SGA, UCF Administration Should Learn From Mistakes and Move On
Editorials, Politics, UCF SGA — By Staff on August 9, 2010 at 5:39 pmMistakes Were Made, It’s Time to Learn From Them
When we reported an impeachment storm was brewing a few weeks ago, we never knew it would turn into a category five Katrina.
But it did.
And it went way beyond a little golf cart that the Student Government Association members play on every day. In a sense, a type of “perfect storm” was created, for a multitude of reasons, that roared through this University and risked catastrophic damage.
The storm exploded beyond all imagination, and sucked people inside who really should have no place in the middle of SGA — attorneys, politicians and major broadcast news stations from the nation’s 19th largest TV market.
It showed us no one was above it — no matter the position you hold, experience you have or degree you’ve obtained. It showed us what happens when people who disagree refuse to bend, compromise and work together for the greater good of the UCF and Orlando community.
In the process, it has also hurt feelings, reputations and friendships. And that’s a shame.
This is college. We are students. We’re all here to make mistakes — and learn from them. It’s OK if we mess up, as long as we admit what we did wrong and stop it from happening again.
And we at KnightNews.com will start by being the first ones to do just that.
We made the mistake of making a proposal to SGA to advertise on KnightNews.com, even though SGA doesn’t have policies in place to allow more than one person — the SGA president — to make the call on this major contract without involving multiple people in an open bidding process. Orange County Commissioner Linda Stewart suggested UCF and SGA review this policy so it’s fair for everyone.
We agree with Commissioner Stewart, and we have established our own ethics policy. We will not do any advertising business with the SGA Executive branch until they can clean up their policies so major contracts can be awarded in a fair, open and transparent way, which will avoid any conflicts of interest created by allowing one person so much power in the process — especially a person who has to spend so much money getting elected and doesn’t have to account for it.
This problem is not unique to Mike Kilbride. In the past, SGA presidents who did not get the Central Florida Future’s endorsement cut advertising with the paper for that year. It was wrong to use an advertising contract as a weapon to control the media then, it’s wrong now, and it will continue to be a dark mark on this University until policies are put in place to prevent it in the future.
By the way, refusing to advertise with us won’t silence us, because there are basically no costs to publish our work online. The bottom line is KnightNews.com is here to stay. And any attacks against us and illegal stonewalling only make us stronger. It’s like we are a fire of truth and you are pouring gasoline on us, intensifying our desire to uncover how students’ money is being spent.
But refusing to advertising with us will hurt students. It will stop us from buying nicer laptops to edit with, video cameras to cover dances that students work hard perfecting and performing during skits in the UCF arena, and also will stop us from giving more scholarships to students who want to learn a skill they love doing while paying tuition — instead of working at a bar or Taco Bell just to get by.
We’ve talked to lawyers. We know we could sue SGA for First Amendment Retaliation after we were led to believe we’d get this contract until the day our lawyer sent a demand letter detailing why closing senate committee meetings was illegal. We could involve watchdog groups from DC and have a team of lawyers and national media have a field day for this obvious retaliation. But we won’t. We don’t want to put the student body through any more of this garbage.
SGA and Mike Kilbride have mistakes to admit as well. The retreat they had brought a black eye to this University. After KnightNews.com exposed just how lavish it was, at least three professional broadcast operations picked up the story and reported it to tens of thousands of people in Central Florida. We know nice retreats have been done before, but the Reunion Resort is the only 5 star resort we’re aware of an SGA retreat being held at. We’re told the most recent retreat SGA had, the Senate retreat, only cost $6,000 — $2,000 less than Kilbride’s — and served more people. Senators say it was a great time. It was even brought up in the winter break budget meetings.
Instead of SGA admitting it was a bad time to have a retreat at such a nice place, the lack of a prompt, open response detailing everything led us to investigate, request public records, and uncover how the Disney tickets donated to a BOT member raised questions about whether the donation possibly violated Florida’s ethics laws. UCF spokesman Grant Heston admitted UCF is now investigating to see if this is the case.
“Out of an abundance of caution, UCF will look into what reporting action, if any, is required for the tickets,” Heston said. “If anything is necessary, we’ll obviously take the appropriate steps.”
Although we had the form printed and ready to go that could launch a state ethics investigation into Kilbride for accepting these tickets, we decided not to file it. After all, this is college. And we’re all here to make mistakes and learn from them — including the SGA president. There’s no need for us to throw him into an investigation that could stay with him forever.
