Update: We got reports Kilbride once again inserted himself into homecoming, but this time didn’t show his face. We’re told he was “the man behind the curtain” — or something like that — and did announcing work during Skit Knight.
We also got reports Joey Femia, one the closest members of Mike Kilbride’s inner-circle, was also booed while on stage during Homecoming.
A KnightNews.com Editorial
UCF’s Homecoming week is supposed to bring students together, but this year it seems to be driving them farther apart than ever before. And at KnightNews.com, we think that’s a shame.
It was clear at Concert Knight that UCF students were not happy with SGA President Mike Kilbride, when KnightNews.com got text messages from students rejoicing that Kilbride was practically booed off the stage while he was soaking up the spotlight before Ludacris performed.
Sure, many students were upset with Kilbride over his repeated spending scandals with their money, such as the $8,000 he spent on a luxury weekend retreat at a five-star resort, and his recent purchase of a fancy new desk for the SGA office that’s worth more than the cars most students drive.
But there’s another reason Kilbride was booed so much at Concert Knight — he was once again forcing himself into a situation where he didn’t belong. Honestly, when you show up for a Ludacris concert, Mike Kilbride is about the last person you’d expect to see up on stage to get you warmed up. It’d be like taking a handful of sleeping pills right before running a marathon. It just doesn’t make sense.
Kilbride’s decision to put himself where he didn’t belong during Concert Knight shows he never learned his lesson after putting his cabinet where it didn’t belong — at a luxury five-star resort, courtesy of the students struggling to pay tuition, who can’t even stay somewhere that nice on family vacations.
But during Homecoming, it seems Kilbride has gone beyond making himself look bad. Now, sources tell us, Kilbride is inserting himself smack in the middle of the authority of the Homecoming Executive Board — another place where he doesn’t belong — and sparked a dangerous standoff that has put some of the professional staff at UCF protecting him in positions of being unethical and dishonest at best, and possibly breaking laws at worst. What a way to lead by example!
But by all accounts, the Homecoming Executive Board and its professional advisor, Kelly Sparks, is a group of hard-working students trying to make a difference at UCF. They dedicate countless hours to having a special week for students and alumni to enjoy. Unlike Mike Kilbride and his SGA inner-circle, we’re told the student directors of Homecoming do their work without a paycheck. Instead, their payoff is a successful event that UCF students, staff, alumni and neighbors come together to enjoy, like this one we covered below:
But as hard working and motivated as this team is, they are being deprived of one of the valuable skills they should be learning as student leaders — how to handle conflict and come to a compromise. That’s because, according to sources, Mike Kilbride’s administration is pressuring Homecoming to do whatever Kilbride wants, instead of letting the Exec Board decide matters on its own, without interference.
Homecoming King Controversy
Take for example the issue of Homecoming Court eligibility. We got tips that there is a candidate for King who doesn’t even have a 3.0 GPA. So, we checked it out, and guess what. For the first time we know of in history, Homecoming threw the eligibility requirements out the window for students applying for Homecoming Court. That’s right, what used to be one of the most prestigious honors at UCF, was now open to anyone, regardless of your GPA.
Of course many people who had a 2.9 probably never knew about the loophole, and didn’t bother to apply. Why does this matter? Because we’re told Mike Kilbride’s SGA Comptroller, Brian Peterson, who is the one who is supposed to be tracking Kilbride’s spending, has started his 7th year as senior at UCF this year, after coming to UCF in 2004. Clearly, you don’t become a 7th year senior by having a 4.0 GPA.
Was Peterson given special treatment? We asked him to share his GPA with us days ago, but he hasn’t gotten back.
But we do know the decision to throw the eligibility requirements out the window was justified by the fact that the application for Homecoming Court did not list the eligibility requirements on it. Instead, the eligibility requirements were listed on the rules packet, that anyone interested in court could have found here online.
Fraternities, sororities, the Honors Congress, LEAD Scholars, or any group that competes in Homecoming, got a hard copy of the rules package. To run for court, you need to be nominated by an organization. However, SGA is allowed to nominate people even though that group doesn’t compete in Homecoming. The argument for waiving the GPA rule was, that because a group like SGA never got a hard copy of the rules packet with the Court eligibility rules, Homecoming felt that they could not uphold the eligibility requirements. And everyone who turned in an application this year was considered for Homecoming Court.
We are waiting to hear back to find out if Homecoming took a formal vote on waiving the rules, or if it was just rammed through by some higher power who wanted to see it waived.
Either way, it appears the UCF Creed and it’s Integrity and Scholarship platforms have been trampled in favor of keeping someone with a lot of power over SGA and Homecoming happy. And that’s a shame for the 4th year seniors who may have worked 2 jobs to make ends meet, volunteered, and were leaders on campus, but didn’t apply for Homecoming Court because they knew their 2.9 GPA’s wouldn’t cut the rules — if Homecoming had chosen to follow them.
Skit Knight Videotaping Banned by SGA?
Another issue we’re told Homecoming Exec never got the chance to vote on was the issue of Mike Kilbride’s SGA trying to ban KnightNews.com from videotaping at Skit Knight. For some reason, we’ve learned SGA is opposed to KnightNews.com providing video coverage of the event which was so popular last year.
Do the students on Homecoming Exec who have been working so hard get to hear from KnightNews.com or students who enjoy our Skit Knight video coverage? Nope.
Had Dr. Maribeth Ehasz intervened after we asked that she do so? Nope.
Has anyone taken us up on our offer to use Dispute Resolution Services for mediation? Nope.
It seems like someone up there in SGA would rather this decision get made behind closed doors — in a place where decisions involving events student money pays for should never be made.
And for some reason, UCF professional staff are protecting this behavior. We have e-mails proving UCF professional staff lied, apparently to protect this behavior. If SGA won’t back off and list this ban on us covering Skit Knight, we’ll instead spend our time tonight detailing exactly what we went through in a news story — including retaining lawyers — to fight for you to see these videos you love so much. And we’ll publish every e-mail we’ve had with UCF on the topic so you can see for yourself how toxic, and ridiculous, this SGA Skit Knight Standoff has become to so many in the UCF community.
We’re hoping the Homecoming Executive Board gets together for a meeting to let KnightNews.com videotape Skit Knight, as students clearly want, or that someone in SGA comes to their senses to put a stop to this mafia-like government.
If we get arrested at Skit Knight tonight for videotaping, at least you’ll know why. Same goes for anyone in SGA, if a prosecutor we plan to forward everything we’ve uncovered believes Open Meeting and Public Record laws were violated.
We agree that the possibility a standoff over Skit Knight could come to criminal charges or ruin careers is ridiculous. Almost as ridiculous as Mike Kilbride introducing Ludacris.
Stay tuned…
