$12.66 paid to cover phone calls

Members of student government have paid back a total of $12.66 for long distance calls they placed from their organizations' offices, Student Life Financial Administrator Lynn Moller said Tuesday. Moller said she has received three separate checks from two Undergraduate Assembly members -- Ethan Youderian and Vice Chairperson Kirsten Bartok -- and one from the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education. Youderian, a Wharton junior, paid the University $3.23 for calls he made to California. College junior Bartok paid $6 for a call she made to France and members of SCUE turned in $3.43. Bartok said late last month that she planned to reimburse the UA for the call. UA Chairperson Jeff Lichtman said he thinks all disputed phone bills have been resolved. "We have told people to pay back their phone bills," said Lichtman, a College senior. "If they have made personal phone calls, then I have assumed they have turned in that amount of money." Lichtman said he has not paid for any long-distance phone calls he made, adding that he thinks the issue is dead. "I don't get the point of rehashing this," Lichtman said. "There are a lot of important things we are working on, and talking about this will again do everyone involved a disservice." But Moller said not all students who have used the phones for long-distance purposes have paid for the calls. She said some have told her that personal expenditures they have made for their organizations' activities have more than compensated for any funds spent on personal phone calls. Moller said she hopes this method of accounting does not continue, but she added that in most cases she does not think students have "been abusing anything." Last month, a check of UA and Nominations and Elections Committee phone records revealed that the organizations spent $172 on long-distance charges from September to November of 1992. The records showed that calls were made to places including France, Texas Southern University, and the switchboard of the U.S. Capitol. Phone records of groups funded by the Student Activities Council also revealed a number of personal phone calls.