In reference to Bailey Somers’ article, “Gonzalez examines Corp’s finances” in the Feb. 21 issue of The Georgetown Voice, several of the major points of the article need clarification. From the opening line, the article misrepresents the true nature of the relationship between Dr. Gonzalez and the executives of The Students of Georgetown, Inc.
The article concentrates on a series of meetings between Corp executives and Dr. Gonzalez apparently to, “discuss his concerns over the corporation’s expenditures.” In truth, these meetings were initiated by the new Corp officers in March 2001 to open up lines of communication between the two offices. The Corp currently employs just under 200 undergraduate students who collectively work to fulfill our motto of “Students Serving Students.” The executives of The Corp felt that a healthy and open relationship with Dr. Gonzalez and the Office of Student Affairs could only enhance the ability of both organizations to fulfill their goals. In a later meeting, the Corp opened discussion for any concerns that he had in reference to The Corp. Dr. Gonzalez responded to this offer by inquiring about rumors of our “party budget”. Although not printed in the article, we responded in the meeting that our entire human resources budget is not near $25,000 and that most of our spending is on non-alcohol related expenses. We referenced expenses such as renting space for our holiday and spring party and our Upper Management retreat as examples of spending incurred to compensate our employees above our relatively low wages and to foster more unity within an organization of our size. However, unlike the article infers, the brief discussion of this topic was not in reference to any financial statements but in response to one rumor that Dr. Gonzalez had heard.
The article then calls into question the internal control measures of The Corp citing one example of theft occurring in 1996 as evidence of “its share of financial management problems.” Although the article claims that Melissa O’Keeffe was president at the time of the theft, her term began in 1998 while the theft occurred two years before. The article also fails to mention that in the past five years The Corp has implemented several more layers of control, including a new safe directly following the incident. To obtain access to the drop safe, a person needs two separate keys, a Vital Vittles manager key and one held by the Brinks security guard that transports the deposits to our bank. Furthermore, although arrests were never made, the theft was covered under our contract with Hartford Insurance and the entire $8,755.68 was paid to The Corp after the claims process in August 1997. The Corp management of the time responded to the event quickly and effectively, and since the incident The Corp has never experienced a theft of a deposit.
In a direct meeting for publication, Dr. Gonzalez agreed that he has an open relationship with The Corp. Furthermore, he is comfortable addressing concerns about The Corp and clarifying unsubstantiated rumors.
We hope that these facts related to the issues raised in the article clarify the true nature of the positive meetings between Dr. Gonzalez and The Corp and dispel any rumors of the effectiveness of the internal control measures of The Corp. Although an interview was conducted between Bailey Somers and Corp representatives, she explained that the article was solely based on our relationship with Dr. Gonzalez and directed no questions to the other issues raised in her article. The clarifications written here could have been included in the initial article if the relevant questions or issues had been raised within the interview. Furthermore, we feel that it is unfortunate that the irresponsibility of one reporter can tarnish the image of a campus organization when relevant facts are easily accessible upon request. We hope that in the future anyone with questions about The Corp or any of its operations contact us so that we can continue to serve Georgetown students to the best of our ability.
Gina Kim, President (CAS ‘02)
Justin Pytka, President-elect (CAS ‘04)
