Student group dispute escalates

What started out as a simple miscommunication between a student group and one of its members escalated into a standoff involving several students and a faculty member that left all sides reeling from the negative publicity.

The nucleus of the controversy—at whom everyone is pointing their finger—is Ron Lee, a member of the Student Fee Committee (SFC).

As first reported in the Portland Spectator, Lee became the center of attention after he accused Ashley McClain, president of the Pre-Law Society, of financial mismanagement. According to McClain, Lee paid the $15 membership dues with a $20 bill that he turned into the group’s former president Jake Merz.

Merz resigned shortly after receiving the payment, so the money was delayed from being recorded by the group.
“Basically, [Lee] is saying that I had his $5, [and] that I didn’t reflect that amount in the books,” McClain said.

McClain said Lee was upset, not so much over the $5, but because she took over as president right after Merz resigned without going through a formal election process. She claims Lee held aspirations of becoming the group’s president but also admits that the group’s constitution does not specify steps to take in the event of a presidential resignation.

Lee said that, as a member of the SFC, he has an obligation to students to cast attention on the group’s failure to report income.

Lee brought the matter before the SFC during a hearing, and posted messages airing his grievances with the student group on the Pre-Law Society’s public listserv. McClain said that after Lee made the discrepancy a public matter, he became a target for criticism from group members.

“People were taking stabs at him on the listserv,” McClain said. The matter took a turn for the worse when the group’s academic advisor, philosophy professor and attorney Kevin Hill, responded to Lee’s accusations on the public listserv and sent him a personal message.

At the time, still reeling from what he called ad hominem attacks from his fellow group members, Lee said he was further irked by the private message from Hill.

“He sent me an inappropriate message with this opening statement that basically said ‘I have a relationship with all of the law schools in Oregon,'” Lee said.

As an aspiring lawyer, Lee said he felt the message was intimidating and responded in an e-mail to Hill: “Professor,you do not have any right to infer a threat upon students legal future suggesting in any way that you can, may or will have ANY negative influence over them…”

Lee told Hill in an e-mail that he will complain to the Oregon State Bar and three Oregon law schools about Hill’s “threats.”

McClain said she is certain from her experience with Hill that he did not make any threat against Lee. She called Lee’s attempt to get Hill disbarred “ridiculous.”

However, Lee did attempt just that and more. Aside from forwarding all his correspondence between himself and Hill to university media outlets, including the Vanguard and the Spectator, Lee also sent the records to President Wim Wiewel, the State Board of Higher Education and the Oregon State Bar. During this time, Hill publicly resigned from his position as advisor to the group in a post on its listserv, an action Lee called “entirely inappropriate.”

“[Hill] lead everyone to believe that I was the one who lead him to that resignation by saying that he was disgusted by some student’s conduct,” Lee said.

In an e-mail sent to Lee, Hill apologized a total of six times for making his comments on the public listserv and for the perceived threats over e-mail.

Since then, the Spectator has published an article describing the incident and Hill’s resignation. Now, Lee says the article was biased and left out his side of the story and implied that Lee was the source for Hill’s resignation.
“I wrote a six-page letter to [a writer at the Spectator] explaining my side of the story, and he refused to even put my response letter in the article,” Lee said. “Instead, they fabricated a quote from me.”

After the article came out, Lee requested of Hill that he contact the Spectator and ask them to issue a retraction. Hill responded in an e-mail saying that his decision to drop his advising post was due to family issues, not because of Lee. Hill again apologized to Lee for his listserv comments and said he wanted to put this matter behind them.

McClain said Lee’s actions negatively impacted the group through the loss of its advisor.

“I do blame Ron for Kevin’s resignation…it was completely unnecessary,” McClain said. “Ron claimed that he’s there for the students but look at the damage he caused.”

McClain said Lee’s false accusation hurt the Pre-Law Society but she still considers Lee a member of the group. “I do resent the fact that he said I’m stealing money but I will still treat him just like any other member,” McClain said.

McClain said the group will continue its work and plans to host an upcoming Q-and-A session with Tracy Sullivan from Lewis & Clark Law School on Feb. 4.
 

Pre-law Society general meeting
Wed, Jan. 20, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
SMSU, room 338

Personal Statement Workshop and Q-and-A session with Tracy Sullivan, Lewis & Clark Law School
Thu, Feb. 5, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
SMSU, room 296