AS Government:
Corruption, Failures, and Broken Promises
A comprehensive review of 1,488 publicly available ASWWU documents spanning 2018 to 2026 uncovered serious violations, anti-student decisions, and a pattern of accountability mechanisms that exist on paper but never in practice.
Summary of All Issues by Severity
Every finding below is sourced from official ASWWU meeting minutes, governing documents, ballot packets, and public records. No allegations are made beyond what the official record documents.
| Issue | Severity | Year(s) |
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The Active Transportation Fee was authorized with an explicit 5%-per-year cap before a student vote is required. It was raised to $35/quarter from $30, a 16.7% jump, with no student vote. The EB discovered this in January 2025 and investigated back to Fall 2022 but could not find when the unauthorized increase occurred. The overcharge was never corrected.
Source: EB Minutes 1/14/25 and 1/28/25
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This exact referendum was voted down by both the Executive Board (1-3-2) and Senate (11-6) in April 2025. Just nine months later it was re-submitted with no substantive changes. Official EB agenda records show leadership used governing meeting time to "workshop strategies to pass athletics through senate" to override the prior democratic outcome.
Source: EB Minutes 4/14/25; Senate Minutes 4/14/25; EB Agenda 2/5/26
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Administration proposed cutting voting student representatives from 9 to 6, removing students from budget presentations entirely, and inserting the AVP for Budget as a filter for all requests. The AS President sided with administration, stating students "have not been prepared to present budgets in the way they need to be." The committee oversees $10-12 million in annual student fees.
Source: DRAFT_SA_Changes_Recommendation_2026.pdf; Senate Minutes 12/3/25
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The Conference Committee that drafted the proposed constitution included the sitting AS President, VP Operations, and Senate President. Their draft raises the recall threshold from a majority vote of either body acting alone to a 2/3 vote of both bodies simultaneously, making it dramatically harder to remove officers. The officers who drafted this change are the same ones who would benefit from it.
Source: Proposed Spring 2026 ASWWU Constitution; Senate Minutes 10/22/25
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President Randhawa sent a letter requesting $66,251 be moved from Multicultural Student Services' S&A Fee allocation to fund an Assistant Director of Tribal Relations, a university administrative role. This was described as the first such request in at least 25 years. The S&A Fee Committee voted unanimously to oppose the transfer.
Source: EB Minutes 2/12/26 and 3/5/26
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In May 2024, WWU signed an MOU with the Divest Apartheid Coalition with specific commitments and deadlines of August and Fall 2024. By February 2026, a senator presented to both bodies that most demands remained unmet and the final deadline was expiring in May 2026. AS government had passed no formal resolution demanding compliance.
Source: Senate Minutes 2/18/26; EB Minutes 2/19/26
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The STF fund collects $1,051,143/year but only spent $624,150 in FY25, building a surplus of approximately $427K that year alone. The Elections Code explicitly requires renewal ballots to include a Fund Balance Statement. The STF renewal packet omits this, meaning students are voting to continue a $35/quarter fee without knowing the fund may hold over $600,000 in reserves.
Source: STF Ballot Packet; Elections Code Article II
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When VP University Operations Esther Davis announced she was graduating, the EB voted 5-1 to fill the seat by appointment rather than special election. The first candidate received a 3-3 tie and failed. Without reopening the applicant pool, the EB immediately voted on a second candidate (4-2-1, passed) following a 40-minute closed executive session. Students had no voice in who represents them.
Source: EB Minutes 2/5/26, 2/19/26, 2/26/26
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The Elections Coordinator resigned in January 2025 to take a legislative internship. This person is the final decision-maker on all election grievances, with decisions that "cannot be appealed." Rather than hold a formal vote, the advisor informally redistributed duties. Neither governing body voted on this. The entire 2025 election cycle ran under structurally compromised oversight.
Source: EB Minutes 1/7/25; Senate Minutes 2/12/25
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The Senate voted 3/12/25 to create an Ethics Taskforce. The EB voted 4/28/25 to form an Ethics Workgroup. Neither body held a meeting, produced output, or reported back through April 2026. This is a pattern of theatrical accountability: formal votes that create the appearance of action while the underlying issues remain unaddressed.
