Dear Editor,

Reading the article entitled “ASB Debates How Much to Spend ‘Awarding’ Themselves at Banquet” I found many inconsistencies in information about the budget, misquoted there were quotes allocated to the wrong board members. I find this to be unfortunate because the wrong information is being presented and out of context without an unbiased opinion to the students of American River College.

In the second paragraph, the quote President Hinton said arguing for some sort of recognition for the work of the board members was taken out of context, there was no information to previous comments made leading up to that quote. In the following paragraph President Hinton’s words seem to have been misinterpreted saying that spending $400 on awards is, “important to the Student Senate’s self-esteem…” and the figure of $400 is inaccurate. In the sixth and seventh paragraph, CAEB President Diefenbacher was wrongly quoted to say “I want a limit as to how much is spent on actual awards,” and “was self- gratifying activity.” this sentiment  was expressed by Senators Lipuma, Elliot and Director of Public Relations Vargas. The following paragraph concerning the combining of the CAEB and Senate banquets the raising of question was done by Director of Finance Riley and later clarified by Director of Public Relations Vargas. As with the following and fourteenth paragraph they were, was also taken out of context.  As with the issue of the Bill for the Republican Club the article failed to mention that proper information was not given to the board in a timely manner and the scrutinizing was done for all organizations requesting funds from the board. Lastly, in the second to last paragraph of the article gave incorrect information of the funding of the buses for March in March it is not the Academic Union rather the Teachers Union providing the funds.

Along with the misinformation about the Teachers Union funding for the buses in a previous article by John Ferrannini “Student Senate Funds Student Advocacy Events” he wrote, “On the other hand, it looks like the senators will decide against taking public transit and will spend more than $800 on a bus and two Paratransit busses to take them from the ARC campus to the Capitol.” Which is not only giving inconsistent information but dishonest.

It truly disappoints me to have to write to the paper under these circumstances but the integrity of The Current and ARC ASB Student Senate is at risk with these inconsistencies. Hopefully, this will be an isolated incident. I hope to work and build a good relationship between these two organizations and hope it can continue to grow.

Sincerely,

Kenneth Hinton

Student Senate President

American River College