It was a mistake for SGA to have the retreat at such a luxurious resort. The resulting public outcry from professional media and professional politicians serves as proof. Now these student leaders know that they have to watch it when they go on conferences and plan retreats when they enter the real world. It’s better to make these mistakes now and learn from them, than doing so after graduation when they can cost you in the real world. It’s too bad they still haven’t admitted the valuable lesson they’ve learned.
Speaking of the real world, it is completely inexcusable the way UCF Associate General Counsel Youndy Cook has behaved. Based on our observations, the UCF attorney has incited both sides into an all out war just to try and prove a point. In the process, she appeared to try misleading our attorney about whether UCF could send us e-mailed public records electronically instead of by charging us a much higher amount to print them. When we involved other parties — including the Florida Attorney General’s office — in an e-mail thread about this topic, UCF promptly admitted they could release the records in a cheaper format. As you can probably gather, our investigation suggests an attorney from Bill McCollom’s office informed Cook she was wrong about refusing to release electronic records in the past, and she kept that stance with us even though she knew it was wrong.
Youndy Cook should be setting an example about being honest and open and why it is important. She should not be pushing the legal limits of secrecy just to prove a point — that fighting her will cost thousands of dollars in court and likely isn’t worth it. She did this to Beta Theta Pi, and the fraternity prevailed when the University settled. This adversarial approach should not be her standard operating procedure, and her boss Scott Cole and President John Hitt should reign her in before she causes someone to file a lawsuit against UCF that will cause much more harm than can be imagined. Instead of fueling the fire, Cook should also have been doing her job and spending time advising Kilbride about ethics laws instead of concocting ways to justify him keeping meetings and documents secret that shouldn’t be.
Moving Forward with a better SGA, UCF Community
We know the last few weeks were rough, after this minor impeachment storm grew into what could have — and possibly still may become — a public and costly lawsuit for the University. We hope the storm is over, and that we’re not just stuck in the eye with another violent squall about to consume us all again. We also hope that like with any bad storm where things get nasty and rough, there is a silver lining after it passes and the sun comes up.
It’s at that point when people come together and rebuild. Neighbors help neighbors, groups come together, new ideas and ways of doing things come about, and the community that suffered through such a rough time comes out better and stronger in the end.
It’s time for UCF and SGA to do just that and change their policies. It’s time to stop hiding behind FERPA privacy regulations to stonewall the public, when media and students want to know what their money is being spent on. It’s time UCF and SGA work with us to settle our disagreements before we are forced to bring this issue to court. According to legal experts, the excuse of using FERPA to redact SGA leaders’ names from SGA records likely won’t hold water in court anyway.
The identities of students who choose voluntarily to be involved in SGA’s public proceedings become public at that time. It defies credulity for UCF to assert that their identities are public to those who attend the meeting, and can even be published in news stories, but then somehow FERPA entitles them, after waiving any right to confidentiality, to have UCF redact any identifying information from the audio of the public meeting, legal experts have said.
SGA President Mike Kilbride took a good faith step to stopping this practice last week. Although he cautioned it wasn’t precedent changing to SGA records policies, he finally forked over a stack of documents related to the retreat, and didn’t charge us one dime for it, and “waived” his FERPA rights so we could see his name on the forms. It’s early in Kilbride’s presidency and these last few weeks will be forgotten in favor of great things he does — if he chooses to stay on the side of students and fight for them the rest of his term.
The documents Kilbride released showed our initial reporting was accurate regarding the $35 per plate meal– a $29 base price which was subject to a 21 percent service charge — bought the cabinet members a nice meal option including possibilities of coconut-curried mahi mahi, grilled jump shrimp with a pina colada essence, baked pork loin with jerk seasoning, and other fancy sides. The documents also showed SGA tried negotiating prices down, and tried finding good deals where they could by shopping around to different resorts.
With a Senate election around the corner, it is now up to SGA officials to start writing bills, changing statutes and removing provisions for secrecy — or else risk being removed themselves by an uprising of students who don’t like the way things are being run. This means the LJR impeachment closed door policy needs to be repealed. SGA has admitted they’re reviewing their policies, and we can only hope this one is at the top of their list.
