As questions over the Student Association's possible withdrawal from Sub-Board I, Inc., continue to surface, there are a handful of people who will decide the fate of the corporation - and they won't be talking any time soon.
SA pesident-elect George Pape said he is drafting a plan for what will happen if SA pulls its $495,700 allocation and its $360,000 co-sponsorship for Fall and Spring Fests from SBI - the corporation that controls services such as Group Legal Services, University Union Activities Board, Student Medical Insurance, Off-Campus Housing, WRUB and the pharmacy - but he cannot share it with the students yet.
"I understand how it looks; unfortunately, given the circumstances, it's not something that we're able to comment on," said Pape.
Pape, who was president of SBI in 2000-01, said he is waiting until the plan is both complete and legally sound.
"The only thing that we're doing is reevaluating what our stance is in the Sub-Board I corporation," he said.
Josh Korman, former SA vice president and current law student who was SA's candidate for the vice presidential seat of SBI's board of directors, said that while he could not discuss specifics, the e-boards have many possible options.
"There's several plans that have been discussed, all of which have been sincerely given consideration, and that will play out in the next month or two," said Korman.
The deadline for SA's renewal for its contract with SBI is Aug. 1, meaning a decision must be made by that time.
Korman said the matter is being discussed between the incoming and outgoing SA executive boards and several consultants.
"The questions are, does SA take over Sub-Board divisions ... (or) does SA replace the services from the ground up?" Korman said. "And that's the stuff that's going to be discussed and talked about. Within the discussion, there's people really pulling both ways."
While Pape said he does not want to withhold information from the undergraduates, his final plan will first go to the board of directors of Sub-Board. He maintains, however, that he will consult the SA Assembly and several third parties - including Korman, who has been hired by SA under the title of consultant - before making a decision.
"The (SA) Senate is behind us," Pape said. "They changed the allocation, so it's not something that we're doing in a totalitarian type nature."
Although Sen. Kristen Swanson voted on the issue and said she was confident in her decision, she was still a little cloudy on the issue.
"I don't know much about it," said Swanson.
According to Swanson, Korman and SA President Christian Oliver came to Tuesday's senate meeting to explain what the senators would be voting on as they approved the budget. Members from SBI were also in the audience of the open meeting, but Swanson said they chose not to speak.
Swanson said she thinks most students should not be concerned because Pape will continue all of the student services.
"I think that's probably the students' biggest concern - is that they 're not going to have the services that the corporation provided," she said.
Pape said the services provided by SBI will not be cut and that the money SA allocates to SBI will be going directly to the undergraduate students.
"I think that the typical student doesn't care where the services come from as long as the services are provided to them and the same quality is still there," Pape said. "What we're trying to say is that we want - we only want - to assure that the services are there for our undergraduate students and that the quality is not just okay, that it exceeds what it currently is at, and the way we plan on that is obviously to focus our money on our students."
Andrea Herrera, a senior psychology major, said she is not opposed to pulling out of SBI, but said she is skeptical that SA will increase fees.
"You can't improve services if you don't increase the costs," Herrera said. "If they can't even do it now, how can they do it later?"
Bill Hooley, executive director of SBI, said part of the problem with implementing services that match SBI's is that starting up a business is costly.
"They would have to hire a staff, whether they rehired the ex-staff or hired a new staff, and they would have to bear the burden of startup costs, and they would have to purchase the assets," said Hooley.
Even if SA pulls out of SBI, Hooley said, services such as the medical insurance and the pharmacy, which generate enough revenue to pay for themselves, would survive.
Pape and Korman cited problems regarding Fall and Spring Fests and general uncooperativeness as some of the contributing factors to SA's falling out with SBI.
Korman said the trouble with SBI began years ago and was evident during his time as an undergraduate on the SBI Board of Directors.
"One of our big initiatives was to increase student stipends, which were appallingly low, and Bill Hooley fought it every step of the way," said Korman.
Beyond those details, however, Pape and Korman were unable to provide further support of their claims.
"A lot of problems are administrative in nature and don't translate very well into anecdotal stories," said Korman.
"It just doesn't translate well into a public relations presentation because it's just all internal relations," he later added.
Student backlash over the issue was seen across campus Thursday as signs were posted across campus blasting Pape. Though he described the signs as "completely inappropriate," he said did not think much of it.
"The more hateful the comments are, the more I take it in stride," he said.
SBI also began a petition circulated both online and in a hard copy.
Pape said he was not pleased with the immaturity displayed on the online petition.
"It's very frustrating that this is not being handled in a professional manner," he said.
Pape added that when he last saw the petition, only 1 percent of the undergraduate student population had signed it.
"We drafted the petition yesterday as a way to encourage the board of directors to sit down together," said Hooley.
Though Korman said he thought the petitions and flyers are spiteful, he was sure things like this would erupt.
-"There are certain individuals - mainly officers of the other graduate student associations and employees of Sub-Board - who have a very vested interest in waging a very personal and heated public relations war about this," he said.
Korman described SA's withdrawal from SBI as "one of the most courageous and important moves in the history of SA."
"(Pape is) a tough guy, he'll weather personal attacks, because he'll get this done," he said.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