Source: Senate Minutes 3/12/25; EB Minutes 4/28/25
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A senator reported that a student raised concerns about biased funding decisions in the Activities Council. No formal investigation was opened. The matter was folded into the Ethics Workgroup proposal, which was itself never constituted. The student who raised concerns received no response.
Source: Senate Minutes 3/12/25
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The May 22, 2024 Senate minutes file contains only a blank template with all fields listed as N/A. No motions or discussion were recorded. Additionally, no minutes file exists for the March 11, 2026 Senate meeting despite an agenda and document packet existing. Two meetings have no public record whatsoever.
Source: aswwu-senate-minutes-5222024.pdf; AS Senate archive 2025-2026
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At three EB meetings (December 4, 2025; February 19, 2026; February 26, 2026), the Governance Advisor served as Meeting Secretary and produced the official minutes. The same person who advises on procedure also wrote the official record of what happened, creating an inherent conflict where procedural errors are less likely to be accurately captured.
Source: EB Minutes 12/4/25, 2/19/26, 2/26/26
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In January 2025, the Faculty Senate voted to reduce student voting rights on faculty committees, and by February the Faculty Senate Handbook was revised to remove student voting status. Student government discussed this in multiple meetings but passed no formal resolution demanding the restoration of student voting rights.
Source: EB Minutes 1/7/25; Senate Minutes 1/15/25, 2/12/25
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The Office of Civic Engagement, which runs all ASWWU elections, had its budget cut from $101,953 to $77,646, a 23.8% reduction. This happened the same year the Elections Coordinator resigned and her duties were informally redistributed. The elections infrastructure was defunded at exactly the moment it was most vulnerable.
Source: FY26_ASWWU_Gov_Advising_Budget_Summary_2_24_25.pdf
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The Legislative Action Fee renewal funds WWU's membership in the Washington Student Association (WSA). But WWU's own leadership described WSA as potentially "not financially viable" in November 2025. The renewal ballot language does not disclose this. Students are being asked to increase the fee for an organization that WWU's own officials believe may collapse, similar to Oregon's equivalent association, which already folded.
Source: EB Minutes 11/20/25; LAF Fiscal Note
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The university partnered with Sanitary Services Company to outsource recycling without consulting student workers or student government. Students who were promised hours for spring quarter were told not to come in. The university would pay SSC more than twice what it paid student employees. A safety maintenance request made in January went unattended, resulting in an OSHA complaint.
Source: EB Minutes 4/28/25
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The Active Transportation Fee was authorized by student referendum with an explicit cap: increases of 5% or less annually do not require a new student vote; anything beyond 5% does. The fee was increased to $35/quarter from the authorized $30, a 16.7% jump, without any student vote. The Executive Board discovered this in January 2025. By January 28, the Vice President assigned to investigate had reviewed committee minutes back to Fall 2022 and still could not find when the unauthorized increase occurred. There is no evidence the excess was ever corrected or that students were asked to ratify the higher amount. Every quarter students pay $35 instead of the authorized rate is an unauthorized charge.
Source: EB Minutes 1/14/25 and 1/28/25
"Previously approved for $30 a quarter with the ability to increase 5% or less without student vote. It was increased to $35 a quarter this year, not 5% or less."
AS President Phillips, EB Meeting 1/14/25"Made it through the Active Transportation Fee Committee minutes of Fall of 2022 and hasn't found when the fee increase occurred."
VP Davis, EB Meeting 1/28/25The Spring 2026 Athletics Fee Referendum is the same measure that was voted down by both the Executive Board (1-3-2, 4/14/25) and the Senate (11-6, 4/14/25) just nine months earlier. Bringing back a democratically rejected measure without substantive changes is an attempt to override a prior democratic decision. The February 5, 2026 EB minutes explicitly note a discussion item: "Workshopping strategies to pass athletics through senate," meaning AS governing meeting time was used to strategize about overriding the Senate's prior vote. Additionally, if passed, the Athletics Fee Oversight Committee can raise the fee up to 4% per year with no student vote required. Starting at $80.36/quarter, by year 10 the fee reaches approximately $118.77/quarter with no student recourse.
Source: EB Minutes 4/14/25; Senate Minutes 4/14/25; EB Minutes 2/5/26; ASWWU-SP26-REF5 Ballot Packet
"Add discussion item - 10 minutes - Hardgrove - Workshopping strategies to pass athletics through senate."
