The Community College of Southern Nevada just can't escape controversy. Despite the Extreme Makeover-type spruce-up led by President Richard Carpenter, the state's largest higher education institution (based on total enrollment and education budget) hasn't been able to shake its penchant for controversy.
The May 26 edition of CCSN's student newspaper, Coyote Press, features stories on alleged fraud in the recent student elections and questionable spending by a student group led by a respected professor.
In a show of non-force that made voters in last week's municipal primaries (12 percent turnout) look like ultra-patriots, only 673 of 35,497 (7 percent) cast ballots on student elections on CCSN's three campuses (Henderson, Cheyenne, West Charleston), the Coyote Press reported.
According to the story, Carmelo DeShield and Susan Shultz, elected senators of the Henderson campus, and Jairo Castellanos, elected senator of the West Charleston campus, weren't enrolled for spring 2005 class, rendering them ineligible to run. Student government bylaws mandate candidates carry a minimum of six credits.
Hell broke loose when former student-government Secretary Kim Cordy challenged the relevance of the 637 votes, alleging that she saw former student-government President Michael Neilson hand-counting ballots. Cordy alleged that a fellow student, Corliss Williams, tried to snatch the results from her hand after Neilson allegedly said she wasn't allowed to have them. Cordy claims that student-government advisor Stephanie Hill watched it all go down, then abruptly left. Hill denied the account, according to the story, claiming Cordy wasn't present to count the ballots and that election results were tallied by the county elections department.
Elsa Garcia, a departmental administrator in the Clark County Elections Department, says the county tabulated the ballots but didn't certify the results. County voting machines were used in the elections.
"When we do elections for the county, the registrar of voters (Larry Lomax) goes before the County Commission and says, 'I certify the results of this election.' This was not done for the community college student elections," she says. The county also tabulates student elections at UNLV. "In any election (in which county voting machines are used), we tabulate the results and present that information (for use)."
No one from student government returned calls before press time. The Weekly was transferred to three departments, trying to determine whether DeShield, Shultz and Castellanos were enrolled in the spring 2005 semester. A voice message left for Arlie Stops in CCSN's admissions office wasn't returned.
Cory D. Drumright, who was elected CCSN student-government president during the controversial contest, is also president of the CCSN Capitol Club, described in a second story as a "new and controversial student organization."
Of particular concern was the money granted to the club for President George W. Bush's inauguration. A dozen club members and advisors traveled to Washington, D.C., for the ceremony, according to the newspaper. The main qualification for securing a spot on the trip seemed to be taking a class titled "Political Science 295: Washington, D.C. Externship."
The trip's organizer, political science professor Mark Peplowski, called the nine-day experience "historic and educational.
"There is a great deal of pageantry and history (there)," Peplowski told the Coyote Press. According to a Review-Journal story, club members sat in U.S. Senate chambers on the eve a historic (and now aborted) vote on filibusters.
Peplowski told Coyote Press that the club raised $10,455 through "private and parental contributions" and didn't use the $6,700 in student government funds it received for the trip, but the story notes that no other funding source was listed in the list of expenses submitted to student government. On March 25, the club requested $19,820.28 and received $9,900 for another trip to the nation's capitol, according to the story. Peplowski said it would "provide students with educational and professional opportunities."
Reached by phone, Peplowski says the $6,700 in student government funds was used hotel rooms and meals and not for any of the $3,516 in entertainment expenses listed in expense report. Students paid for tickets to a play in Ford Theater (where President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated) and to see Capitol Steps (a comedy troupe that's skewered politicians for 40 years) and for the Inaugural Ball. Peplowski says he submitted receipts for the trip's total cost to show that expenses far exceeded what student government gave.
"Student government thought that it might be funding the entire trip," Peplowski says. "We received $6,700 but the total for the trip exceeded $20,000."
About the second trip, Peplowski says student government approached the club, asking if it needed any money.
As for the club itself, Peplowski says it grew out of weekly political discussions with students during lunch. Incorporating the Washington D.C., trips, which he's done every January since 2000, was natural. Each year, Peplowski says he contacts presidential committees to see if club members can work on the inauguration. Their help wasn't need this year, he says.
"I told the Coyote Press about the expenses and that students paid for the entertainment, but they wanted to make it seem like the money was coming from student government," Peplowski says. "What they don't write about is us meeting with congressmen and senators, watching the Supreme Court in action, and other things like that. On our second trip (May 21-29), we met with four of the five Nevada delegates (they didn't get sit-down time with Jim Gibbons, but did chat him up for 10 minutes), toured the White House and sat in on House hearings (including on the Patriot Act)."
President Carpenter failed to return phone messages for comment on the controversies.