Questions raised about UA phone calls

The Undergraduate Assembly budgeted $1,200 this year to pay for office phone calls, even though many of the charges from last year's $1,264 phone budget came from UA members making personal long-distance calls, according to a former UA officer. The figures for the phone budgets are cited in this year's UA budget and by UA officials. David Chun, whose allegations are detailed in a column that will appear in tomorrow's Daily Pennsylvanian, said long-distance priviliges had been considered a "perk" of UA membership. "There were no major incentives not to make personal long-distance calls," said Chun, a College junior. "And there were no immediate pressures from the veteran UA members to stop making them. It was a general consensus that that was a perk of being on the UA." Chun served as last year's chairperson of the UA's University Budget and Finance Committee, a committee that addresses student tuition and funding concerns. Current and former UA officials defended the size of the phone budget, citing normal UA business, and said personal calls were kept to a minimum. But they also said that weak security in the UA office allowed unauthorized phone usage to occur by both students and University employees. Current UA Chairperson Jeff Lichtman said the UA makes a number of long-distance phone calls to student governments at other universities. "We had a conference with people at Harvard," Lichtman, a College senior, said last night. "We talk to schools all throughout the country. The phone is there for UA business, to take care of UA business." Last year's UA Chairperson, Mitch Winston, said he was aware of improper telephone calls, but said they did not originate from UA members. "If any member of the UA made long-distance calls on the phone, that was totally illegal," Winston said. Winston said UA telephones were used by unauthorized Physical Plant employees and former UA members who still had access to the UA office. "Many students were making calls," Winston, a Wharton senior, said. "Anyone could come in and dial. The problem was that the office was left unlocked." But former UA Vice-Chair and current member Ethan Youderian said some personal long-distance calls were made by UA members. "I never use the UA for personal calls unless it's something rather important," Youderian, a Wharton junior, said last night, adding that he called his girlfriend in California "two or three times" around Thanksgiving. He said he planned to pay for the calls at the time, but has not done so yet. Youderian also traced some of the phone charges to unauthorized users he said he has observed in the UA office. "A few times I have walked in the office and Physical Plant people were making personal calls," Youderian said. Lichtman acknowledged that security at the UA office has not been tight. "I definitely think that unauthorized people are making phone calls," Lichtman said last night. Lichtman added that locks to the UA office were changed at the start of the semester, but prior to that, many former UA members still had keys to it.

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