Colleges and universities charge students fees so that the money collected can be dibursed to fund various student groups and activities. At Cornell University, the student government handed $10,000 worth of these funds over to a Black Lives Matter funding initiative which was not a recognized student group and which reportedly will transfer the funds to non-student groups.
If you were a student, wouldn’t you have a problem with your mandatory student activity fees being sent to non-student political advocacy groups? Many students do have a problem with what happened, and are speaking up.
Chrissy Clark writes at the Washington Free Beacon:
Cornell Improperly Sends Student Fees to BLM ActivistsThe student government at Cornell University improperly donated thousands of dollars in student fees to a coalition of Black Lives Matter activists and left-leaning organizations.The Student Activities Funding Committee (SAFC), a student-led panel that allocates fees to campus groups, sent $10,000 to the Cornell Students for Black Lives fundraising initiative. The initiative, which is not a registered student organization, describes itself as a student organization “coalition.” According to the funding guidelines in the student government charter, for a group to be “eligible to request funds or to spend allocated funds [it] must register with and be approved by the Campus Activities Office by when the budgets are due in each semester.”The contributions have drawn objections from other student groups.
Lacey Kestecher of Campus Reform reports that the groups benefiting from this donation have supported every far left cause you could imagine:
Cornell University slammed for allegedly donating student fees to Black Lives MatterIn a letter to the editor published by The Cornell Sun, one student blasted the Ivy League’s Student Activities Funding Commission after it allegedly gave $10,000 to the Cornell Students for Black Lives fundraiser using mandatory student fees, without first telling the student body.Cornell Students for Black Lives is not a registered student club, according to the letter, but a fundraising group that collected donations to distribute to Black Lives Matter of Greater New York, Communities United for Police Reform, NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Southside Community Center, and Tompkins County Showing Up for Racial Justice.The groups have advocated in favor of gun control, universal single-payer healthcare, tax reform, abolishing ICE, and defunding police. One of the groups even endorsed Democratic Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders for president, the letter states.
Here’s an excerpt of the letter sent to the Cornell Daily Sun, which Campus Reform is referencing:
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: The SAFC Should Not Get Involved in PoliticsLast week, the Student Activities Funding Commission, without precedent or any forewarning to students, unilaterally decided to donate $10,000 to the ongoing Cornell Students for Black Lives fundraiser. This would be an unprecedented sum for any registered student organization, especially one less than a month old. While organizations put in years of hard work and dedication to work their way up to performance tier status, Cornell Students for Black Lives has springboarded beyond the upper echelon of student organizations.Despite not even being a registered student organization, they have received $2,500 more than the highest tier student organization receives in an entire semester. In just one donation to their fundraiser, they are now better funded than any performance tier organization on campus. Yet this money was not given as funding to a registered organization, it was a donation to a fundraiser organized by students. Even more questionable, the SAFC, entirely funded by students’ activity fees, used your money to do it. The SAFC ought to answer for this unprecedented use of student funds…As individuals, Cornell students are free to donate their money however they see fit. If they want to donate to Cornell Students for Black Lives’ fundraiser, it is their prerogative. The SAFC, however, oversees every student’s mandatory student activity fee and has a duty to represent those students.
A second letter, for a coalition of students, also criticized the donation:
Last week, a letter to the editor expressed concern that the Student Activities Funding Commission was using funds collected from the Student Activity Fee to donate to the Cornell Students for Black Lives fundraiser. This concern was rooted in one simple principle: that the Student Activity Fee, a mandatory expense for all students, should only be used to fund Cornell student activities. We agree and write to elaborate on some of the more troubling aspects of SAFC’s decision, explain why this incident is representative of the lack of accountability and the disregard for rules plaguing the Student Assembly, and make clear why all students should be deeply troubled by SAFC’s actions….According to the University, the purpose of the SAF is to “[provide] financial support to student organizations for their programming.” The charter of the S.A. recognizes this and provides that the SAF is to be used “to fund participation in, and viewing of, activities and programs that benefit the Cornell community” and mandates that all byline funded organizations, which are those funded directly from the SAF, use the SAF “primarily for the benefit of undergraduate students.” A donation to external advocacy organizations without any plan for on-campus programming cannot fulfill this criteria.The donation also violates SAFC’s charter and funding guidelines. SAFC is a byline funded organization and exists to fund registered student groups. SAFC has established a detailed process by which registered student groups can apply for and receive funding. Nothing in SAFC’s charter, bylaws or guidelines for funding authorizes the transfer of funds to non-registered groups. Furthermore, the funding guidelines explicitly prohibit organizations that receive funding through SAFC from using those funds to donate to charities or advocacy organizations. C4BL, were it eligible to receive SAFC funds, could not use those funds to donate to social, political or charitable causes….To make matters even worse, members of the student body, whose money was used to make this contribution, were denied any knowledge of or input in this decision.In addition to breaking its own rules, SAFC’s decision also contravenes multiple University policies. It violates the Code of Conduct, which prohibits the misappropriation of University funds. It violates the stewardship provision of the Cornell University Standards of Ethical Conduct, which states that “[a]ll executive officers, trustees, faculty, principal investigators, staff, student employees, and others acting on behalf of the university have a responsibility to ensure that all funds received are used prudently, ethically, and for their designated purposes.” And it violates Cornell University Policy 4.18 – Political Campaign Activity, which mandates that political activities “must be done in a personal capacity, and not imply in any way that the university supports, opposes or otherwise endorses any candidate for public office.” One of the recipient organizations, SURJ, is a material supporter of Bernie Sanders and in using the University’s name in this donation, SAFC has not only violated the policy, it has created the impression that a subsidiary body of the University may be supportive of Sanders’ campaign for president.
This second letter also took issue with past student government actions:
We wish this were an isolated incident and a departure from the way the S.A. normally conducts business. Unfortunately, it is part of a larger pattern of the S.A. disregarding its own rules and acting to entrench its own power. Last year, for example, the body voted by secret ballot on the BDS Resolution 36 despite its standing rules requiring a recorded vote. In doing so, it denied students the right to know where their representatives stood on a heated and controversial issue. In February, the S.A. attempted to move up elections to a date so early that those without foreknowledge of the decision would have had great difficulty collecting the required number of signatures to be on the ballot. To top it off, supposed leaders on the S.A. have oftentimes used fear and intimidation to get their way. The president has publicly berated an international graduate student for mistakenly and innocently using the wrong pronouns, and privately threatened freshman S.A. members should they not vote his way. All students should be concerned that our leaders feel as though they can show such blatant disregard for the rules and steamroll over anyone who dares to dissent from their orthodoxy.
A student group has been formed to try to reform student government after the funding controversy and prior controversies, Students For SA Reform.
UPDATE: There may be some serious legal issues here.
Rebecca Rosenberg reports at the New York Post:
The Black Lives Matter Foundation must stop soliciting donations in New York, AG saysThe Black Lives Matter Foundation must stop soliciting donations from New Yorkers, who think the organization is affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement, the state attorney general said Monday.The California-based foundation isn’t registered as a charitable organization in New York, making it illegal for it to collect contributions in the state, according to New York Attorney General Letitia James.In a letter to the foundation’s president, Robert Ray Barnes, the AG’s office demanded that the group immediately stop soliciting donations in New York and file financial reports disclosing the amount of money it had raised.“Every organization that seeks to solicit donations from New Yorkers must follow state laws,” said James in a statement. “We will also fight for transparency so that donors’ goodwill isn’t preyed upon by opportunists.
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