By snoadmin
Since June 8 of this year, five student representatives and 15 professional employees under the multi-million dollar Associated Students, Inc. organization have been included in a new BlackBerry program.
The program – which is funded using portions of ASI fees taken from students each semester – provides a personal BlackBerry with service for each recipient. The program has spent approximately $9,500 from June 8 to Oct. 25, according to phone bills provided by ASI to the Daily Forty-Niner in compliance with a California Public Records Act request.
Cal State Long Beach is unique in its spending of student fees toward the BlackBerry distribution. Five other Southern California public universities – including UC Irvine and Cal State Northridge – do not institute such a program.
According to ASI Executive Director Richard Haller, the BlackBerry phone’s use is primarily for business, but “the phones may be used for personal use provided such use does not result in that person exceeding their 400 minute monthly allowance.”
When asked why recipients needed the electronic devices in the summer, Haller wrote via e-mail that both student and professional ASI employees who work during the summer “undergo orientation and training and engaging in planning for the upcoming fall and spring semesters. … The senate and the board of control meet over the summer as well, although not as often as during the fall and spring semester.”
Recipients, long-distance calls
The five student representatives who have received the student-funded BlackBerries and service are ASI President Mark Andrews, ASI Administrator Brandy Bandaruk, ASI Vice President Lucy Montano, ASI Treasurer Shelena McClinton and ASI Chief of Staff James B. Davis.
In addition, 15 professional staffers of ASI and the University Student Union, which falls under ASI, have received the devices and service. Five others, including a lead custodian and the recycling coordinator, have been given cell phones provided by ASI funds.
According to the phone records, 225 of the phone calls were out-of-state calls during the collective period of June 8 until Oct. 25, including calls to such places as Atlanta; Chicago; suburbs of Washington, D.C.; Tucson, Ariz.; Silver Spring, Md.; Rushville, Ind.; Evansville, Ind.; Portsmouth, Ohio; Arlington, Ind.; Monroe, Ga.; Alexandria, Va.; Tampa, Fla.; Duncanville, Texas; Mechanicsburg, Pa.; and York, Pa.
Among the professional adults employed by ASI who have made out-of-state phone calls is Dave Edwards, director of the USU, who during the period made 92 out-of-state phone calls.
Associate Director of Student Involvement and Leadership Kim Hinckson also made 28 out-of-state phone calls.
According to an e-mail from Hinckson, “Many of the out of state calls were made to other universities or during the weekend when it is free to use the phone. I also use my work cell phone to take and return phone calls from colleagues from universities around the country.”
John Trapper, the student media adviser, called East Coast states 15 times between Aug. 26 to Oct. 25, to such places as Chelsea, Md.; Alexandria, Va.; Lockport, N.Y.; and Buffalo, N.Y.
“As the media adviser, I do a lot of purchasing from out of town companies from electronic companies and various other suppliers,” Trapper wrote in an e-mail. He also wrote that “it should also be noted that long-distance calls are included in our plan, so it’s advantageous for us to use the BlackBerry over our desk phone.”
USU Building Supervisor Joseph Smith, however, exceeded the average phone bill by $200 in the June 26 through July 25 period, and made 46 out-of-state phone calls.
According to Melissa Duque, an ASI spokeswoman, Smith reimbursed the student organization.
The only student representative to make out-of-state phone calls was McClinton, who made 23 phone calls to Tucson, Ariz., in the five-month period.
“The out-of-state calls was to a family member in the Air Force, who was deploying to Iraq, whom I was helping settle his personal affairs,” McClinton said in an e-mail. McClinton continued by saying, “I had asked if it would be OK to use this number. It was acceptable if I stayed within the allotted minutes.”
Unlike other schools
ASI is unique in its BlackBerry distribution using funds taken from students. Similarly sized nearby California State Universities and sports rival UC Irvine showed that the ASI’s program is unusual in the area.
General manager of Cal State Northridge’s Associated Students David Crandall said that no student representatives and only two professional employees at CSUN – the director of Recreational Sports and the assistant director of Recreational Sports – receive cell phones paid for by the student government. Of the two individuals, Crandall said “they’re on-call 24/7” and are rarely near a landline during the day.
