is this a resolved situation? I don’t think so. Are there questions that still remain? I’m sure there are. The simplest of questions echoes throughout this issue: every univer sity and college practices account ing this way. Okay, but does that make it right? If so, then why does the law apply to schools? If not, then why isn’t the attorney general knocking down the door of Peter Angstadt’s office? college policy Continued from pagel Dr. John Keyser, college presi dent, made some general remarks when the Print asked him, “What is school policy on teachers keep ing their personal biases out of the classroom?” “I think it is difficult for faculty members to do that,” he com mented. “Many want to be upfront with the students about their biases, and announce what their biases are...... I think Don (Epstein) has done that in the past...... ” “The college needs to provide a safe environment for disagreement, a safe environment for different ideas,” Keyser added. “None of us will agree with all those ideas, but we need to provide the opportu nity for discussion and review and the testing of different ideas.” See opinion page two for ex cerpts of the interviews with Epstein and Alexander Clackamas principles The following statements, published by the college, may pertain to the above story. The 1999-2000 School Catalog: needs, and accountable to the • Our Credentials (p.2): “Clackamas Community College’s Affirmative Action Policy ensures that the college does not discriminate on the ba sis of race, color, religion, sex, marital status, age, physical or mental disability, and family re lations in any area, curriculum ac tivity, or operation of the col- lege.” community we serve.” Our CODE OF ETHICS calls all of us to perform our jobs in a way that fosters personal growth and academic excellence, recognizes the inherent goodness of all people, models personal and academic integrity, respects di versity, and shows concern for the needs and feelings of others. The student handbook: • Purpose, Mission andCode of Ethics (p 185): “Our PURPOSE is creating life time opportunities for success through responsive education. Our M1SS1ON/PHILOSOPHY is to serve the people of the col lege district with high quality education and training opportu nities that are accessible to all students, adaptable to changing • Student Rights, Freedom & Responsibilities (p 78), the Pre amble includes: “Freedom to teach and free dom to learn are inseparable fac ets of academic freedom. The freedom to learn is dependent upon appropriate opportunities and conditions in the classroom, on the campus, in the lab and the larger community.’ Academic Freedom The following is an excerpt from the faculty contract and describes academic freedom. A. Academic freedom is essential to these purposes and is applied to teaching and other College-related activities. Academic freedom in its teaching aspect is fundamental for the protection of the rights of the instructor in teaching and of the student to freedom in learning. It carries with it duties correlative with rights. 1. Instructors are entitled to freedom in the classroom in discussing the subject, but they should be careful not to introduce into their teaching controversial matters which have no relation to their sub jects. 2. Instructors are entitled to full freedom in research and in the publication of the results, subject to the adequate performance of their other academic duties and in concern with existing College poli cies on publications and printing. 3. Instructors are citizens, members of a learned profession, and members of the educational institution. When they speak or write as citizens, they should be free from institutional censorship or disci pline, but their special position in the community imposes special obligation. As persons of learning and as educational members, they should remember that the public may judge their profession and the Institution by their utterances. 4. As members of the Institution, instructors seek above all to be effective teachers. Although they observe the stated regulations of the Institution, they maintain their right to criticize and seek revisions. 5. As members of the community, instructors have the rights and obligations of any citizens. They determine the amount and character of the civic and community involvement outside the Institution with due regard to their responsibilities within it. As citizens engaged in a profession that depends upon freedom for its health and integrity, instructors have particular obligations to promote conditions of free inquiry and to further public understanding of academic freedom. Personal Freedom , B. Instructors shall be entitled to full rights of citizenship. Exercis ing of such rights as well as race, religion, color, age, national origin, disability, sex, sexual orientation, or union affiliation shall not be grounds for discipline or discrimination.