Even though legal experts believe the documents are public regardless, everyone on SGA should waive their FERPA rights so students and student media can access agendas, e-mails and other public records county commissioners believe we’re entitled to get without being raked over the coals to get them. We will ask each candidate whether they will waive their FERPA rights before Senate elections, and let our readers know who will stand for openness and who will stand with secrecy before they vote.
Finally, SGA needs to become more open and transparent when it comes time to award big contracts — especially those over $5,000 — so there will be no question of pay to play scenarios and people won’t try and buy candidates during campaigns anymore. We aren’t naming names on this topic, or even administrations, but the bottom line is this process has gone on for years and UCF’s professional advisers should have done more to monitor it, and need to put policies in place to remove even the perception of it happening in the future.
It’s time for SGA to show the students and surrounding community they can operate in openness and be proud of what they do. Because if they choose to fight transparency the next time around, and spark another storm as a result, there’s no telling whether everyone, or even SGA as a whole, will make it out standing.
SGA has been shutdown before when spending and policies became over the top. Let’s all work together now to make SGA stronger, transparent and an organization that serves the student body in a way which everyone can be proud.
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21 Comments
I appreciate, cause I found just what I was looking for. You have ended my 4 day long hunt! God Bless you man. Have a nice day. Bye.
The Orlando Sentinel said UCF is trying to have it both ways too… When you want info from them they are not a state agency, but then you want to sue them they are. What a joke. We see right through this.
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2010-08-20/news/os-ed-ucf-athletics-plancher-082010-20100819_1_ucf-athletic-association-ucf-president-john-hitt-direct-support-organizations
General counsel is out of its mind. They do whatever they want until people spends thousands of dollars to sue them. Then… they spend thousands of dollars of our tuition money to fight off the lawsuits.
See what I mean here:
http://www.clickorlando.com/news/24628357/detail.html
I think Knightnews should move on from this SGA crap and focus on finding out how much of our money is being spent on this lawsuit because UCF chose to privatize the sports department and now wont use its insurance policy to settle this nasty lawsuit.
All of you SGA people need to quit making up your own drama to make yourselves seem more important to your selves. I mean really, are your egos that huge that you want to bitch and complain about every little thing that has happened in SGA?
Now that thats over with, let me say that I am by no means affiliated with SGA and never want to be because they are nothing but sleazy politicians. That being said, Yes I agree with a lot of you that Knightnews is sleazy and they do make a big deal out of everything, but that is what a news agency does. While sure some of their info is exaggerated, well most is more like it, it still is stuff that does go on at UCF and therefore students do have a right to know. An average student would have absolutely no clue that SGA spent this much money on a retreat or who did what because it is all useless BS drama that you SGA people keep creating to give you something to do and to make yourselves seem more important.
Knightnews, while I know you are sleazy, you have every right to be that way. Just quit making EVERY LITTLE THING seem like a disaster. Hell you even made the Homecoming partners things seem like it was bigger than a US presidential election.
SGA: you people need to get your acts together and focus on the students. You were elected to serve the students and not to spend your time surfing Knightnews to see what else there is to bitch about. Lets be honest, it is mainly you people who even go on this site. Now its time for you all to clean up your act and account for your mistakes because we all know there are a ton of them even if you yourselves don’t realize it.
@sad
It is sad that “sad” has been so blinded by KnightNews that they can’t see that SGA is the only REAL vehicle that can be used to stand up to the administration on issues all students care about, not just the progressive agenda.
Do you really think KnightNews is “THE VEHICLE”? WHAT have they actually accomplished?
Who are you and why have you been stalking my Facebook anyway?
Also, my boyfriend (Mortellaro) made the decision to run after Stein decided to run, not the other way around. And we weren’t dating at the time of that decision.
Instead do you think there might have been REASONS why Mortellaro ran against him?
Possibly the same reasons I don’t want Stein in SGA, too?
As many put it during the election: it wasn’t really a 3 way race, it was those who were for Stein (Stein), and those who were against Stein (Peterson, Mortellaro).
By “movement” I’ll assume you mean the progressive movement. Progressives have been working for years to get SGA out from under the corruption of the lineage of people working behind KnightNews.
Do you think Stein REALLY cares about progressive issues? Why didn’t he cover GIE? Why doesn’t he say anything about GrayRobinson?
I’ll tell you why they never reported on that, because they couldn’t link it back to Kilbride and their political enemies and otherwise don’t care.