At CSUN, “[Cell phone use] has not been necessary [for student representatives] to be successful,” Crandall said.
San Diego State University provides cell phones to five of its student representatives, as well as phone allowances and phones to other professional employees who are required to use the phones for Associated Students business. However, the student government does not provide students or professional employees with BlackBerries, according to Susan Heiser, the associate director for Associated Students at SDSU.
Heiser added that “all individuals who do not use their phone exclusively for AS business are taxed on the phone payment.”
Neighboring sports rival UCI also does not provide either its staff or its student representatives with the personal digital assistant devices.
According to Programs Coordinator Alex Kushner, there is no cell phone service provided to any student representative, and only two Associated Students staffers receive cell phones: the people who direct the shuttle program.
Cal State Dominguez Hills also does not provide student representatives or professional staff with PDAs or cell phone service. According to Guy Witherspoon, the executive director of ASI at Dominguez Hills, “zero” is spent on cell phone service for ASI staff and students.
Cal State Los Angeles provides cell phone service solely to the student president and director of the ASI, who share a phone plan, but do not receive PDAs, according to the ASI Executive Director ASI Intef W. Weser.
Denial of records requests
Although ASI complied with the request for phone bills, it refused to comply with a California Public Records Act request from the Daily Forty-Niner to turn over BlackBerry e-mails and other correspondence from the devices of current ASI members.
The Daily Forty-Niner requested the correspondence because, according to the Virginia-based Student Press Law Center, they are considered open public records.
However, Haller said that ASI is not a state agency and is not accountable to the public records act.
“The Associated Students, Inc., unlike the university, is not a state agency, but rather a separately incorporated nonprofit association that is recognized by the California State University as an auxiliary organization,” Haller wrote via e-mail.
Adam Goldstein of the Student Press Law Center disagreed.
“The fact that they’re private is irrelevant because they were created by a government agency … and [use] public fees,” Goldstein said.
Goldstein went on to mention that a private, non-profit company is still subject to open records law because it’s spending state money and executes tasks the state would normally have to perform.
“A state agency’s internal law doesn’t apply,” because its internal law doesn’t override state law, Goldstein said in reference to the ASI Policy on Information Security, which Haller invoked when saying the ASI did not have to release the information requested by the Daily Forty-Niner.
Among the types of correspondence requested by the Daily Forty-N
iner were: website history, text-messaging history, instant messaging history, e-mails, phone calls, phone call times, invoice costs and a list of university paid-for accessories.
According to an e-mail from Haller, the BlackBerries provided to members of ASI are paid for with student fees, saying “the student members of the Associated Students have a right to know how their funds are spent.”
ASI funds and pubic records act
ASI received $3,274,029 in student money in the 2006-2007 academic school year – about 35 percent of total student fees, according to ASI’s website.
The California Public Records Act request made by the Daily Forty-Niner, according to FirstAmendmentCenter.org, gives public access to state and local agencies – including “nonprofit entities that are legislative bodies of a local agency” – 10 days to provide copies of requested information.
ONLINE EXTRA: Complete list of non-student BlackBerry recipients
Associated Students, Inc. Associate Executive Director and the Director for the University Student Union Dave Edwards; USU Marketing Coordinator Aaron Elimelech; USU Program Coordinator Keya Allen; Assistant Director of USU Programs and Marketing Sylvana Cicero; Assistant Director of USU Commercial Services Lisa de la Loza; USU Administration Coordinator Pamela Lewis; USU Project Manager Rob Lowery; USU Associate Director Scott Christopherson-Schorn; USU Recreation & Retail Coordinator Iraida Venegas; ASI Executive Director Richard Haller; ASI Information Technology Manager David Kleen; ASI Assistant Director of Student Involvement and Leadership Kim Hinckson; Beach Pride Center Coordinator Chance Decker; Director of Intramural Sports and Wellness Glenn McDonald and Student Media Adviser John Trapper.
NOTE Five other individuals also receive cell phone service (but not BlackBerries) provided through ASI: USU Facilities Maintenance Supervisor David Pantoja; Night Building Supervisor Joe Smith; Facility Services Supervisor Bob Weaver; Facility Services Staff Lead Frank Homsany; and ASI Recycling Center Coordinator Lee Johnson.
