Concerns about improperly using state funds to support a ballot measure caused the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville on Friday to cancel a student government-sponsored shuttle to transport students to participate in early voting on the issue, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Danny Pugh said Monday.
The UA student leaders had planned to offer the transportation Monday. In an email Friday, Pugh canceled the shuttle that had been approved with a $600 appropriation by UA's Associated Student Government Graduate Student Congress on Nov. 29. The effort would have encouraged students to vote early regarding Fayetteville's anti-discrimination ordinance, with the special election taking place today on whether to repeal the measure.
The ordinance prohibits businesses and employers from discriminating based on sexuality or gender identity, among other categories such as age and race.
While the student congress "motor voter" appropriation bill contained neutral language about the ballot measure, Pugh expressed concerns about the same group earlier passing a formal resolution urging students to vote against repeal of the ordinance.
"In this instance, proposed and actual communications issued by [Graduate Student Congress] or its representatives have made it clear that the funding is intended to support voting in favor of a particular side the referendum," Pugh wrote in the email Friday to Rudy Trejo, the university's assistant director for student government leadership.
Pugh cited a state law prohibiting the expenditure of public funds to either support or oppose a ballot measure.
In an interview Monday, Pugh said past legal cases "very clearly say student fees are state monies."
He said he only became aware of plans for the shuttle campaign on Wednesday, but that the concerns should have been recognized earlier by advisers to UA's student government.
Pugh said he noticed the campaign when a planned campus-wide announcement came to his attention, as well as promotional images the student congress distributed electronically that included information about the shuttle while urging students to vote against repeal.
He said the promotional materials were made by a student "on her personal computer" and "on her own time," so no appropriated funds were used.
The student congress, in a statement Saturday, said it disagree with Pugh's decision but accepted it as final.
"The GSC never intended to restrict the shuttle service solely to individuals planning to vote against repeal of the ordinance. Furthermore, the decision to cancel the bus service was made without consultation of the GSC or its officers," the group said in the statement.
Despite the decision, on Monday afternoon two passenger vans paid for by the Keep Fayetteville Fair advocacy group shuttled students from campus to vote, said Anne-Garland Berry, campaign manager for the organization. The vans picked up students near a rally site for those opposing repeal of the ordinance.
"We were not planning on renting vans," Berry said, but did so after the university made its decision. The group expects offer a shuttle service all day today to take students to their polling stations, Berry said.
NW News on 12/09/2014