In a statement released Sunday, General Representative Sanobar Sajan of the undergraduate student government announced her resignation after admitting that her commission was responsible for creating eight fraudulent e-mails requesting almost $36,000.
USAC President Gabe Rose said he will be putting out an application soon to fill the position, and he will forward one applicant for approval by the entire council.
The fake correspondence had supposedly come from speakers that Sajan’s commission was inviting to come speak later this spring for the second annual Social Justice Speakers Series, including former President Jimmy Carter.
The e-mails were submitted in Sajan’s commission’s application for funding for the event, and it was Finance Committee Chair Parsa Sobhani who spotted certain inconsistencies in the e-mails, such as timestamps and formatting. He then brought the allegations to the Undergraduate Student Association Council in a meeting on Dec. 4.
At the time, Sajan said she had not been aware of the falsifications and would conduct a week-long investigation, which culminated in a closed-session USAC meeting on Dec. 11.
In her statement released roughly three weeks later, Sajan admitted responsibility for the e-mails and apologized to the student body.
“I was aware that the documentation was fabricated. I realize now that this is wrong and unacceptable. I realize that I have broken that faith and trust students had in me when they elected me, and for this I am very sorry. I sincerely apologize for this breach of trust,” she said in the statement.
The documents were forged, Sajan said, because her commission had been unable to secure confirmations from all the speakers before the application for funding was due. She declined to name the others involved.
“The members of the Social Justice Speaker Series committee contacted the speakers we wished to bring and didn’t get a response in time for the funding application. (The committee members and I) were fairly confident that we could get the speakers because we have good contacts and a well established program. … We also knew that without documentation, we would not get funding. We then decided to make up the confirmations,” read her statement.
After the allegations were brought forth none of the requested money was allocated, and in her statement Sajan stressed that it was never her intention to steal student funds or misuse them, since the program committee believed the speakers would ultimately be confirmed.
USAC President Gabe Rose said he hopes students can accept the incident as one councilmember’s mistake and move beyond it.
“I’m disappointed in Sanobar’s actions and the way the situation turned out, and I’m sad it came to this. She made a mistake, and by resigning she’s taking responsibility for it, and I respect that,” he said.
Sajan expressed her regret and apologies to the student body, acknowledging her actions.