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04 February 2004
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Federation of Students 
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Hamilton's errors, Edey's deviations
Just as the ocean -- which is king of lakes, streams and rivers -- lies below them, the president of an organization is the ultimate servant. We students will discover two deviations from this ideal this week. We have seen evidence of negligence in Feds presidential candidate Will Hamilton when he was ASU President, and dishonourable actions from Feds President Chris Edey in reacting to the situation. On Monday, Feds' board of directors met "to discuss the situation," according to Edey. In the spring term, Hamilton incurred an expense of $161.45 in supplies for a barbecue run by the student societies, including ASU and MathSoc. He then received a cheque for the expense from ASU. His was one of two required signatures on the cheque. MathSoc, which was administering the finances for the barbecue, processed the revenue; having the receipt, they also processed the expense and provided another cheque for the same amount. Hamilton says it was unintentional and points out that the cheques were cashed at different times, but he did receive double his expense back. In another incident, he received a cheque from ASU for $1,200 in August 2003, which he did not repay until January of this year. He said that the money was to purchase water bottles with the ASU logo for frosh during orientation week. His explanation for writing a cheque to himself and not to the supplier is that the supplier would not accept an ASU cheque. This would require him to take a cheque and get cash to pay for the bottles. He claimed that upon finding out that the supplier could not provide the bottles in time, he wrote a cheque back to the ASU and put it in his succession binder, which he expected to pass on to his successor, current ASU president Shannon Cole. Hamilton said that he left the binder in the ASU office in September. Cole said that she has not seen the binder. In November, Hamilton provided a new cheque, but it had insufficient funds. On January 15, he bought a money order and sent it to ASU, paying them back after about four months. Negligence on Hamilton's part and poor practices in the ASU are both factors in these events. If the receiving of double the expense was an error, he did not remember or record the other cheque, and he apparently wrote a cheque without the one receipt that MathSoc had. It took him a long time to repay the $1,200, and it is clear that not all the money was there when the November cheque was cashed. Hamilton was questioned about these matters at the board meeting on Monday and in the Feds Election forum on Wednesday. On both occasions he admitted his mistakes. "This needs to be an open and candid discussion. I have to admit my mistakes," he said, and provided his explanation. Though Feds had knew about it in November, recently Edey has committed errors in dealing with this serious situation. ASU vice president Andrew Dilts approached Feds about three weeks ago to talk to them about the current situation. Edey found out two weeks ago when he returned from vacation. In investigating the situation, Edey did not communicate with Hamilton. This has the characteristics of building a case against someone rather than investigating the truth. Thursday of last week, Edey scheduled a meeting with Hamilton, where Edey and Feds VP admin and finance Dave Capper presented him with a letter that asked him for an explanation and asked him to resign from Feds' board and withdraw from the election, and told him that the board would meet the next Monday. At the meeting, Edey asked about other situations that he thought were suspicious and received explanations from Hamilton. Edey's actions are indistinguishable from efforts to discredit someone and meddle in the election of his successor. He should have been open about it with Hamilton from the beginning as an impartial rather than a prosecutor. Hamilton did several things wrong in his service to ASU and arts students, and he has admitted his errors. Edey has also committed errors in service to Feds and to students; he should admit this and apologize. |