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Think Greensboro’s leadership sucks? Check this out…

Wow… I’d hate to be the president or treasurer of a UNCG student organization right about now (from UNCG Campus Watch) (EDIT: Excuse me… from the backlash from the Student Body that is already starting to happen and will only get worse, I’d really hate to be Donald Hughes right now):

SGA VP Hughes Gives 18-Hour Notice on Mandatory Meeting
by Ryan Radford, UNCG Campus Watch
Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Organizations hoping for Fall 2006 special allocation funds today were given 18 hours notice of a mandatory Organization Allocation Orientation meeting to be held tomorrow, August 31.

Flyers were disseminated early this morning throughout the EUC offices used by a select group of organizations noting that the OAO meetings were to be held tomorrow at 10:00am, 11:00am, and 8:00pm, the earliest meeting less than 24 hours away. As only a few dozen organizations have these office spaces, several alarmed members of SGA’s leadership questioned how the 100+ other organizations were to be notified.

Finance Committee Chairwoman Christina Sadler was immediately contacted and notified of these concerns. When asked whether or not organizations had been contacted by any other means, she replied that they had not. When asked whether or not an announcement had been made to organization representatives at either the House of Representatives full-body or committee meetings, Ms. Sadler said that she was told (by whom, we do not know) that an announcement at last week’s general body meeting should not be made as room reservations had not yet been confirmed. She claims that Speaker of the House Caitlin Stroud was notified of the meetings, however, and was asked to announce it in House committee meetings on Monday, 8/28. When the grave concerns over the short-notice were expressed, Chairwoman Sadler responded by saying that there may be more meetings possible in the future, but that the decision was ultimately up to SBVP Donald Hughes.

As Mr. Hughes was unavailable at the time, I personally went to find SGA advisor Checka Leinwall for advice on the situation. As Dr. Leinwall was out of the office, I spoke instead to co-advisor Stan Gajda, who commented that the situation was “completely unacceptable.” Mr. Gajda and I spoke to Speaker of the House Stroud, who claimed to have never received any notification of the meetings.

By this time SBVP Hughes had arrived in his office, where I met with him for a brief heated discussion. I expressed my outrage at the situation and Mr. Hughes latest failure to effectively communicate with his staff, to which he replied that that situation was “nothing to stress over,” assuring me there would be further meetings.

UNCG allocates student fees to organization under its obligations stemming from the US Supreme Court case Board of Regents Univ. Wisc. v. Southworth (529 U.S. 217) through its Student Government Association, with stringent guidelines in place to ensure that the funds are equitably allocated. It is presently unclear whether the situation Mr. Hughes claims is “nothing to stress over” could potentially have legal implications for the University if organizations do not feel they were given an equal opportunity to gain funding.

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