Students, Staff React to 'IUPUI Student Government's Poor Record Keeping May Violate Constitution'

We asked IUPUI students how they felt about the previous publication “IUPUI Student Government’s Poor Record Keeping May Violate Constitution.”

By Leighann Strollo 2/26/16

Two weeks ago, The Campus Citizen published a story, “IUPUI Student Government’s Poor Record Keeping May Violate Constitution,” explaining that financial records from IUPUI’s student government, which should be available to the public, are not available. Only incomplete records turn up, and in some cases none show up at all. This is a violation of the Undergraduate Student Government and Graduate Professional Student Government constitutions, which state that records must be maintained. The Campus Citizen asked students how they feel about this.

Last week, The Campus Citizen published a review of a “Jagversation” hosted by the Dean of Students, Jason Spratt, during which he offered a response to the aforementioned article.

“We change so often, you know Den and Oncourse [are] perfect example[s]...The Den has the ability to be a great thing, but it’s just been implemented in January and all [of] the sudden they want five years of records and they’re all over the place,” he said.

As the advisor for both the USG and GPSG, Spratt should be concerned with the state of the record keeping among his organizations and offer good reason as to why certain records cannot be found. While he doesn’t seem to think it is a big deal, many students disagree.

“It’s sneaky. It’s an abuse of power and action should be taken,” Ryan Goins, IUPUI sophomore, said.

“First of all, that’s clue number one that something’s wrong...if they don’t have any records,” sophomore Alycia Newell said. “I’m already worried about Trump taking over. Now I’ve gotta worry about Greco too?”

The Campus Citizen has encouraged the GPSG to respond to all the articles published over the course of the last month. The only response to the lack of records, other than a decline to comment, came from Spratt during his “Jagversation.”

“There’s nothing that says you must maintain, you know, this record for eternity for a student organization. Most of our organizations are volunteer positions; they’re not getting paid stipends. They’re not getting paid, you know, scholarships.”

But none of this is true in the case of the GPSG. In fact it is quite the opposite.

“I feel confused. Maybe they’re trying to confuse me more [so that] I don’t understand what’s going on. Now I’m mad. This requires some action,” Newell added, upon learning this information.

Generally, the reaction from students has been one of confusion, anger, or a combination of the two. Most just want to fully understand what is going on in their government, and how it affects them. The Undergraduate Student Government meetings are held on Tuesdays from 9 a.m. - 11 a.m. The Graduate and Professional Student Government meeting schedule is listed here.

You can follow our coverage of the GPSG investigation here.