GPSA Council Chair Megan O’Laughlin submitted a contract to pay her own tuition from GPSA funds before the Council had approved the funding. The Legislative Steering Committee plans to conduct an investigation to determine whether she violated the constitution or bylaws of GPSA.
During the Feb. 25 GPSA Council meeting, the Education Grant, which would have paid for O’Laughlin’s tuition, was voted down on the grounds that she submitted a funding request in her contract for payment of tuition before the issue had come to a vote.
A change in the GPSA bylaws voted on September and approved in December allows GPSA to pay up to 12 credit hours of tuition expenses for the council chair as part of a new compensatory measure. But the change did not specify whether the current council chair was eligible for the funding.
“We acted as though we were under the old bylaws, which did not have this education credit,” GPSA Representative Matthew Rush said.
Legislative Steering Chair Corbin Casarez said the committee will conduct an investigation into the issue.
“We are going to have a discussion equivalent to an inquiry and allow anyone who wants to talk about it discuss their thoughts and if we feel this needs to be investigated, we will move forward,” he said.
GPSA President Katie Richardson said she is unsure whether O’Laughlin is guilty of any wrongdoing, or simply made a mistake.
“I have been trying hard to understand what happened and what did not happen,” she said. “I do not know what I am unsure about.”
Richardson said the Court of Review would likely settle the question of any violations, but said she has not yet requested an opinion from the court, although nearly three weeks have passed since the incident.
Rush said that, while he can’t speak for the entire council, he voted down the tuition coverage because O’Laughlin submitted her contract early, and did not tell the Council publicly that she had done so.
“I would tell you that was my reason for voting it down,” he said. “I can’t tell you exactly why it got voted down in Council, because there was almost no discussion on the topic.”
O’Laughlin was unavailable for comment.
Following the Feb. 25 meeting, O’Laughlin amended her contract removing the tuition funding request and resubmitted it to the Student Government Accounting Office (SGAO). SGAO Representative Yvette Hall said no payments were made out of the GPSA fund for her tuition.
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Legislative Finance Chair Joseph Dworak said that while some Council members believe O’Laughlin acted inappropriately, he said O’Laughlin has not violated any bylaws.
“A lot of this has become politicized, and it’s based off of personal issues and my job is to make sure we are doing things by the book,” he said. “It is all unclear, these changes were implemented last year; a lot of us assumed it wouldn’t take effect until next year.”
Richardson said GPSA has no current plans to clarify whether changes to the bylaws or constitution apply to the current year or the next fiscal year.
