Newspaper Page Text
4A I Thursday, December 7, 2006 | The Red & Black Finals Edition
YEAR IN REVIEW
Ninja fighting
for his apology
By CAROLYN CRIST
ccrist@randb.com
The ninja wants an apology — and he’ll go
all the way to the White House to get it.
Jeremiah Ransom, a junior from Macon,
has received no response to a letter he sent to
the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms,
and Explosives requesting a formal apology
after being tackled to the ground by ATF
agents in front of Snelling Dining Commons in
April.
Ransom said his mother contacted a
lawyer for advice and is finishing another let
ter to be sent to President Bush.
She also will send letters to members of
Congress, Ransom said, adding that she wait
ed until after the election so the letter would
make it into the hands of incoming congress
men.
“I was going to drop the case after a public
apology,” Ransom said. “I just want people to
know that the ATF isn’t being accountable,
acting as if they are above the law.”
Several ATF agents were on campus
attending a Project Safe Neighborhood train
ing conference at the Georgia Center when
they saw Ransom jogging to Snelling.
Ransom had just left a “ninja versus pirates”
party at the Wesley Foundation.
The party was meant to welcome new stu
dents to the Methodist church group. Ninjas
would say, “Hi-ya doing?” while the pirates
FILE | The Red & Black
A University junior Jeremiah Ransom is
pinned to the ground by an ATF agent.
would say, “How arrr ya doing?”
ATF agents spotted Ransom with bandan
nas across the upper and lower parts of his
head and thought it was suspicious. They told
him to “freeze,” but Ransom thought friends
were joking with him and continued running.
Before he knew it, he was on the ground
with a knee to his back. “One of the agents
kept asking me where my gun was, and I
explained that I didn’t have one,” Ransom
said in a phone interview Monday.
Ransom didn’t want to take legal action
against the agents, but sent a letter asking for
an apology.
“It’s not a big deal that they stopped me
for looking suspicious,” he said. “It's how they
treated me — using excessive force — that
matters.”
Ransom was treated for injuries, including
a large bruise on his back. Marc Jackson, a
spokesman for the Atlanta Field Division of
the ATF, declined to comment, saying the
agency doesn’t want to “breath new life into
the story.”
SGA hoping to revamp budget process
By SARA PAUFF
spauff@randb.com
After overspending its
budget by thousands of dol
lars, the Student
Government Association is
working to revamp its budg
et process and improve the
organization’s accountabili
ty.
SGA president Jamie
Peper said the proposed
changes include electing
treasurers each year, chang
ing SGA’s fiscal year to line
up with elections and put
ting the organization on for
mula-based funding rather
than making requests for
funds each year.
Peper, a senior from
Savannah, said the changes
would improve SGA’s
accountability and make
each administration respon
sible for its own budget.
“They’re not inheriting
anyone else’s budget,” SGA
adviser Ed Mirecki said.
Poor record keeping dur
ing the previous administra
tion was one of the factors
that caused SGA to over
draft its student activity fees
account by more than $6,000
last June, SGA officials said.
Peper and SGA treasurer
Justin Caudill said they
never received any financial
documents or records of
expenditures from the previ
ous SGA president Will
Childs or his treasurer, Matt
Parrish.
In October, Caudill pro
posed to student affairs that
SGA go on formula funding
rather than presenting a
budget request before the
All Campus Allocations
Committee.
The committee allocates
student activity fees to reg
istered student organiza
tions.
Under formula funding,
SGA would receive a set dol
lar amount of each student’s
activity fee every year.
Peper said they request
ed the change because SGA,
along with the Graduate
Student Association, is in
charge of appointing stu
dents to the All Campus
Allocations Committee.
“It seemed like a conflict
of interest to be presenting
to our own students,” Peper
said.
Mirecki said SGA’s elec
tion schedule is also limited
by the budget calendar, and
switching to formula fund
ing could change that.
“SGA could set its own
elections schedule,” he said.
Mirecki said SGA has
been working with vice pres
ident of student affairs
Rodney Bennett to line up
SGA’s fiscal year with elec
tions, but the logistics of
implementing a new system
still have to be figured out.
“We don’t know if it’s
going to be possible to do or
not,” he said.
Peper said she hoped
changes to the budgeting
process would be approved
by the beginning of fiscal
year 2008.
“We will definitely make a
push to have it approved
before our administration
ends,” she said.
The SGA Senate also
voted Tuesday to amend
their constitution to elect
treasurers each year along
with president and vice
president, Peper said.
If the changes to the con
stitution are approved by
the student body in the
January 2007 election, they
would be implemented for
the following election
in 2008.
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