Every year $6,000 is allotted to the entirety of Student Government for conferences related to Student Government activities, retreats and leadership development. While there are upwards of 90 individuals in all of Student Government, only seven students along with three Student Involvement staff members went on a leadership retreat to Asheville over the summer and spent that allotted amount of money.
The retreat lasted from Aug. 10-13 where the attendees stayed at the Asheville Hilton Garden Inn in Asheville, North Carolina. All expenses were covered on this trip, as well as additional costs such as the rental of the conference room for the retreat and the team-building activity at the Adventure Center at Asheville.
According to Meredith Spence-Beaulieu, a fifth-year Ph.D. student studying entomology and student body vice president, when the student body officers came into office in March, they were informed by Jessica Murphy, the Student Involvement director who was also acting as Student Government coordinator at the time, that a retreat would occur during the summer. However, communication regarding the retreat began when Brian Garsh, a coordinator in Student Involvement and adviser of Student Government, came into his position in June.
Present at the Student Government Retreat were Jess Errico, a fifth-year studying mechanical and aerospace engineering and student body president; Spence-Beaulieu; Adam Schmidt, a third-year studying civil engineering and student senate president; Ryan Dunn, a third-year studying political science and executive chief of staff; Jodi Svetaketu, a third-year studying English and Spanish and student body chief justice; Kiera Jonson, a fourth-year studying microbiology and a member of the student conduct board; and Molly Mueller, a fourth-year studying political science and student body treasurer.
There were also three Student Involvement staff members in attendance including Murphy, Garsh and Carla Salas, a graduate assistant in Student Involvement.
According to Spence-Beaulieu, of the Student Government fee that is collected, one part goes to the budget that they can allocate through Senate processes and the other goes to areas where they cannot determine how it is spent such as salaries and facilities.
Because the Senate does not meet over the summer, according to Mueller, all expenses for that part of the budget must be approved by the Summer Expenditure Committee made up of the student body treasurer, the student body president and the Senate finance committee chair, however none of the retreat expenses were followed through in that process.
“All of the finances have to be approved by us,” Mueller said referring to the Summer Expenditure Committee. “Basically we would have an email chain whenever someone wanted to spend money and we would approve it via email and that never happened with any of the retreat expenses … it was just spent without any of our input.”
Errico said she and the other student body officers found out about how much money was spent at the retreat.
“We did bring it up there and asked questions around: ‘is this all the money,’ ‘how do we finance the development opportunities that will come up through the rest of the school year,’ and confirmed that there wasn’t any student voice or approval on expending the fees prior to them being expended,” Errico said.
The entire line item was not spent last year because there was no SBO retreat. However, in years past, according to Mueller, the money for leadership development is typically used but not on one event.
According to Errico, it was made clear during the conversation at the retreat that due to the timeline of planning the retreat, Garsh was not the only individual making the decisions regarding where money would be spent.
Errico said she was displeased with how some Student Involvement staff members went about spending the funds.
“I am very disappointed that the prescribed Student Government process for spending Student Government’s money, for spending student fees money, is there for a reason and to ensure responsible spending,” Errico said. “The [fact that] it wasn’t utilized is extremely frustrating and disappointing.”
Errico said that while the sum of money spent is comparable to other retreats, it was still not justified.
“I said that the expenditure is comparable to other retreats, which is true,” Errico said. “That doesn’t mean I support the expenditure and the amount or feel like it was the best fit for our organization and a student fee-funded retreat.”
Due to the use of the funds for the retreat, Spence-Beaulieu said that in planning the Fall Student Government retreat, which includes the legislative, executive and judicial branches, they could not afford to get snacks and coffee for the over 90 individuals at the event.
“I had planned to have snacks because that was a long day, literally just snacks and coffee to have a short break to get people through the day, and had to cancel that because there was not money for that particular line item,” Spence-Beaulieu said. “[I] certainly could’ve used another line item but I don’t feel comfortable using fees from other line items that aren’t intended for leadership development on things.”
Errico said that while she valued a retreat focusing on leadership, she thought that the expense of the retreat was not worth it, especially considering they did not use the entire time in Asheville.
“I value and recognize that retreats can be an integral part of the development of a student leadership team,” Errico said. “However, do I think that it was necessary to take all of us to Asheville for four days? Clearly not — we did not use all four days.”
At the Student Senate meeting on Sept. 26, Senator Coleman Simpson, a fourth-year studying agricultural science and anthropology, asked about how the funds were spent and what the course of action would be now that the funds were depleted.
At the meeting, Schmidt discussed how the fall and spring activities for Student Government will be funded now that the leadership development line item funds have been expended.
“Historically we have pulled from the leadership development line item to fund various fall and spring activities we do for Senate and all of Student Government,” Schmidt said at the Senate meeting. “Now that those resources have been expended, we must to other aspects of the budget that we could use to fund that. Including, but not limited to, the branch line item.”
At the same Senate meeting, Garsh addressed how the large sum of money was spent.
“Part of it I was handed, in terms of things were already set in motion such as the dates, and the hotel and the location of the retreat,” Garsh said at the meeting. “Based off of my understanding when I arrived, because of the moving around of the dates and state lodging, rates were not able to be obtained at the hotel.”
Garsh also added that expenses came from lodging, meals and supplies for the retreat. Garsh mentioned that 10 students attended and that the retreat lasted for three days; seven students attended, and the retreat was planned to last for four days, though the last day was cut short.
“… Plus feeding approximately 10 students for a three-day retreat four-and-a-half hours away so that way development and educational practices from advisors and educators could occur at that retreat,” Garsh said at the Senate meeting. “So general expenses in terms of lodging, meals for everyone that was able to attend, developmental supplies and activities, educational activities.”
During the retreat, the student body officers participated in trainings related to teamwork, decision making and communication. However, there were many activities on the retreat itinerary that the student body officers were asked to do on their own time, such as inclusive and servant leadership, personal goal setting, mission statements and going over the Student Body Constitution.
Spence-Beaulieu said that after the discussion at the retreat, there was a meeting planned between Garsh, Errico, Spence-Beaulieu and Mueller, however that meeting was canceled and never rescheduled.
“He said that we could have a meeting about [it] when we got back with people within SI that work with SI finances and myself, Jess and Molly, and so we got back and scheduled that meeting and that meeting was canceled and has not rescheduled,” Spence-Beaulieu said.
After the Senate meeting, a meeting was scheduled between Garsh, Spence-Beaulieu, and Simpson to discuss how the Senate will get funds to pay for the second Student Government retreat in the spring. This meeting has not yet occurred.
While the receipts of the trip expenses have still not been given to Mueller, she said that the appropriate way to go about spending has been discussed with Garsh and she has taken measures to prevent it in the future.
“I don’t think that something like this will happen again and I have been trying to monitor spending more closely,” Mueller said. “Immediately after an event I’ll go out and seek the receipts from [Garsh].”
Spence-Beaulieu said that she has expressed her concerns for the expenditures, but there has not been any resolution for those conversations. She also said that she supports having leadership development for leaders because it helps with the success of an organization.
“I do not think it was a judicious use of those fees,” Spence-Beaulieu said. “I am very critical of student fee money being collected and funneled into key people at the top of organizations, so I am frustrated to be party to this.”
When asked to comment, both Murphy and Garsh directed this reporter to contact Student Body Treasurer Molly Mueller for comment.