Agenda Item, EB Meeting 2/5/26"Chair believes that Athletics will do anything to get this to pass."
Senate President Hardgrove, Senate Meeting 2/4/26The Services and Activities Fee Committee allocates approximately $10-12 million in annual student fees. In Fall 2025, WWU administration proposed restructuring this committee without involving the student programs most affected. Key proposed changes: (1) Reduce direct student representation from 9 voting student program representatives to 6; (2) Budget presentations no longer done by student representatives, now done by "identified staff (budget/admin)"; (3) Central administration inserts the AVP for Budget as a filter for all budget requests; (4) Administration gains a formal written response step before Board of Trustees review, a new veto mechanism. The administration cited an auditor's finding about a "toxic culture" on the committee but never disclosed what the auditor actually found. The AS President sided with administration against student programs, stating students "have not been prepared to present budgets in the way they need to be."
Source: DRAFT_SA_Changes_Recommendation_2026.pdf; EB Minutes 11/13/25, 11/20/25; Senate Minutes 12/3/25
"New structure seeks to eliminate student involvement in budget presentations."
DRAC Representative Ella Horner, Senate Meeting 12/3/25"Students have not been prepared to present budgets in the way they need to be."
AS President Aspen Cates-Doglio, Senate Meeting 12/3/25The Conference Committee tasked with revising the ASWWU Constitution included AS President Cates-Doglio, VP Operations Davis, Senate President Hardgrove, and At-Large Senator Laura Free. The proposed constitution they drafted raises the recall threshold from a majority vote of either the EB or the Senate acting alone, to a 2/3 vote of both bodies simultaneously. This change directly benefits the officers who drafted it by making it significantly harder to remove them from office. No independent oversight body reviewed this change for the conflict of interest it represents.
Source: Senate Minutes 10/22/25; Proposed Spring 2026 ASWWU Constitution
WWU President Randhawa sent a letter to AS President Cates-Doglio requesting that $66,251 be moved from Multicultural Student Services' S&A Fee allocation to fund an Assistant Director of Tribal Relations, a university administrative role, not a student program. This was described as "the first time for this type of funds transfer request in at least 25 years." The S&A Fee Committee ultimately voted unanimously to oppose the transfer. The president's own letter apparently contained contradictory statements about whether the position was already funded from S&A fees.
Source: EB Minutes 2/12/26 and 3/5/26; Senate Minutes 4/8/26
"Expresses concern with administration thinking that S&A Fee Committee will always be ok with this going forward."
Senate President Hardgrove, EB Meeting 3/5/26The Student Technology Fee fund is accumulating a massive and growing surplus: FY23 surplus approximately $52K, FY24 surplus approximately $259K, FY25 surplus approximately $427K. The fund collects $1,051,143/year but only spent $624,150 in FY25. Students are being asked to renew a $35/quarter fee without being told the fund already has over $600,000 in accumulated reserves. The Elections Code explicitly requires fee renewal referendums to include a Fund Balance Statement and 5-year Fund Balance Trend. The STF renewal ballot packet does not include this information, in direct violation of ASWWU's own rules.
Source: STF Ballot Packet; Elections Code Article II
In May 2024, WWU signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the WWU Divest Apartheid Coalition, making specific commitments with deadlines of August 2024 and Fall 2024. By February 2026, Senator El Nagar presented to both the Senate and EB that most demands remained unmet and the last demand was set to expire in May 2026. The administration signed a structured legal agreement and then failed to meet its obligations. As of the documents reviewed, AS government had passed no formal resolution demanding compliance.
Source: Senate Minutes 2/18/26; EB Minutes 2/19/26; Senate Minutes 4/22/26
"Presents regarding a statement of demands that have not been followed through on from this 2024 MOU."
Senator El Nagar, Senate Meeting 2/18/26In January 2025, the ASWWU Elections Coordinator accepted a legislative internship and resigned. The Elections Code designates the Coordinator as the decision-maker for all election grievances, whose decisions are "final and cannot be appealed," and chair of the Elections Advisory Committee. Rather than holding a formal vote or special election to fill this critical position, the advisor informally redistributed duties. Neither governing body formally voted on how to handle this vacancy. The entire 2025 election cycle operated under structurally compromised oversight.
