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Stakes High, Decorum Low In Student Government

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By Adam Emerson The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 18, 2007

Student governments at Florida universities sometimes resemble a Shakespearean tragedy.

Accusations of deceit and betrayal. Resignations and threats of impeachment. Win-at-all-costs presidential campaigns.

This isn't the cutthroat world of Beltway politics. Some say it is worse. But amid the controversies, there are serious responsibilities: Student governments control millions in student fees. Student presidents lobby governors and state lawmakers, and they all hold positions on the boards of their universities.

But the powerful roles of student leaders can unravel quickly.

Consider the fall of University of South Florida student government President Barclay Harless, who recently resigned after the university investigated reports he allowed alcohol in his office this summer in violation of campus policy.

If Harless hadn't stepped down, though, student members of his cabinet would have tried forcing him out.

"It's like a high school drama," said Harless, 22, in an interview on campus last week.

Such upheaval isn't unique to USF, however. Student governments at the state's 11 public universities routinely stir up unrest, despite the best intentions to improve campus life.

The president of Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton nearly disbanded the student government last year after two botched elections and complaints from campus groups. Years ago, the University of Central Florida's student senate impeached its student president, who had challenged the senate's spending plans.

Power In Students' Hands

The power bestowed on Florida's student leaders is matched only in a few states. By Florida statute, student governments are charged with dispensing student fees to campus groups and activities, such as homecoming week.

USF's student government, for instance, controls $10.2 million this year, an amount that exceeds the current budgets for Hillsborough County's planning commission ($6.6 million) and elections supervisor ($7.8 million).

"When you take that power, the fact that we're children, and the money - it's a recipe for concern," said Megan Latchford, one of Harless' cabinet members who left her post last week.

"At the end of the day, we're kids. We are people who are just actually learning to be real adults."

That fact isn't lost on school administrators, who weigh the rights of students to govern themselves with a fiscal responsibility to the university.

That tension reached its peak at USF in 1993. A state audit found shoddy bookkeeping and incomplete records in student government spending. As a result, the university hired a full-time adviser to train student leaders and a comptroller to watch the money.

Adviser Deals With Politics

Today, David Armstrong guides USF student government leaders to prudent spending, and he says his job is as much parent as adviser. He spots financial conflicts frequently, and his advice has led to resignations.

But there's politics in his job, too. "You get to laugh or you get to cry," he said.

Although he oversees spending, Armstrong leaves the money decisions mostly to students, lest he's seen as micromanaging their affairs. USF student government funds 150 student groups, the Marshall Center student union at the Tampa campus and a high-profile lecture series.

The pot of money at its disposal grows bigger every year. A student taking 15 credit hours pays about $125 a semester in the athletic and service fee that bankrolls student government.

"Most of us are two, three years out of high school, and there's nothing you can ever have done to prepare you for the amount of influence and authority and control that student government can have," Harless said.

Harless, whom students elected last spring, first saw his presidency wane two weeks ago. He told senators then that administrators were checking reports that his friends brought alcohol into his office on a freshman orientation night in June, and that he misled officials about what happened. He later acknowledged his friends brought alcohol, but denied he drank.

Rumors about that night circulated among senators for weeks. At one time, senate President Nathan Davison says he urged Harless to come clean. "Eventually, you have to notice the elephant in the room," Davison said.

Members of Harless' cabinet said they felt their president misled them as well. Latchford, the student life and development director, said she also urged Harless to admit what happened to no avail. "It got to a point where the evidence was mounting," she said.

Latchford said she and other cabinet members were ready to recommend the senate start impeachment proceedings, which Davison said would have happened had Harless not resigned.

Harless said Latchford was unwilling to move on. The day he stepped down, senior members of his staff fired Latchford and two other cabinet members, telling them they could no longer work as a team, Latchford said.

But Harless' successor, student government Vice President Garin Flowers, declined to sign the termination orders. Latchford left anyway.

Such closed-door conflicts in student government rarely surface so publicly.

Turmoil and backbiting are staples of election season.

It's not uncommon for a presidential candidate to hide in the bushes with a camera ready to photograph any malfeasance in a rival's campaign, Davison said. "You see generally good people brought down by this," he said. "People recognize that this is a coveted position."

Rivals employ volunteers to seek out campaign violations - from the placement of chalk messages around campus to the size of campaign signs. Last year's student president, Frank Harrison, was penalized after his rivals spotted his grandparents handing out fliers touting his candidacy in the school library. Candidates must register their campaign help, and Harrison's grandparents surprised him with their efforts. Also, the rules prohibit campaigning in the library.

Harless and Flowers were criticized for offering pizza to voters who completed a ballot on Election Day. While the complaint reached the student newspaper, it seemed tame compared to the infighting that boiled over for Harless' predecessor.

Harrison and Vice President Faran Abbasi entered office after one of the most tumultuous elections in USF's history.

In February 2006, student senators tried unsuccessfully to impeach the head of the election's governing body, saying the group failed to properly police the election that led to Harrison's victory.

A week later, a former student senator asked the USF student Supreme Court to invalidate the election results, accusing the student acting as the election's supervisor of showing bias toward the Harrison-Abbasi ticket.

The court agreed and negated the results. But while judges ordered a new election, university administrators stepped in and ended the controversy; they allowed the Harrison-Abbasi victory to stand.

"It comes down to a power struggle," Abbasi said in an interview last week. "And it brings out the worst in people."

But student leaders note that political blunders and campaign backbiting drown out the best of student government.

Harrison spent a year trying to show the importance of student government by placing a price tag on items around campus paid for by student fees. Voter turnout for elections, however, remains low.

Most students say they don't know a lot about student government, and they delete most e-mails of its activities.

"I know they have something to do with homecoming and the Marshall Center," USF sophomore Katie Ferguson said. "This school's so huge that it's hard to get a message like that out to so many people."

Latchford said that Harless "believed wholeheartedly in doing this job," and she was so impressed with his candidacy that she supported him even though a friend was on a rival ticket.

Harless worries that his presidency will be remembered only for what brought it down. He notes that only days before he resigned he and student presidents from Florida's 10 other public universities met with Gov. Charlie Crist. They told Crist that they'd support a tuition increase if it meant smaller class sizes.

"I've dealt with stressful jobs," Harless said. "But in student government, you become exposed really quickly."

Tribune reporter Anthony McCartney contributed to this report. Reporter Adam Emerson can be reached at (813) 259-8285 or aemerson@tampatrib.com.

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