November 2, 2009 WWW.UNEWS.COM Vol. 77, Issue 11 INSIDE COMBAT page 3 Former student president CAMERON page 5 faces accusations WOMEN’S BASKETBALL page 12 of forgery Alexia Stout-Lang about how much I am owed for the work News Editor that I did,” said Nate Jones, the UMKC Tyler Allen Superior Court Chief Justice who pre- Dance and sing to health Assistant News Editor sided over the hearing. ultiple sources have ac- In the end, Jones said Collins pre- cused former Student sented a good case on her behalf. So, Gover n ment Asso- the UMKC Superior Court awarded her ciation (SGA) President $500 in a decision released Feb. 25, 2008. BridgettM Johnson of forgery. Eight days after the decision was an- Students and former SGA members al- nounced, Collins contacted Johnson by lege Johnson presented a forged document e-mail regarding his payment. as evidence in a lawsuit brought against “I represented her successfully and her in Jackson County Small Claims we had an agreement that she would pay Court by law student Tim Collins. me a percentage of whatever she won,” Collins represented Johnson in a 2008 Collins said. “She won $500, so I told her UMKC Superior Court case in exchange I was owed $100.” for 20 percent of any money awarded. He She responded via e-mail that she had then sued Johnson in April 2009 in Small not received the money. Collins advised Claims Court after she her that his compensation failed to pay him 20 per- “She [Bridgett was not based on John- cent of the $500 she was Johnson] just kind son’s receipt of the funds, granted. Collins lost the but rather the award. case based upon a docu- of looked at me and According to the pay- ment allegedly signed by I knew. I confronted ment voucher made when the funds were allocated, Vice Chancellor for Stu- her and she dent Affairs and Enroll- Johnson received the $500 ment Management Mel admitted it. ” on March 12, 2008. Tyler. However, by April “Bridgett Johnson Shannon Blood 2, 2008, Collins still had Photo ALEXIA STOUT-LANG stole Student Life station- Former SGA president not received his part, so UMKC medical and dental students danced and played with third, fourth and fifth ary, created a letter stating and administrative vice he filed suit in Jackson president County. Over one year graders at Longfellow Elementary School Saturday to teach them all about health. that UMKC never paid her and forged Vice Chancel- later, April 17, 2009, the Full story on page 4. lor Mel Tyler’s signature and presented it case was heard by a judge. in court as a true document,” said Shan- “I got to [small claims] court, intro- non Blood, former SGA president and duced all of my evidence and she intro- administrative vice president. “She con- duced some evidence, a document she fessed that to me in the SGA office.” claimed to be a second ruling from the U-News made numerous attempts Superior Court and she introduced a doc- Balancing the [text]books over the past month to contact Johnson ument from Mel Tyler where he claims in regard to the allegations. She has not she did not receive any money,” Collins Melissa Oribhabor extra money goes to the university to pay for student responded. said. “That basically made the judge rule Staff Writer groups and other activities. Jeffrey Traiger, assistant dean of Stu- in her favor.” Every semester, it’s the same misery and shock. “Even used books are expensive,” Karasapan said. dents, commented on behalf of Tyler. The document allegedly from Tyler, You take a stack of required books for the semester to “Over the course of several semesters, I spend thou- Through Traiger, Tyler neither confirmed a letter dated April 14 (a month after the bookstore register and watch in agony as the sales sands [of dollars] on books. You have to look at the big nor denied the allegations his signature the funds were issued), states: “Bridgett associate rings them up one-by-one. picture.” was forged. Johnson did file a petition with the Uni- Because of the high cost, some students go else- “This division takes its role very seri- versity of Missouri-Kansas City Superior The benefits and setbacks of buyback ously, especially in maintaining student Court, and originally the court did find in where to buy textbooks for school. One pull the bookstore does have is the book buy- “[I buy my books at] half.com because I [get] a bet- information, essentially what is provided her favor in the amount of $500. However back during the last two weeks of the semester. under federal law by FERPA [Fam- after further review of her responsibilities ter deal,” sophomore Cenk Karasapan said. “I saved “If [the