Apology

The Current | March 15, 1999

Comptroller owes group an apology

The Student organization of the National Education Association requests a formal apology from SGA comptroller Ben Ash. In the Mar. 1 issue of The Current, Mr. Ash submitted the name of our organization as one of the campus organizations listed on page eight that "have missed four or more [meetings] and may be facing expulsion."

In 1996, the previous SNEA organization disbanded. In October of 1998 six UM-St. Louis students decided to reorganize the SNEA. The would-be co-president submitted the necessary paperwork to register us as a student organization on campus. When she attended the Oct. 29 SGA meeting, the university did not yet officially reorganize the SNEA. All meetings since then have been attended.

In the five months of our existence we have increased our membership to over 100 members. We greatly appreciate The Current's journalistic integrity, and so assume that the paper faithfully printed the information it received. Therefore, the responsibilities for the slight lie with Ben Ash, comptroller of the SGA, whose visage and comments appear on the front page of The Current. While an article in the Mar. 8 issue of The Current states that the SNEA "should not have been listed," we are of the opinion that Mr. Ash should not have made such serious accusations without thoroughly researching the history of each organization listed.

To both the current and future members of the SGA: the SNEA is not an irresponsible organization. We are young and growing, and very earnest in our attempts to reestablish ourselves. If there are fears that we will not remain on campus for very long, freezing our budget will certainly help along those fears. We have no intentions of allowing ourselves to be stricken from the SGA, and we want to assure the members of the SGA of our continued cooperation. Thank you.

-Katherine Davis
Co-President, SNEA