Source: EB Minutes 1/7/25; Senate Minutes 2/12/25
When VP University Operations Esther Davis announced her graduation at end of Winter 2026, the EB voted to fill the vacancy by appointment rather than special election (5-1-0, 2/5/26). The initial appointment candidate received a 3-3 tie vote and failed. Immediately after, without reopening the application pool, the EB voted on a second candidate (4-2-1, passed). A 40-minute executive session preceded these votes. Students had no voice in selecting who represents them for the Spring term.
Source: EB Minutes 2/5/26, 2/19/26, 2/26/26
The official minutes file for the May 22, 2024 Senate meeting contains only a meeting header template with all content fields blank. All members are listed as N/A, no motions are recorded, and no discussion is documented. Either no minutes were ever produced for this meeting, or a blank template was uploaded in error. This meeting has no public record.
Source: AS Senate/2023-2024/aswwu-senate-minutes-5222024.pdf
A Senate meeting was held March 11, 2026, and an agenda and document packet both exist. Minutes were referenced in the 4/8/26 meeting as a consent agenda item, but no separate minutes file for 3/11/26 appears in the document archive. What happened at this meeting has no publicly accessible record.
Source: AS Senate/2025-2026/
The April 16, 2026 Executive Board meeting was formally cancelled with no public reason stated. The April 9, 2026 minutes reference concern about an event that was "understood to have the intent to disrupt campus," suggesting the meeting was cancelled to avoid a political protest rather than for a legitimate administrative reason. The Washington Open Public Meetings Act requires adequate notice of cancellations and cannot be used to avoid politically uncomfortable situations.
Source: 4_16_26_EB_Meeting_Cancellation_Notice.pdf; EB Minutes 4/9/26
On at least three Executive Board meetings (December 4, 2025; February 19, 2026; February 26, 2026), the ASWWU Governance Advisor (Adam Lorio) served as Meeting Secretary and produced the official minutes. The Governance Advisor is also responsible for ensuring procedural compliance at meetings. When the same person advises on procedure and produces the official record of what happened, procedural errors are less likely to be accurately captured.
Source: EB Minutes 12/4/25, 2/19/26, 2/26/26
The Elections Code, a lengthy document governing all ASWWU elections and grievance processes, was approved as a consent agenda item at the 2/25/26 Senate meeting (SEN-26-W-25). Consent items are approved without any discussion. The Code had just been substantially revised and contains a provision stating all grievance decisions are "final and cannot be appealed," eliminating due process for election disputes. Placing it on the consent agenda effectively prevented any public deliberation about its contents.
Source: Senate Minutes 2/25/26
At the 3/12/25 Senate meeting, Senator Bauer moved to add a fourth candidate for an At-Large Senate vacancy after the official application period had closed and other candidates had already submitted written responses to required screening questions. The new candidate had been attending meetings but had not submitted the required written responses. The motion passed 11-4-2. Adding a candidate who bypassed the established vetting process is unfair to candidates who followed the rules.
Source: Senate Minutes 3/12/25
At the October 8, 2025 Senate meeting, the first vote for Vice Chair showed 6 Aye, 5 Nay, 2 Abstain, not a majority of the 14 voting members. A recount was held and showed 9 Aye, 5 Nay, 1 Abstain, a difference of 3 votes in a 14-member body. It is unclear whether votes were counted accurately or whether members changed their votes between counts.
Source: Senate Minutes 10/8/25
ASVP for Activities Ruby Stegeman served as the elected sponsor of the Athletics Fee Referendum. The ASVP Activities oversees student programs that would receive proportionally larger S&A allocations if Athletics leaves the fee pool, creating a direct financial interest in the referendum's passage. Stegeman organized meetings with individual senators to lobby for the referendum before it was formally filed, and EB meeting time was used to "workshop strategies to pass athletics through senate." The Elections Code states ASWWU resources cannot be used to endorse or speak out against a ballot measure during an active election.
Source: EB Minutes 2/5/26, 2/12/26
At the 3/12/25 Senate meeting, a senator stated that someone had approached him about concerns regarding biased funding decisions in the prior year's activities council. No formal investigation was opened. The matter was informally folded into the Ethics Workgroup proposal, which itself was never constituted. The student who raised concerns received no response. Allegations of biased student funding decisions should receive formal investigation, not informal disposal.
