Issue date: 3/28/08 Section: News

Student Senate Speaker Megan Ogulnick listens to discussion during Wednesday night's Student Senate meeting in the Arcola-Tuscola room of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union. (Bryce Peake/The Daily Eastern News)

How Student Government's new marketing director will be paid is still undetermined.

Student Senate Speaker Megan Ogulnick was unsure where Scott Murray, hired at the March 19 Senate meeting, technically fits into Student Government and deferred comment to the organization's adviser, Ceci Brinker.

Brinker could not be reached for comment on Thursday.

Under the resolution passed March 19, Murray gets paid $10 an hour for up to $500 to design advertisements for Student Government functions.

Ogulnick is the only person able to create a new liaison position, such as marketing director, and she would have needed the approval of the senate first.

"All liaison positions will be open to any student of Eastern Illinois University, not excluding student senators," the bylaws read. "Liaisons must be approved by a majority vote of the senate."

Notification to the student body about the position was not made, Ogulnick told the senate during the March 19 meeting.

She consequently made an announcement to the senate members to find a candidate, if they felt it was needed, she said. No alternative designers were suggested.

Article two, section 11 of the senate bylaws describe ex-officio members. Two possible positions relating to Murray's work would be director of public relations and director of information technology.

"Director of Public Relations: Shall be a member of the Student Committee on Student Relations," the bylaws read. "The Director of Public Relations shall be responsible for working with all committees on graphic designs and publicity projects."

Ogulnick suggested Murray for the position during the March 19 senate meeting, but retracted the idea when student senate member Sean Wyrobek asked if committee members could receive monetary rewards for completed work.

"Director of Information Technology: Shall maintain the Student Government and subsidiary web sites," the bylaws read. "Shall maintain a computerized database of historic and current legislation, executive decisions and other pertinent information. Keeping Student Government computers organized and in good working order."

Murray uses his own computer when designing advertisements, and the resolution that effectively hired him did not reference archiving responsibilities.

Ogulnick said another individual has been hired to design the Web site and he has been collecting pictures of senate members for several weeks.

Brinker told the senate during its March 19 meeting that the Web site designer has not been paid for his work either.

While Murray works for a graphics design company, a contract was not signed between Student Government and the company because Murray agreed to do the work on his own.

If Murray were considered an independent contractor, Student Government did not make notice to the public of its need for the position before the resolution was submitted to the senate.

After the resolution was introduced, numerous senate members were concerned about how much work Murray accumulated for reimbursement before the senate was made aware of the situation.

The resolution to hire him, which passed 19-6, did not include reimbursement in its rationale. Ogulnick said Murray would be reimbursed despite the miswriting of the resolution unless senate members approach her to re-discuss the issue.

Before the vote, Wyrobek said the senate would look bad if they did not pay Murray because he is a professional. Murray said he was told he would get paid from the beginning and he was not concerned about getting industry standards.

Even though his existence in Student Government is undefined, his information has been submitted to the payroll department at Eastern.



Rick Kambic can be reached at 581-7942 or at rwkambic@eiu.edu.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools

The Daily Eastern News encourages on-topic, civil discussion on its articles posted online. It is our policy not to screen comments before they are posted or edit them after they are posted. However, we reserve the right to remove comments that are off-topic, malicious, libelous or include excessive foul language. The DEN also reserves the right to turn off all comments on any story it deems necessary.

Comments violating copyright law will also be removed.

Users who repeatedly violate this policy will be banned from commenting.

If you have any questions on our comment policy or wish to report a comment that you feel violates these standards, please e-mail a link to the article to our Online Editor at DENNews.com@gmail.com.