Friday, January 23, 1998
Chair resigns, citing ‘corrupt’ government
USAC: Finance Committee’s Robert Rhoan faced criticism
for alleged mishandling of funds
By Mason Stockstill and Stefanie Wong
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Robert Rhoan, USAC Finance Committee chair, resigned from his
office Thursday, citing "personal reasons" in his official
statement.
"I’m resigning because I think that student government is
corrupt," Rhoan said in an interview. "USAC doesn’t represent the
students. They only represent themselves."
Rhoan, who was appointed chair of the Finance Committee in 1996
by then-president John Du, said that the pressure he faced from
USAC council members eventually caused him to resign. "I just don’t
want to deal with the oligarchy anymore," he said.
Specifically, Rhoan claims that Academic Affairs Commissioner
Max Espinoza approached him and asked him to resign after Rhoan
abstained from voting on a funding request.
Espinoza denied this. "It’s not in my authority to ask anyone to
resign," he said.
In a recent vote, a proposal for an interaction fund
disbursement to Movimiento Estudiantil Chicana/o de Aztlan (MEChA)
failed to pass because Rhoan abstained.
"MEChA was five days late with their proposal," Rhoan said.
"There’s no reason for MEChA to get special treatment that other
groups don’t."
MEChA Chairperson Hugo Maldonado agreed that the proposal was
rejected because of its tardiness but is not very concerned about
the situation because there will be another opportunity to apply
for funding.
Some student leaders believe that Rhoan’s resignation stems from
complaints from student groups that failed to receive funding
because of Rhoan’s alleged mishandling of his office.
"We’ve complained on several occasions on his performance, and
we were extremely dissatisfied with the way he would follow up on
our contingency requests," Maldonado said.
"USAC is concerned with making sure that student groups are
treated fairly and receiving funds that they need to do their
programs," Espinoza said.
"USAC has been very patient with him, considering his fall
quarter performance," Espinoza added.
Rhoan has faced criticism on many different counts. For the
majority of fall quarter, he failed to appoint any other committee
members. In addition, some student groups have accused him of
unfairly handling their funding requests.
One recent conflict involves a dispute over a request from the
American Indian Students Association (AISA).
AISA Chair Natalie Stites said that her group was unfairly
denied a funding hearing by Rhoan.
AISA will be making a presentation at next week’s USAC meeting
to raise concerns they have over Rhoan’s performance as Finance
Committee chair.
However, Alina Tso, who works with Rhoan on the Finance
Committee, said she "personally hasn’t had a problem with him."
"I know that he has tried to be strict about the rules about the
tardiness of proposals and requests, and that has angered people,"
she said.
Rhoan said that he had fallen from the good graces of the ruling
faction of USAC a long time ago.
"I’ve gone against the ruling faction a number of times," he
said.
Rhoan said that often council members who did not go along with
or support other council members’ positions faced threats from
other members.
"They’ve threatened impeachment for one thing," he said.
However, members of USAC deny that any such threats were
made.
"Robert is a presidential appointtee and he’s had no pressure
from us to resign," said Kendra Fox-Davis, chief of staff for the
president’s office.
"The pressure is only from students groups to have their funding
dealt with in a timely fashion and we’ve raised those concerns with
him," she added.
Janneth Milton, finance committee vice chair, will be taking
over the position temporarily.
The next USAC meeting will be Tuesday at 6:30 pm in Kerckhoff
400.
Daily Bruin File Photo
Finance Committee chair Robert Rhoan resigned his from his
office Thursday.