Source: Senate Minutes 3/12/25
The Senate voted on 3/12/25 to create an Ethics Taskforce. The Executive Board voted on 4/28/25 to form an Ethics Workgroup. Neither workgroup appears to have held a meeting, produced any output, or reported back to the originating body through April 2026. Creating ethics oversight bodies that are then never constituted provides the appearance of accountability without its substance.
Source: Senate Minutes 3/12/25; EB Minutes 4/28/25
In January 2025, the Faculty Senate voted to reduce student voting rights on faculty committees. By February 2025, the Faculty Senate Handbook was being revised to remove student voting status. Student government discussed this in multiple meetings but passed no formal resolution demanding restoration of student voting rights. A loss of academic governance power was absorbed without formal opposition.
Source: EB Minutes 1/7/25; Senate Minutes 1/15/25, 2/12/25
The STF fund is collecting $1,051,143/year but only spending $624,150 (FY25). The surplus has grown dramatically: FY23 approximately $52K, FY24 approximately $259K, FY25 approximately $427K. Students may be paying into a fund with over $600,000 in accumulated reserves and have no way of knowing it because the required Fund Balance Statement was omitted from the renewal ballot packet.
Source: STF Ballot Packet; Elections Code Article II
The FY26 budget for the Office of Civic Engagement, which runs ASWWU elections, was cut from $101,953 to $77,646, a 23.8% reduction. This cut occurred the same academic year in which the Elections Coordinator resigned and the role was informally restructured, creating maximum vulnerability in ASWWU's election infrastructure at exactly the wrong moment.
Source: FY26_ASWWU_Gov_Advising_Budget_Summary_2_24_25.pdf
A special meeting was called on 1/31/25 to address underutilization of allocated VP hours. VPs were averaging 9.425 hours/week against a 15-hour budget allocation, meaning approximately 37% of allocated VP work time was not being utilized while students continued paying fees that fund these positions. A new accountability system was adopted at this meeting but no follow-up in subsequent minutes shows whether underutilization was corrected.
Source: EB Special Meeting Minutes 1/31/25
The Legislative Action Fee Renewal (increase from $1.00 to $1.25/quarter) funds WWU's membership in the Washington Student Association (WSA). But in November 2025, WWU's own leadership described WSA as potentially "not financially viable." WSA dues had already increased from $1 to $1.50 per student. The referendum ballot language does not tell students that their fees may be funding an organization that could collapse, similar to Oregon's equivalent association, which already folded.
Source: EB Minutes 11/20/25; LAF Fiscal Note
This Is Not One Bad Decision. It Is a System.
Across 1,488 documents, four consistent patterns emerge from 2024 to 2026.
Major decisions affecting students, including S&A Fee restructuring, Recycling Center outsourcing, VU Gallery closure, Outback Farm Manager elimination, and Faculty Senate voting rights, were made by administration before student government was consulted. Student government consistently positions itself as reacting to decisions rather than shaping them.
Both the Ethics Workgroup and Ethics Taskforce were formally voted into existence and never constituted. The Special Meeting for the Accessibility Resolution failed to quorum and was never rescheduled. Activities Council bias allegations were raised and then dropped. The Divest Apartheid MOU commitments remain unmet. The pattern is theatrical accountability: formal votes that create the appearance of action while underlying issues go unaddressed.
The Athletics Fee Referendum was rejected by both governing bodies in April 2025 and re-submitted in February 2026. EB meeting minutes show that ASWWU leadership was actively strategizing to overcome the prior democratic defeat rather than respecting it as a democratic outcome. The phrase "workshopping strategies to pass athletics through senate" appears directly in official agenda records.
Both the Executive Board and Senate routinely fill vacancies by appointment rather than special election. The cumulative effect is that a significant portion of elected officer seats are occupied by people who were never elected by students. This reduces the democratic character of the government while keeping the appearance of elected representation intact.
The Spring 2026 AS Election Is Happening Now.
Voting YES on the Athletics Fee Referendum means rewarding a student government that rejected it democratically, then brought it back anyway. Vote NO, and stay informed.