The Student Association controls $4.1 million of student funds. In the past five years, its leaders have been the source of five major scandals.
Last week's resignation of President Nick Johns - who was accused of a litany of offenses, including harassment, falsifying time sheets and mishandling funds - is the latest in a pattern of impropriety that has been steady since 2008.
Let's rewind:
- In the 2012-13 school year, Treasurer Justin Neuwirt accused President Travis Nemmer and his "cronies" of rigging SA's election to get Johns voted into office.
- In 2011-12, Treasurer Sikander Khan attempted to invest $297,000 of student funds in a mobile application from a fraudulent company called "Virtual Academix" that appeared to have connections to known associates of Khan. He was reported to the University Police Department before resigning and leaving Buffalo. SA higher-ups say they have not heard from him since the incident and have no idea where he lives today.
- In 2009, President Hassan Farah was impeached after allegedly punching a staffer at an orientation event.
- In 2008, Generation Magazine published an in-depth expos?(c) revealing some of SA's frivolous, self-serving spending habits with student funds - including: a nearly $17,000 trip to Toronto, in addition to expensive trips to Boston and Los Angeles; $12,000 salaries for executive board members; and over $10,000 for t-shirts, polos and hooded sweatshirts. Before that article came out, SA's three e-board members ran unopposed for reelection - only 155 students voted and the election was shortened to two days. SA was accused of intentionally not publicizing the election.
Things have changed since 2008, though - the mandatory student activity fee has increased by $15.75, from $79 to $94.75, and SA's annual budget has increased by $1 million.
The Student Association is as powerful as it has ever been.
Questions surround SA: What exactly is this organization that controls so much student money, and why does something seem to go wrong every year? Does the structure need to change?
What is SA?
UB's SA is the largest student government in the SUNY system. Though there are no aggregated statistics on which student governments in America control the most funds, it's a safe bet that UB's SA, which controls a total of $4.1 million and a budget of $3.7 million, is near the top. The University of South Carolina has an enrollment of about 23,000, and its student government controls a budget of $413,000.
As for other SUNY schools, Stony Brook's Undergraduate Student Government (USG) budget is about $3.1 million, Binghamton University's is $2.5 million and Geneseo's is $1.28 million.
Is there sufficient oversight?
Mario Ferone, Stony Brook USG's vice president of communications and public relations, said the university's vice president must approve the USG's budget each year and every USG purchase goes through the group's fiscal agent, who is a university employee.
He said there is a faculty-student organization that helps handle all of USG's finances and, though USG is mostly independent, "it makes sense to have the check from the university."
UB Spokesman John Della Contrada said UB has practiced the same SUNY-mandated procedure for the past 40 years. But given SA's recent history, some say that isn't enough.
Peter Scheck, who wrote the 2008 Generation article, believes more oversight is necessary at UB.
"I think there probably is some antiquated organization that looks over them, but I think [SA officials] know the system, they know all the rules, they know the bureaucracy and the way things are set up, and they know how to overcome it," Scheck said.
2012-13 SA President Travis Nemmer said Student Activities Associate/Student Government Liason Mike Lewis reviews SA's budget and every one of the organization's purchases, but Scheck said that isn't enough to stop SA's higher-ups from making expensive, selfish purchases.
"The people within the SA are extremely smart," Scheck said. "They know how the system works. They know who sees that money. And ultimately, they're in charge of how it's spent."
Stephen Marth, The Spectrum's editor in chief from 2009-10, echoed Scheck's thoughts - that SA is not monitored thoroughly enough.
"Obviously there is a check-and-balance system in SA, but you really don't have the oversight that you should," Marth said.
Ernesto Alvarado was the SA president for the remainder of the 2009-10 year after Hassan Farah was impeached. He said SA's autonomy is good because it can put together solid events to benefit the student body like the Distinguished Speakers Series, but it is bad because when immoral people get into office, they can take advantage of their power.
"It's not that SA is bad," Alvarado said. "I think it's just the people that come into office."
He also said the mechanisms are there for SA to have stronger internal oversight - such as the SA Assembly and SA Senate - but that students are not actively involved enough in either process and are generally too apathetic in holding their leaders accountable.
Stephanie Sciandra was The Spectrum's editor in chief from 2008-09.
"There's so little oversight for the whole system that I don't even know if you publish some article and all the students said, 'yeah, we want some oversight here,' I don't even know where it would come from because the student government is like a cesspool up there," Sciandra said. "All the same people are in these political positions, on the assembly, on the senate; their problem is that they don't bring in any independent students."
A potential solution?
Some have suggested the pattern will not desist until UB claims more oversight in SA, but others say that is unfeasible.
UB is not interested in getting involved.
SA's website says it is "for the students, by the student [sic]," and Vice President for University Life and Services Dennis Black believes it should stay that way. Black issued this statement to The Spectrum:
"The SA system is designed to give students control, to the greatest degree possible, over their money and their activities. UB's administrative oversight is limited by SUNY policy to review of budgets and expenditures to ensure compliance with statewide guidelines on approved categories of expenditures. Students can impact their own government through engagement: voting on student fees, participating in leadership elections, running for office or representative positions, joining clubs and organizations, attending meetings and events, and speaking out on issues and concerns. It's their government; it's up to students to make it work."
