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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
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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.