Corruption: Empire Building At The
Cost Of Democracy

Published in Volume 48, Issue 5.

Illegal corruption exploits every UW-Stevens Point student. Rule of law is on sabbatical as administrators fund fancy build­ings and fat budgets with hijacked student power. Students are each forced to pay excessive fees of $1,500 over four years, totalling $13.5 million. Segregated fees doubled in the last five years. Four of the last seven student body presidents call this scandal what it is: illegal. Several are calling for the resignation of Chancellor Bernie Patterson, who faces a “no-confidence” vote in the March 17 Student Government Association (SGA) meeting. Patterson and his spokespeople dodge scrutiny by refusing to comment. Intimidation and deception silences critics and con­demns open discussion. “SGA has not taken this lightly,” says UWSP Student Body President Mike Wilson. “In the same way we have not taken the personal attacks and unsubstantiated allegations of criminal activity leveled against us lightly. These have escalated from the beginning of the summer in intensity.”

Chancellor Bernie Patterson took office in July and pro¬tected inherited corruption with violent enthusiasm. He refuses to recognize the power of student government and has turned campus police and the student conduct officer into tools of oppression to kill reform.

Annual reforms are blocked by administration in violation of State Statute 36.09(5), which reads, “Students in consultation with the chancellor and subject to the final confirmation of the board shall have the responsibility for the disposi­tion of those student fees which con­stitute substantial support for cam­pus student activities.” An October referendum sought air-tight reform by pulling what Wilson calls “rogue subcommittees” back under SGA. Asked at an October town hall dis­cussion if he would honor the refer­endum, Patterson replied, “It’s, it’s, I, I’m not going to comment on the outcome of the referendum.” (See video of this exchange.) Asked if the referendum would be ignored, Patterson stated, “We are not going to ignore the students, nor have we ever ignored the students.”

Patterson insists that SGA subcommittees responsible for the University Centers and Health Services budgets must report to him. His staff set the agenda and hold veto powers and accuse SGA of fear mongering. Their budgets go to SGA for final approval, but there’s no option to cut spending or offer input before decisions are made.

The core dispute is over which group is the Segregated University Fee Allocation Committee (SUFAC). That’s the SGA committee which must approve all fees, including those of the “rogue subcommittees.” Pressed by UW System President Kevin Reilly to bury this scandal, last April Interim Chancellor Mark Nook claimed, “Students at UWSP have defined the SUFAC since 1989 to be made up of three bodies: the Finance Committee of SGA, the Student Health Advisory Committee, and the University Centers Advisory and Policy Board. This past fall the Dining Advisory Board was added to this group of local SUFAC entities.” None of those groups regarded themselves as SUFACs, and Nook refuses to pres­ent any evidence or justify violations of multiple UW policies. His invention contradicts mountains of proof that only one SUFAC has ever existed.

“It’s a lie,” 2003-2004 Student Body President wrote to Patterson on March 3. “It’s never been that way, and you know it. As I told several regents during their June meeting, this is a moral issue. We are the UWSP community and we protect its integrity. Regents President Pruitt understood exactly how administrators have divided and conquered student power. Regent Pruitt isn’t enforcing regents policies, he says, because he doesn’t want to step on anyone’s toes.”

A March 2 letter from 2006-2007 President Ross Cohen to SGA states, “UW-Stevens Point is an amazing and special place. It’s not so special, though, that it’s immune to corruption. The chancellor is a public servant. So get him to serve you and get him to obey the law or get him fired.” There are too many administrators making too much money, explains Cohen, “I don’t know when they decided to turn that place into a multi-million dollar corporation, but we didn’t agree to it. ” He sug­gests widespread audits and lawsuits.

Before these letters were widely circulated in early March the campus community didn’t want to recognize these problems. A chancellor resigned in shame just two years ago and it still stings. SGA’s April 2009 unanimous “no confidence” vote in Linda Bunnell was the spark that turned whispered outrage into shouts. The vote had been brewing for months over what 2008-2009 President Katie Kloth calls “illegal activity, lack of access to the students, lack of transparency, blatant lying to the SGA, and creating hostile work environments.” Bunnell was the first chancellor to stonewall reform that middle manage­ment had contained for years.

Bunnell’s iron fist in many areas alienated faculty and major donors who wanted her gone. If she were a better driver, however, she might still be chancellor. An Associated Press reporter discovered Bunnell had fled the scene of an automotive accident in Madison. Dissent swelled and she resisted calls for her resignation while threatening to sue those who suggested she was breaking laws. After Mayor Andrew Halverson spoke up, Bunnell resigned.

Halverson was elected UWSP student body president in 1999. He fought off a chancellor’s power grab and he under­stands perfectly how taxation without representation pushed segregated fees to $1,167.70 per student this year from $650.50 in 2005-2006. As a board member of the Alumni Association the mayor hears frequent reports of misconduct. Two years ago he supported student power reform but since then he’s opposed it behind the scenes, criticizing student leaders while saying this issue “isn’t something I would like to concern myself with right now.” This scandal embarrasses his city and “it just needs to go away,” he says. It would go away if rule of law were restored.

