Whether or not it’s immoral isn’t the point. What I was attempting to discredit where the claims that Zach had stolen money from students. That simply isn’t the case. Obviously it’s still wrong, and due to that fact he both resigned and payed the money back.

And what do you mean by “many voices”? You named one person in your last post, with both quotes directly from a single opinions column. (Alexander Ely is an idiot, by the way.)

Additionally, I have no idea who claims that it was the apathy of the student body that caused this, but they’re equally moronic as you.

“Let’s take a hard look at everything and see what the SA has been doing.” What the hell do you think this investigation is for? The problem is being solved as we speak. Very soon, this credit card Zach had will most likely cease to exist. Yet you still whine and complain about how the SA is somehow cheating you.

You are not the ethics police. People know that stealing money is wrong. That’s why Zach resigned, and that’s why there is an investigation.

There is a lot of misunderstanding of how the Student Assembly works, with wrong ideas put out by Flat hat and commenters.
-All of the financial reports were disclosed every month last year & the books have always been open. The reason Pilchen’s theft went unnoticed was due to the fact it was in May when meetings & reports ceased. Flat hat’s shock about the $4 from Wawa & $8 from Bloom (which they were likely told was for the Gene Nichols rallies & did not want to print it) is funny because they had a reporter at every meeting who obviously did not see it as a big deal all of the last year. – If Flat hat took more than 10 minutes to research this article they would know those expenditures at Home Depot were for an approved Wall of Free Speech. Good reporting people. I am sure the article is in their own archives but I have not looked. If not that is even funnier to me.
-The banking account Pilchen took from was one that is not state money. It is fundraising from the rug sale & the dances and other events. So they do not put out letter like Red Cross and ask for donations to save people. Your comparison makes no sense.
-When you say you want the SGA to stop spending money it is clear you do not know the system. Almost all of the money is budgeted already, so are you saying you want clubs to not get funding? That makes no sense.

I think everyone is angry and rightfully so, but I think eliminating the card & sticking to checks, which always have memos & need to be signed & approved, is the only way for this to work correctly. If not administration would handle your student money & you must know they would do worse.

Also> no, I am not in the SGA.

I think there’s an awful lot of rubbish be posted here by SA fans. “Seriously” said – “It’s money they raised themselves, dumbass”. Really? So it’s their money to do with as they please? Last time I checked the Red Cross, Salvation Army or whoever is supposed to spend that money for the purpose it was collected for, not visits to WaWa, movies and other personal things. That kind of stuff is not only immoral, it’s illegal. This news story is kind of vague but it does mention purchases involving hundreds of dollars that can’t be traced to Zach.

And that’s not all. Here are a few quotes from Alexander Ely’s article of Sept 10th – “What Pilchen did, and the subsequent maneuvering by other SA members to expose his error, are emblematic of an organization that more closely resembles a daytime soap opera than a governing body with any legitimacy.” And then there’s this one – “February 2007, when senators opened charity gifts that were intended for needy children in the area and started playing with them instead. An irate Amanda Norris ’07, then vice president, ripped the responsible senator in an e-mail: “Please, for the love of God, stop taking this job as a joke and be respectful to the students who voted for you.” She might as well have been talking to the entire SA.”

It sounds like many voices out there are telling us something stinks in the SA. And it stinks real bad too. Folks like you telling us it was just Zach do not convince. Even worse is morons telling us our “apathy” caused him to do it. Most likely several post are SA members desperately trying to shut down the dialogue before more crap spills out into the public’s view. Personally, I believe in totally open government. Let’s take a hard look at everything and see what the SA has been doing. In the meanwhile the SA should stop all business, open its books and let some outside group take a hard look. And no more talk about it being the fault of everyone on campus who thinks they’re “pretend government” or that it was just one little theft, so, hey fagedabodit and move on. Pretend government or not, they’re in charge of hundreds of thousands of dollars – that’s real money. So let’s get to the bottom of it. ALL of it! Right now. If there’s nothing going on it’ll still be instructive for the rest of us and help end our “apathy”, right? We’ll learn all there is to know about the SA. Who can be against that?

lphile:

What the hell are you talking about? Who is ‘they’? Who else in the SA has stolen money? From what we’ve all seen, it’s been only one person, and that person resigned/payed the money back. There is currently an investigation going on as we speak to determine if any more will need to be payed back. Furthermore, it’s not even your money! It’s money they raised themselves, dumbass.