What ever happened to that “fight for your rights” free speech BS they threw around after blaming everything on the Comptroller for no reason other than the fact he was supporting Kilbride?
Free speech is no longer scandalous enough and they really couldn’t care less. Max Freidman (the founder of KnightNews) himself voted against a senate resolution put up by progressive senators that supported turning UCF into a “free expression campus”.
Just like Kevin Wolkenfeld voted against a senate resolution supporting the DREAM Act. Both for the same reason: “They didn’t know what the students thought”. It sure is convenient to hide behind the flaws in a representative system when the issue is against your personal views.
Have you never noticed how EVERYONE behind KnightNews is a white conservative male?
How can you think that they would ever be a real help to “the movement”?
Do you really think it would be more “helpful” to throw the SGA work of the entire progressive movement at UCF out just because KnightNews uses a few talking points that appeal to your cynicism? Are you ready to be used like that?
Are you ready to support giving SGA power back to those who started or fabricated most of these problems in the first place?
Kilbride is no progressive, but he is the farthest we have ever gotten to someone who truly cares about progressive issues and student issues in the SGA presidency position.
Now that he is there, doesn’t it make sense that the people we took power from are going to rebel and be bitter?
THAT is what this is really all about.
I agree, Cook and the entirety of General Counsel really need to be inspected and replaced for MANY reasons (some reasons considerably more important than public records request formats or hostile behavior).
As of right now, the only official work students could do to influence the appointments of the administration is through SGA… the same student tool Stein is trying to obliterate over nonissues just because he is no longer part of it.
The enemy of your enemy is not automatically your ally, and Stein and KnightNews are neither an ally nor an asset to anyone but themselves.
Stop being brain washed by the KnightNews propaganda!
Needs to just take a step back. The retreat budget is $8000. If the retreat was at a 5 star hotel that had villas and expensive food wouldn’t you think that it would cost more than $8.000? $8000 divided by 32 people equals $250 per person. $250 is the amount each student gets from SGA to go on trips through any RSO. If a luxurious retreat cost $250 per person that sounds like a great deal. Stop talking about how the retreat was a misuse of funds when it wasn’t.
http://totalfratmove.com/?s=university+of+central+florida
scroll three posts down…I wonder who posted this?
The people running KnightNews are huge sleazebags. Their reporting is based on a pathetic desire for political revenge.
That being said, it IS true that the university needs to be held accountable for violating the law with their nonsense FERPA claims. It’s true that SGA statutes violate the Sunshine Law by closing impeachment interviews. It’s an outrage how SGA spends thousands of dollars on frivolous luxuries for themselves, from 5-star retreats to banquets to salaries for unnecessary positions.
Yes, KnightNews is disgusting. But they’re saying stuff that needs to be said, and for that I must grudgingly admit that I’m glad they exist.
That video/slide show thing you posted was amazing. Did you make that? And how? Kind of does make it seem that there is a slew of friends who have their hands in a little bit of everything. And so funny that at the last minute you said “and who is missing…” and it went to Max Friedman. I was dying of of laughter. So true.
Is anyone going to file it? I bet that would be another media firestorm if someone does.
Nikki you dont care. You dont care about anyone but yourself and your hate for knightnews. If you did you would get involved yourself and make the change happen. Knightnews is fighting for openness and transparency whether you dont like stein or whomever its and honest fight.
Knightnews you kinda do sensationalize things but the truth is the next time someone thinks of having a retreat I guarentee you it wont be at a 5 star resort with our money.
Thanks Knightnews for holding people accountable whether you agree with them or not.
It’s sad that Nikki’s been so blinded by the system she can’t see Knightnews is the one vehicle to stand up to administration on the issues she cares about: Gender equality, a lobbyist that isn’t sexist, etc.
Youndy Cook stands in both of your ways, but because Andrew ran against your boyfriend a few years ago you can’t let it go and are letting it hurt the movement now that Andrew can be an asset to it. THAT is a shame.
I’ve been following this since it started with Pozin and it was obvious UCF would stop at nothing to cover up what went wrong. I hope they learned a lesson that secrecy only makes it worse. I think it’s funny people accuse Knightnews of being biased, when they went after Pozin (Kilbride’s enemy) and the went after Kilbride when he tried protecting the SGA staff that didn’t do a good job handling the golf cart issue. They went after wherever the story was, no matter whose side they were on. Good for them!
