Co-chair of the Multicultural Student Coalition Peter Moran resigned Aug. 29 from his position, adding that he would cease involvement in the organization for the time being.
Moran's resignation came in response to a recent investigation by the university administration concerning alleged duplicate hours on sets of time sheets that he submitted for two university job at MCSC and at the office of the vice chancellor for student affairs.
According to the investigation, Moran recorded 72.5 hours since Oct. 14 in which he worked at both jobs at the same time.
But Moran said the mistake was accidental and he had actually worked the number of hours he recorded each week, but not at the specific times recorded.
\Although this was an accident, I believe I must take responsibility for my actions,"" he said.
Moran's time sheets were initially examined after he filed time sheets in June that exceeded the 40-hour per-week maximum before over-time pay.
A dean of students staff member alerted the Student Segregated Fees Committee about the incident because Moran's MCSC wages came from segregated fees.
In a closed meeting Aug. 19, SSFC voted to suspend Moran's wages for any employment in MCSC for one year.
""SSFC has chosen to see that my situation be exposed, made public and used as a position for others to target MCSC in an attempt to discount the credibility of our organization,"" Moran said.
But a day after the decision, interim-Dean of Students Roger Howard, who has since resigned, wrote a letter to SSFC Chair Roman Patzner explaining that the administration will not support the decision to suspend Moran's salary.
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Paul Barrows said while it is SSFC's job to allocate funds, it is the university's role to administrate.
Although initially Patzner criticized the administration's position, after hearing about Moran's resignation he called the situation ""unfortunate."" He said, however, SSFC made the best decision it could at the time based on the information it had, and considering Moran refused to meet with them.
Barrows, who is currently serving as dean of students until a replacement is hired, said that despite the administration's resolution, this is probably not the last time this sort of situation occurs.
""It has happened before and it probably will happen again,"" he said. ""And we will try to be as fair with it and consistent but ultimately responsible each time.""
Moran said this situation points to a larger issue, which is that he was unfairly targeted because of organization with which he is affiliated.
""This situation has been treated very differently from situations that have happened in the past,"" he said.