Reporters aggressively hounded Bunnell in her final weeks, but they’ve barely covered the current scandal. “My editor doesn’t want to make UWSP look bad,” said one Wausau TV reporter. The Stevens Point Journal quotes cover-ups as fact and its reporters won’t cite any violated UW policies. “All Fun and Games at UWSP” was a City Pages cover story in December. It focussed on a small video game design program while ignoring a major corruption scandal. Only the Badger Herald, a daily newspaper of UW-Madison, stated plainly how state law and UW policies are routinely violated at UWSP.

A LONELY FIGHT

Student Body President Mike Wilson has put his foot down repeatedly against admin-istrative power grabs.

It’s been a lonely fight for students. A “hard-line stance” by President Wilson and Vice President Hans Schmid was sent to Chancellor Patterson on Aug. 5: “Student Government Association recognizes only one SUFAC here at UWSP, and that is the SGA Finance Committee,” they wrote.

The next day, Wilson appealed to legislators for help. “I’m not exactly sure whether the chancellor will accept our right at the institutional level,” he wrote. “Our students need you to take a moment to encourage Chancellor Bernie Patterson to accept our right to organize as we see fit.”

Just two months after taking office in July, Patterson broke the law like his predecessors had. In his letter of reply, Patterson suggested Wilson wanted “to change the student governance structure without the significant input of students.” The con­cept of one SUFAC was not mentioned. “I have the utmost respect for the right of students to organize themselves in a manner they see fit,” he added.

Fruitless negotiations contin­ued without agreement on what the current structure was. Fact and logic didn’t matter, Wilson says, pointing to policies and laws that don’t matter. The record shows reform ignored over and over.

Wilson points to a 2001 report commissioned by the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs that pointed to wasteful spending and staff schemes to allow “bal­loon payment to these individu­als.” The core problem, the stu­dents and faculty of the committee concluded, was that over­sight had drifted away from SGA. “The Health Services budget does not meet the process set forth by UW System guidelines, …(and) has been biased toward increasing costs to students,” it states. “An advisory group of students who are not part of student government are hand-selected, trained and informed about budget issued by Health Services staff. This is obviously a biased process.”

One problem the report cites exists at every four-year UW campus. “The Chancellor of each campus has responsibility for determining the minimum level of student health service. SUFAC (Finance Committee with Student Senate oversight) may increase the level of service with allocable SUF funds.” Rather than letting students and future doctors decide what extra services to provide, UWSP Health Services labels all of its spending as mandatory. That includes expenses to attend an annual conference of the American College Health Assocation for the “hand-selected” student committee.

Problems across Wisconsin are detailed in a 2006 UW System audit. “While SUFAC members have been able to ask questions and program staff have made themselves available to answer questions, the end result, according to some SUFAC chairs, is that the SUFAC mainly has an opportunity to ‘rubber stamp’ these budgets,” it reads, “Some student leaders also expressed concern about fee proposals, espe­cially for some major capital proj­ects, being presented as absolutely necessary,” the audit states, and “FAP F37 already requires spe­cific action by THE SUFAC on capital projects being presented to the Board of Regents for approval. However, the SUFACs at some institutions do not review all of the nonallocable budgets.” In 2007 the Board of Regents acted on this audit to strengthen Regents Policies and reinforce student power. These policies are not enforced and the regents don’t seem to care.

Asked in November 2009 to support student rights, regent and Wausau attorney Mark Bradley expressed strong concern. “Lee Dreyfus is rolling in his grave,” Bradley said, promising to pressure UWSP officials to follow the law. He is one of many regents who promised to help until they learned how strongly UW System President Kevin Reilly supports this corruption.

UWSP Executive Director and spokesperson Stephen Ward refuses to respond to allegations of corruption, except to say the issue “doesn’t have any traction.” Ward was parodied by this mannequin, which sat outside the UWSP administration building last summer. His hiring was controversial, following the improper termination of his predecessor by Chancellor Bunnell, who took power from the Alumni Association and UWSP Foundation and put it in Ward’s hands.

IRONIC INSULTS

Dreyfus was the UWSP chancellor who promoted student power before it became state law in 1975. As governor, he made sure it was enforced. He was the “student’s chancellor,” and in 2005 the Dreyfus University Center was named for him. Those renovations cost $30 million and bypassed the referendum required by SGA for any expense over $80,000. Each student pays $1,072 over four years for that building, but only a “rouge subcommittee” approved it. The SUFAC did not review the largest fee increase in UWSP history, and the subcommittee that did approve it barely had a choice. “The vote on this huge renovation was a joke,” recalls Cohen, “They told us we had to pass it today. That all these people were waiting on us and we shouldn’t ask too many questions or make any changes.”

Cohen served three years on the University Centers commit­tee that technically no longer exists. A reform package passed by SGA Feb. 17 to enforce the October referendum replaced “rouge subcommittees” with new committees under the SGA Constitution.

