Alleged Fraud Causes Conflicting Reactions

Last week, the Tripod published a story about the alleged embezzlement of $15,000 from Trinity by students. There were two conflicting points of view presented to the Tripod, one being that the $15,000 was related to the Student Government Association's $200,000 debt. This point of view has been refuted by the administration of the college, who maintain that the money was embezzled through forged signatures on timesheet which allowed a student to get paid for hours which he did not actually work.

Vice President of Finance Michael West restated his contributions to last week's article, "That's what we believe are the facts," commented West. When asked about the two differing points of view given last week, he replied that he was the final authority on the matter, stating, "I'm the one who has direct knowledge."

However, J. Russell Fugett, President of the SGA, defended his comments in last week's article, saying, "Somebody is not telling the truth. The understanding I had been given was that the embezzlement did occur through the Student Activities Fund."

The administration continues to insist that the fraud did not occur within the SGA budget.

Vice President of Student Activities Sharon Herzberger commented, "The Tripod story is misleading in one important way. As Vice President West stated, the fraud which led to a student's dismissal is a separate event from the overspending of the SGA. The $15,000 embezzlement did not come from SGA funds."

The administration is not releasing the names of the accused students. This is a matter of college disciplinary policy. When asked about it, Vice President Herzberger replied, "We do report about disciplinary matters in summary form and have no problem sharing statistics with anyone on campus. Also, occasionally we will discuss a particular incident or string of incidents. But we usually don't give information about disciplinary action against particular students, both to protect their privacy and in the hope that, apart from receiving their sanction and taking appropriate action to curb whatever prompted the sanction, the students will continue to be able to go about their normal lives here."

This policy is part of a disciplinary process that either goes before the Dean of Students Office or before a board of student and faculty members who decide if a College regulation has been violated and what should be done about it.

When asked, Dean of Students Mary Thomas described the process by stating, "....the incident is heard by a Board of Inquiry, which is composed of three students and two faculty members. I, as the Dean of Students, run the hearing. If the Board of Inquiry decides that a College regulation has been violated, it makes a recommendation to me concerning penalty. Here, too, if a student disagrees with the finding and/or the penalty, he/she may appeal to the Board of Reconsideration."

Thomas went on to add, "if a student has been charged with a felony, the Dean of Students must hold a hearing to determine whether or not the student may remain 'in student status.' If a student is convicted of a felony, he or she will be suspended indefinitely." All matters are kept confidential by the college.

"We believe that, in most cases, no good is served by publicizing the names of those who have been disciplined." commented Herzberger, ".... we usually have no comment on matters that are still under investigation. This practice is important for many reasons, not the least that it takes time for us to get the full story and public airing in the interim often leads to misleading rumors and confusion."