The executive board of the student senate met recently to discuss an incident involving employees of the Free Press. The incident started when Christy McKinnon, the executive editor of the Free Press, held a function for Free Press employees that consisted of a get-together at McKinnon’s house and a trip to the Haunted Hayrides in Gorham. A few weeks later, when Kathleen Pease, coordinator of Student Senate Operations, received the purchase order from McKinnon to reimburse her for her expenses, she found a few problems with it.
The problem was that the receipt from Hannaford’s had alcohol on it. Further, there were no waivers filled out for attendants of the Haunted Hayrides. For these reasons, Pease did not sign the purchase order and reported the incident, as she is required to do, to the Executive Board of the Student Senate. When asked what sort of action, if any, would be taken, the Executive Board declined to comment because it is a personnel issue and is still under investigation.
“I didn’t know any of the processes that I was supposed to go through when throwing a University Function,” said McKinnon, “and then before I knew it, everything blew up.”
McKinnon said that she was not aware of the University and Student Senate policies on alcohol and waivers; however, everyone at the function was over 21 years old.
Elise Adams, Chair of the Student Communications Board (SCB) and ad manager at the Free Press, signed the purchase order before it was seen by Pease. The SCB chair signs all of the purchase orders for the two entities under it, WMPG and the Free Press. Adams said she was aware of the alcohol policies, but quickly looked over the long receipt that contained a number of items from Hannaford and did not notice the 12 pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon or the bottle of Chilean wine.
“This was not intentional. It was a careless mistake,” she said. “I take full responsibility for the fact that I didn’t look at the entire receipt.”
Adams added that she signs about 4,000 purchase orders a year. “If I were to thoroughly check everything on a P.O. (purchase order) it would be a full time job.”
According to Pease, the Student Senate has an agreement with the Board of Trustees not to serve alcohol at any function without a licensed staff person and police officer. The event was considered a University function because it was intended to be funded with fundraised money in the Free Press account. Also, student groups under the Student Senate cannot give alcohol away. If alcohol is served at an event it must be a served through a cash bar.
Pease said she would sign the purchase order without the alcohol on it if the Student Senate’s Executive Board authorized her to do so.
Tyler Stanley can be contacted at [email protected]