The fact that Knightnews stood up for the students to stop secrecy when they knew they’d probably lose that giant contract as a result says a lot about their character, integrity and motivation. It makes me trust them more.
The Future used to do this (see this article about the same issue http://www.centralfloridafuture.com/2.10660/sga-might-have-violated-procedure-during-impeachment-of-former-sen-cook-1.1420258 ) but for whatever reason they have decided to twist the facts manipulate public opinion by saying the meals were $29 instead of $35 by ignoring the 21% service charge. That is a disgrace to journalism.
I applaud Knightnews for maintaining their integrity even if they lose the contract as a result. I think it’s the right move not to turn Kilbride over to the Ethics Commission, because he honestly didn’t know any better and it was a failure of the professionals who should have advised him on the law as he started out. If Kilbride keeps up acting invincible, you have five years to file it though. For now though I agree you should let it go.
I do think, however, that Youndy Cook needs to be held accountable for the misleading and deceptive behavior she’s engaged in to maintain secrecy and block access to public records. If what Knightnews has posted about her is true, these are serious problems and hurts the credibility of lawyers throughout our state.
The Florida Bar sets rules for maintaining the integrity of the profession.
RULE 4-8.4 MISCONDUCT
A lawyer shall not:
(c) engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation…
I think that Youndy telling Knightnews they can’t get electronic records after the AG’s office tells Youndy another news organization can legally get them, then telling Knightnews’ lawyer they still can’t get them is worth a bar investigation on whether Youndy was dishonest, deceitful and misrepresenting …
Here’s the link:
http://www.floridabar.org/TFB/TFBResources.nsf/Attachments/AB230E7DCCC3B75385256B29004BD6DC/$FILE/Inquiry%20Complaint%20Form.pdf?OpenElement
Have at it.
Knightnews fabricating a bunch of non-issues, reporting on them, leading students astray, now trying to rationalize everything and already starting the campaign rhetoric “to fix all the problems” that were caused years ago by their bedfellows.
(http://prezi.com/o8_czcbj0wyw/8000-dollar-sga-retreat/)
Why don’t you just go ahead and tell us which candidates you are picking out for the fall election? I hope you pick them better than Pozin this time. Stein, I really hope you don’t run. You can’t even TRY to get into SGA without breaking the election ethics codes. It is ok, I’m sure that they’ll redact your name when I public records request the book of violations you have had charged against you.
I apologize for the relatively unfriendly comment, but I think I’m not the only student who is sick of hearing you whine about the problems you have made yourselves in SGA. You lost your elections! Please stop being so bitter and dramatic. If you really wanted to make SGA more accessible you would be teaching others how to get involved and learn about SGA (and your site might look more like this: http://www.ucfsga.com/).
Instead you monopolize information so you can spin it to your advantage. And you say you are doing a service to the students. For shame.
You have done nothing but distract from and taint the potential for constructive deliberations about the REAL problems in SGA policies.
Great story! Ive enjoyed following it and I look forward to Killbribe running a legit cabinate after realizing that knightnews will uncover any irregularities.
Loss? 3 Major Media stations picked Knightnews story up, 2 reviews are placed on SGA (1. Closed door meetings 2. Kilbride receiving tickets from lobbyist), they have no competition, and they probably got a ridiculous amount of viewers from this. I applaud knightnews for holding elected officials accountable a job that was once done by the cff. Bravo Knightnews bravo!
How is this a fail?
Knightnews loses once again!
Im pretty sure knightnews were the ones who made this all this crap into a category 5.
Honestly, how can I trust a newspaper who gets thousands of dollars from SGA to report on SGA fairly. That’s just a joke.
It’s too bad the Future has fallen off the wagon so much. It reminded me of this article from a couple years back.
http://www.centralfloridafuture.com/2.10660/sga-might-have-violated-procedure-during-impeachment-of-former-sen-cook-1.1420258
It’s funny that if someone did a quick google search they would have seen SGA was accused of breaking the law back then. You’d also have seen Youndy Cook up to her same old tricks. Intimidate, manipulate, hide behind the cost to sue UCF because they won’t think twice at wasting your tuition dollar to fend off a lawsuit even when UCF knows its wrong.
Congrats to Knightnews for picking up this fight where the Future left off… and shame on the Future for losing its spine.