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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. 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