professor plans on] using the book again, about 60 percent and, instead of paying $300, I pay ily Educational Rights and Privacy Act],” by the office of Student Affairs, the Supe- students get back 50 percent of the original, new, post- Traiger said. “Part of rior Court’s original rul- $120 dollars.” markup price – even if it’s a used book,” said Chris Although some students are displeased with the that, we don’t really ing was overturned and Wolff, general merchandise manager for UMKC want to verify or dis- Bridgett L. Johnson did prices of books at the bookstore, Pete Eisentrager, as- Bookstores. ALL DOCUMENTS sistant director of UMKC Bookstores, said things are cuss the specifics of an not receive the recom- However, there are many factors that go into the MENTIONED mendation made by the not as bad as they seem. individual student’s be- ARE AVAILABLE ONLINE book buyback process that, in the end, can hurt the stu- havior in regard to the court.” “[The bookstore] is extremely competitive with dents’ pocketbooks. AT WWW.UNEWS.COM Amazon.com and Half.com,” he said. “Eighty to 85 per- situation you described.” U-News found no For one, if a professor is teaching a class the fol- SGA hired Johnson record of the Superior cent of our books are within $5 of the online [retailers]. lowing semester with only 20 students and requests the There’s not that much of a discrepancy as the common in 2006 for a one-year Court’s original ruling same book, the bookstore will only take back 20 books term as election director for $800. In being overturned. myth would lead people to believe.” during buyback, leaving the rest of the students to ei- According to the U.S. Government Accountability spring 2007, she was paid in full and giv- Blood said Bridgett told her she had ther wait until next semester to try and return it or try en an additional $200 bonus for elections been trying before the Small Claims Office (GAO), the average college textbook markup is to find another way to get some of their money back. 30 percent, but the UMKC bookstore only has a 25 per- she had already organized. That $1,000 is Court trial to get a letter from Account- Sites such as Half.com take back books, and, in not in dispute. ing stating she had not been paid. But, the cent markup on books. some instances, give back more than 50 percent of the The bookstore orders used books from wholesalers Bylaws put into place in 2007 after office would not give it to her, Blood said. purchase price. she became election director gave her the “When she got back from [Small and purchases new books from the publishers, which Another issue with book buybacks starts with pro- tend to be more pricy. additional duties of organizing 17 council Claims] court she said the letter made all fessors. elections to nominate representatives to the difference, so that’s when I knew,” “We try to avoid buying from publishers when we Traditionally, professors are late turning in their can,” Eisentrager said. “They control the pricing.” serve on the Student Activity Fees Coun- Blood said. “Because I looked at her book requests for the fall and spring semesters, which cil. According to the new bylaws, the and I said, ‘Bonita [Baxter, manager of But when the bookstore does have to buy the more is what is needed for the bookstore to know what books expensive books from the publisher, and then add the election director “should receive $1,000.” Business Fiscal Operations] gave you they can take back and how many. On those grounds, Johnson filed suit the letter?’ And she just kind of looked extra 25 percent onto the cover price, it really starts to “The two big [deadlines] are Oct. 31 and April 15,” add up for students. in the UMKC Superior Court in Novem- at me and I knew. I confronted her and Eisentrager said. “One of our biggest hurdles is getting ber 2007 against the SGA to collect the she admitted it.” But why mark up the books at all? Management for orders on time and early enough to get used books from the bookstore said the profit made from the markups additional $1,000. Blood gave Johnson two days to call the wholesalers.” “The claim was kind of a back pay/ and tell Tyler about the letter. Then Blood goes to running the business. By May of this year, only 75-76 percent of fall or That is, paying the employees, paying utilities and breech of agreement/we both really don’t See SGA page16 all other things that go into running a business. The See BOOKS I page 16 like each other and we just can’t agree I 2 News November 2, 2009 www.unews.com Reporting from behind the ‘iron curtain’ Evan Helmuth false charges of espionage.