Student Senator Patrick Testin sponsored those reforms. “This was only necessary because the existing structure was being ignored by staff,” he explains. “Now they’re ignoring the new structure, too, apparently because they think that just because we passed the reform package that we won’t fight to enforce it.

“We re-defined which fees students have input in and which we have direct control over,” he says, “Enough is enough. It’s time university administrators acknowledge that students have a right to review the budgets that have become incredibly bloated.” Testin is also chairman of the Wisconsin Federation of College Republicans.

Democratic Representative Louis Molepske and State Senator Julie Lassa, both of Stevens Point, promised to sup­port reform but have not. Rep. Gordon Hintz (D-Oshkosh) met twice with UW System officials to pin down answers he asked for in June: “There has only ever been one SUFAC: SGA’s Finance Committee. Does the UW System have any­thing on file indicating which UW-Stevens Point body serves as the SUFAC?” Officials refused to answer him in writing but assured him they would follow the law going forward. Hintz knows he’s being misled and he’s fed up. “Current members of SGA have simply requested that the existing long-established system be recognized and followed,” he says, suggesting that legislative hearings may be necessary.

“Students have been exploited by this scheme,” states a Dec. 16 press release from outgoing State Senator Russ Decker (D-Wausau). “UW policy 30-5 plainly states that only one SUFAC can exist at any campus. Furthermore, UW staff are obligated to offer student leaders ‘meaningful input’ into bud­gets ‘before decisions are made,’” he says. “Last spring, after speaking with more than a dozen students, including the presi­dent of the College Republicans, I requested an audit that clearly states Student Government Association is the single representative body for students.” The audit’s two recommenda­tions have been ignored, Decker explains. “The audit has been misrepresented by UW officials. It does not state that UW poli­cies or SS36.09(5) are being followed, and I now believe that the cooperative reform discussions praised by the audit were actually one more delay tactic.”

Laura Ketchum Ciftci claimed student government could not remove her as their advisor. On April 1, 2010 they did anyway by a vote of 2-18, citing her efforts as University Centers Director to undermine and absorb their power. She retained her annual payment of $18,000 to be SGA advisor.

Decker pointed to one of many red flags: “Despite being fired by students from her duties as Student Government Association advisor on April 1, the former SGA advisor contin­ues to be paid more than $18,000 for performing those duties.”

Asked why she was still being paid with fees for a job she cannot do, University Centers Director Laura Ketchum Ciftci replied, “I am not responding to you. Please leave.” Her advice to the subcommittee she runs is to fight student government and ignore the referendum that put it back under SGA.

Outgoing State Representative and UWSP alumnus Marlin Schneider (D-Wisconsin Rapids) insisted that Chancellor Patterson support the referendum’s outcome. “It is your responsibility to recognize SGA’s authority in this case,” he wrote in December.

On March 5 the board of directors of United Council of UW Students unanimously voted to support UWSP student power with press releases and lobbying. Its paid staff had refused to support President Wilson or do anything that may offend UW System officials. Last April, UC President Kirk Cychosz, speaking as a UWSP student Senator, said, “It is disgusting, and I use that term ‘disgusting,’ that leaders at this university did not inform students that we’re giving up power. That, to me, is the ultimate crime.” He added, “If you sit on UCAPB, you did allocate money that you shouldn’t have by the law. You stole money from my pocket because they told you you could.”

Cychosz has since been reluctant to say that laws or policies are being violated. Student Regent Aaron Wingad of UW-Eau Claire had also supported student leaders, but in recent months he’s aligned firmly behind corrupt UW officials. In apparent coordination with UW System President Reilly, Wingad sent a shocking letter to SGA on March 7. “I can find no evidence of a student body vote that established the UWSP Student Government Association as the sole representation of students on campus,” he wrote, ignoring the annual elections which con­nect SGA to the student body. Any vote of no-confidence in Chancellor Patterson will not be proper, Wingad says, because SGA is illegitimate. A new referendum must be held imme­diately, he adds, so students can select a representative struc­ture.

President Wilson and SGA are outraged and fighting harder than ever. Victory would prove illegal misconduct thrives at the highest levels of the UW System. It won’t be pretty. Heads may roll.

Asked by a business leader why SGA is suddenly splitting apart, Chancellor Patterson replied, “What you’re talking about are student decisions… It’s a great learning opportunity to be engaged in the governance process, to be engaged in organiza­tional change, to be engaged in, frankly, conflict resolution. It’s the kind of learning you don’t get in the classroom.”

Jeffrey Decker is a business journalist and former editor of The Forum. He joined UWSP student government in 1999 because jour­nalism standards there are simply awful. As Speaker of the Senate Decker led a series of reforms which have been ignored. Student power is the only issue this objective reporter ever supports. Decker re-enrolled in 2010 and is suing for the return of segregated fees. He lives in Oshkosh with two sons and a wife who really wants this crusade to end.