Your talk of defunding the entire SA is equally ridiculous. You have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about, or how student activities money works at all. Perhaps if you actually took the time to understand the system before publicly calling for its destruction, I could take you seriously.

“...the cost spent on gasoline for the school’s vans … pales in comparison with each of those people paying for a taxi – even if that group” And why is that Joe Taxpayer’s problem? Every cent of wasted funds spent with “student fees” and gasoline (+ wear & tear) for those vans is money that could be put towards tuition, lowering the cost for the public that’s supporting you. Joe takes the bus and doesn’t give a damn if you need a ride to the airport. You’ll make more money after the leg-up in life he’s footing the bill for without you inventing clever ways to take more from him. You have a position waiting for you in the SA as a play-acting politician, as you’re as divorced from reality as they are.

Besides, none of your argument justifies the stealing of money going on in the SA. Even if they are spending the money wisely (which I dispute) they don’t get to dip into the cash box every once in awhile when the mood strikes them. Nor should have to watch them constantly as if they were pre-schoolers put in charge of candy. Most of us could give a rat’s ass about the SA. There’s no requirement that we do. And all those heart-tugging stories about their wonderful spending programs doesn’t mean anything if they’re behaving like petty thieves. From what I’ve been reading this is just the tip of the iceberg. All this crying about their angelic nature and philanthropic intentions looks like just more smoke screen and bluster. Give me a few hundred grand of somebody else’s money and I’ll do a pretty good imitation of generosity & goodness too. And that’s at the heart of this affair: Grossly irresponsible behavior due to the simple fact that IT’S NOT THEIR MONEY!

As much as I love the free market, by the SA organizing carpooling to the airport we save a lot of money on gasoline and waste much less energy then if we all drove ourselves or took taxis.

@latinophile,

“Does Joe Blow average Williamsburg citizen get to use this service? No, he gets to watch privileged, upper income college kids ride back and forth to the airport for free and he’s not impressed.”

Glad I didn’t see that before I wrote my last post…otherwise I wouldn’t have bothered. “Privileged, upper income” hardly describes most of the people I know here at the College. On top of a full course load, studying for graduate school admissions, and extra curriculars, I manage to squeeze in 8 hours/week @ minimum wage ($6) minus taxes…I’d have to spend almost 2 weeks income on a 1 hour ride to the airport.

@latinophile,

Did you even bother to read the first part of my post, about where the funding comes from? Do you even know what you’re talking about? Not to delve to deeply into this, but the cost spent on gasoline for the school’s vans (which usually fit about 6-8 people during airport rides) pales in comparison with each of those people paying for a taxi – even if that group split in half and car pooled, that is $140 total versus about…$50-60 for gas for all of them to take the van. SAVES MONEY.

“And useless? How about: communal bikes, free airport rides (a taxi to Norfolk or Richmond airports costs about $70 round trip), a voter registration effort that has netted ~1800 Williamsburg voters, etc.” – The perennial whine of the Big Government fan: free stuff! Getcha free stuff right here!..... BS. First, NOTHING is free. Your ride to & from the airport cost just the same. All that’s changed is who’s paying for it. Same for the “free” bike. And funding your voter project is politically motivated.

The fact is government, even pretend ones, are inherently wasteful and full of corruption. They add to the cost of almost everything with their inefficiency. The SA’s budget should be radically slashed so that, in turn, student fees can be radically slashed. Then the free market can decide whether or not to give some loser a “free” ride to the airport. Not to mention the fact that your taking money from the mouth’s of some poor working taxi driver by using government resources to unfairly compete against him. Does Joe Blow average Williamsburg citizen get to use this service? No, he gets to watch privileged, upper income college kids ride back and forth to the airport for free and he’s not impressed.