Black says it is the students' government and it is up to them to make it work, but others have argued that they have lost this privilege with their mistakes in recent years.
Alvarado is torn on the issue.
"A lot of the great things that SA has are because of its autonomy from the administration at UB," he said. "But then, a lot of the bad things that come out of SA, the things like the scandals, they come out because of that autonomy."
Amanda Jonas was a SUNY Delegate - an elected SA position - from 2009-11.
"You're putting people who are 19, 20 years old in charge of a multimillion-dollar budget who are kids, and they make bad decisions just like normal college kids do," Jonas said. "I think most of the time, they're on an ego trip because you feel like a local celebrity at UB as part of student government. First, you get an inflated ego, and then you forget yourself because I don't think you're prepared for all the responsibility and how much all your actions are going to be judged."
The three elected executive board members (president, vice president and treasurer) control SA's massive budget, which is accrued through each undergraduate's $94.75 per semester mandatory student activity fee.
Marth said SA's higher-ups are simply in charge of too much money.
"Honestly, I do think there should be some sort of board or council that works in conjunction with the e-board for SA," he said. "Not to necessarily oversee them, but just a council entirely made up of adults who know what it means to handle millions of dollars and teach and almost mentor the e-board so they learn the ways of how to do business correctly."
Are the e-board members trained?
Nemmer said his financial training involved "sitting down with the finance people at every opportunity" and staying in communication with Treasurer Justin Neuwirt.
"As far as I'm aware, you do not receive any formal training," Jonas, the former delegate, said. "But the training is at the SA orientation, and I have heard that in years past, certain SA staff just turned it into a personal booze fest."
So, is that sufficient training to prepare executive board members to handle that much student money?
"Three million dollars is a lot of money, and when you're putting college students in charge of that much money, that's not to say there's always going to be mistakes, but there's inexperience and there's going to be blunders and bad mistakes and poor precedents set," said 2010-11 Spectrum Editor in Chief Andrew Wiktor. "When you come into an office that has a history of corruption and misuse of funds, it's kind of hard to be that person to maybe break the cycle."
Nemmer, however, said it is essential for students to maintain their degree of autonomy - because, as he put it, "if students have a problem with the Student Association, they have a problem with democracy" - and that none of the scandals in the past five years could have been prevented with more university oversight.
Alvarado said that the oversight mechanisms already in place have worked - as shown by the impeachment of Farah, resignation of Johns and blocking of Khan's mobile application purchase before the money was transferred.
Perks of being in power
SA's website states the organization's goal is "to provide a better university experience of all undergraduate students," but some have questioned whether the experience benefits all students or just those at the top of SA.
Johns received criticism for accepting a charter flight and sideline ticket to Ohio State for UB's football season opener. Jonas said SA higher-ups are treated like celebrities at Buffalo clubs.
Nemmer said he thinks the elected SA officials deserve their stipends (the e-board members receive $12,000 apiece for the academic year) because they put in 40-hour weeks and are subject to heavy criticism, but it's easy to get carried away with the perks of the job.
"There are some presidents who take things way too far," Nemmer said.
Scheck said the higher-ups in SA take advantage of the average student.
"I feel like it only works for the people who are in charge, the people who are running it, and everybody else kind of watches the show," Scheck said.
Scheck wrote the Generation article detailing SA's self-serving spending habits. He and two other reporters studied SA's general ledger and discovered that many of the organization's expenditures, like a trip President Peter Grollitsch took with the ski club to Vermont, seemed to be unnecessary purchases solely to benefit the executive board members.
"They kept getting their hands on more and more money, and children kept spending it on themselves," Scheck said. "That's why we started looking into it."
Marth said the power gets to SA officials' heads, and the benefits of the job don't help.
"You just have people who think they're in their own world and think they have more power than they do, and in the grand scheme of things, you just run a student organization on campus," Marth said. "It's not that big of a deal."
Poor voter turnout
Some have said the biggest issue with SA is the lack of participation in elections. Only 14 percent of the undergraduate student body voted in March's election.
"When I ran, I ran with a party that actually had definitive plans to make a difference on campus, but sometimes it just turns into a popularity contest where people are elected based on how many friends they have and not on their ability to manage money," Jonas said.
Scheck said the corruption within SA is due to poor turnout to elections.
"Nobody votes, and as a result, the people who win are the people inside SA," Scheck said. "I just think until there's a substantial portion of the student population that knows what the Student Association really does, I don't think they can claim to have responsibility over those students. And I don't think they can take $100 in fee money and do whatever they want with it - thinking they have the go-ahead from the student body when really they don't."
Alvarado, who was voted into office in SA's most recent reelection, said the next election process will be pivotal in determining how much students care.
"If students are tired of the scandals and of this impeachment process, one, they need to hold their people accountable," Alvarado said. "And two, they need to really be careful about who they elect. Ultimately, the people that elected Nick Johns or elected Hassan Farah, they voted for them. Maybe the student body should be more active in the student assembly, in the senate and in electing these people."
Next step
SA's reelection will take place in October (the dates will be announced this week), and several frontrunners have emerged, including Senior Office Manager Sam McMahon and SUNY Delegate Mohammad Alwahaidy.
Whoever is elected will take on the momentous task of salvaging this year.
It is unclear, however, if the Student Association can be saved, in its current structure, from future scandal.
Email: news@ubspectrum.com