Cut the SA’s budget. Cut it now. Cut it by about 80%. Reduce student fees and tell the pretend politicians/socialist/crooks their little show is over with.

This is not at all meant to excuse any wrongdoing on Zach’s part, but before you all label them as useless or a waste of money, you should understand some key differences. To the best of my understanding, the only student funds the SA is responsible for dispersing are those for the public interest: student activities, through the publication council, mid-year requests, etc.

The SA also makes purchases for its own programs using the money that it largely raises by itself, meaning that students tuition contributions are not touched for those purposes.

And useless? How about: communal bikes, free airport rides (a taxi to Norfolk or Richmond airports costs about $70 round trip), a voter registration effort that has netted ~1800 Williamsburg voters, etc.

Agreed.

SA is a waste. Always has been, even when they try to justify themselves.

A question on the accuracy of this article: Did Andrew Blasi resign to take his job at the other paper or did his term run out? I believed it was the latter, since the term did technically end when Valerie became the new president.

Kinda OBVIOUS that student assembly members used the card to buy dorm supplies too. I am disgusted.

“Other purchases from that day include $138.14 at Ace Hardware and $101.28 at Home Depot.”

Oh, this really sucks. The SA needs to go and the sooner the better. Take away their money – all of it. The article is badly written but it seems we’re not talking just $13, but more like $257.29 (so far), not including Zach’s theft. What the hell is going on? On what planet are you given a $750 a month expense account that you don’t have to submit receipts for? Then there’s this little gem: “...speculated that it may have been related to Tribe United, the organization founded on campus following the Feb. 12 resignation of former College President Gene Nichol”. That’s just dandy. Now money is siphoned off for somebody’s pet political projects (can you say “future union boss”?).

Full disclosure Flat Hat! And right soon. As to all those posting that this is a small issue: your’re probably the crooks themselves and hoping this’ll just go away. Not likely.

REDUCE THE SA’s BUDGET TO ZERO NOW!!!

The last poster is right in that we probably can’t trust SA people with money, but if you are concerned, go to a meeting and find out what they are spending it on. You can not just cut them off from spending, considering that your tuition goes towards it. All campus groups and orgs would go broke otherwise.
Before each bill you can speak out for at least 5 minutes, and they almost always extend it if you have to say more. It is likely, the other charges are part of a bigger project, which the Flat Hat could probably easily figure out from just reading their own articles from the past year or so. This is not brain surgery or is it a major headline.

The implication is pretty clear — Pilchen wasn’t the only SA member abusing the debit card. Not that it’s surprising, how could these kids be trusted with unlimited money just a swipe away? Even more telling is all the SA kiddies commenting on here begging the flat hat to not investigate any further. Obviously they’re afraid of getting caught like Pilchen.

Wow is right, how stupid. Flat Hat, there is a difference between investigative journalism and irresponsible muckraking. $13 from nearly a year ago that cannot be accounted for as a headline, wow is right.

WOW, what a joke story this is. So basically this entire article comes down to this: bla bla bla, we don’t like Blasi and the Virginia Informer so we are going to say “may have misused $13,” bla bla bla. You guys are really pathetic, try reporting on a real story for once…

This is about as silly as it gets.

This really is a little pathetic, guys. Glad you got the story, but its really time to give it up already. A whopping $13 that was probably part of another project is nothing to headline.

I’m so tired of hearing about this. Administrators are scrambling right now, trying to figure out how to offset a 15% state budget cut totaling MILLIONS OF DOLLARS, yet The Flat Hat continues to write about $3.00 Wawa purchases made with the SA debit card.

Pilchen was wrong and should receive some type of punishment, but in the grand scheme of things, there are much greater issues out there. Flat Hat, get it together and report some real news.

Yada yada yada….we just want to know if Zach is getting punished for his actions. He better not squirm his way out of this one…