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Multiple cheerleaders said that individual cheerleaders incur personal debt to help pay for equipment such as socks, shoes and bows. These costs are initially paid by the organization, but the members reimburse the group. "It’s a lot of little things that add up to a lot," Elston said. Current captain Addie Maxfield said she has spent $100 on cheerleading this year and approximately $250 last year.

According to invoices obtained by the Oracle, the Cheerleaders were billed on Sept. 14, 2005 for a $3,213.15 purchase (including shipping charge) to Varsity Spirit Fashions Cheerleader and Danzteam, which is based out of Memphis, Tenn. The team purchased 15 racerback tanks, v-neck sleeveless polos and other uniform items. Then-senior and captain Ashley Bystrom is listed on the invoice as placing the order.

In last year’s HUSC budget, the cheerleaders’ uniforms line item was $300 out of $1,100 total budget. In order to defer the costs of uniforms, the Cheerleaders fundraised last year. According to a budget analysis prepared by HUSC treasurer Pete Winiecki, the cheerleaders made three deposits to their fundraising account. Two were made on Sept. 21, 2005 for $282 and $1,682.20. A third deposit of $600 was made on Nov. 10, 2005. The Cheerleaders earned this final deposit through a matching fundraising challenge grant provided by HUSC. These deposits, totaling $2,564.20, were the only deposits made to the Cheerleader’s fundraising account.

By the time Bystrom turned in the $3,213.15 invoice and its relating check request to Winiecki in early April of 2006, the bill to Varsity Spirit was almost seven months late. Bystrom said the bill was incorrectly sent to the gymnastics team and the Cheerleaders did not receive it until January. The Cheerleaders treasurer Katie Vaughan quit the team in February, further complicating the issue. Vaughan did not return phone calls.

Winiecki approves and signs all purchase orders, check requests and requisition forms and thus authorizes all of the spending out of all HUSC accounts, including the Cheerleaders’ account. Former HUSC president Shanelle Evens, who was HUSC’s treasurer before Winiecki, said by the time the cheerleaders had purchased the uniforms, Winiecki was in control of the congress’s finances.

Purchase orders are used to secure a purchase and require a budget authority to authorize its use. Winiecki says he did not authorize a purchase order for Varsity Spirit for Bystrom. Bystrom said a purchase order was authorized and signed, but she doesn’t remember by whom.

In addition, the Cheerleaders purchased personalized embroidered sweatshirts from the Graphic Edge, a company out of Carroll, Iowa, on Aug. 22, 2005. This expense was to be absorbed by the individual cheerleaders. The cheerleaders did not have a line item for clothing last year, and HUSC rarely purchases clothing for student organizations, Winiecki said, who is in his second year serving as HUSC treasurer.

“Traditionally, no, we don’t buy clothing,” Winiecki said.

Again, Winiecki said he never authorized a purchase order for the Graphic Edge. Bystrom said a purchase order was authorized, but doesn’t remember who authorized it.

Bystrom submitted the check request to pay the Graphic Edge to Winiecki on Nov. 30, 2005. However, Winiecki said that he was not leery of the purchase because the Cheerleaders were actively fundraising at the time.

’I had no control’

Winiecki said he had no knowledge of these purchases until Bystrom brought him the receipts. Winiecki did not know that the cheerleaders didn’t get the bill until January.

“As a treasurer, I can’t do a damn thing unless I have a bill,” Winiecki said.

Yet Winiecki says no cheerleader ever came to him prior to purchasing the uniforms and sweatshirts, and thus he had no knowledge of the Cheerleaders’ purchases until he was given the invoices.

“I had no control over something I should have had control over,” Winiecki said.

Winiecki said he had to pay the bill to Varsity Spirit, because the company had an overdue account with the university.

“I can’t not pay the bill,” Winiecki said.

“This is an outstanding bill, and it’s not necessarily the cheerleaders on the hook, it’s Hamline University,” Winiecki said in a later interview.

Winiecki said he was able to gather the necessary funds by pooling the remaining budgets “under the big umbrella of HUSC funds,” of organizations which had a surplus at the end of the year. If those funds had not been there, Winiecki said, the congress could have paid the bill through the Contingency fund (which is easy to access) or the Reserve fund (which is very difficult to access, as it requires four-fifths of HUSC roll call to approve access).

Complicating the issue, the Cheerleaders were given a budget last spring for the current fiscal year. The current budget of $1,400 was given to them by the Economic Affairs Committee (EAC) last spring, before Bystrom turned in the bills from Varsity Spirit.

What is not clear is what was used to secure the purchase of the uniforms. Representatives from the Graphic Edge and Varsity Sports said they were given purchase order numbers. Yet Winiecki maintains that he did not authorize purchase orders to those companies for those purchases. In addition, Lisa Ailes, a sales representative from Varsity Spirit, said she did not receive faxed hard copy of a purchase order, thus leaving a missing piece of the paperwork potentially not filled out. Bystrom said a physical purchase order was faxed to Varsity Spirit’s corporate office.

Former cheerleader and captain Meghan Swanberg, who graduated with Bystrom and quit the team in August of 2005, had no knowledge of the purchase. In addition, cheerleaders sophomore Jeanna Blomme and junior Addie Maxfield, said they had no knowledge of the purchase. Maxfield is one of this year’s captains.

Current leaders accept debt

On Nov. 2, EAC voted 5-3 to take all but $100 of the Cheerleader’s current budget and apply $1,300 to the current debt. They also stipulated that the Cheerleaders must repay the remaining $153.52 debt at least one week before budgeting weekend this spring, or not receive a budget for fiscal year 2007-08. Cheerleaders were not present at the meeting. These stipulations were accepted by co-captains Maxfield and junior Sarah Elston, which they stated in a letter given to EAC a few weeks prior to the Nov. 2 meeting. In an interview after EAC decided to apply the Cheerleaders' current budget to the debt, Maxfield said EAC’s sanctions were expected.

HUSC bylaws stipulate that EAC is charged with ensuring all student funds are spent legitimately, and that overspending by an individual or group of student congress will not be tolerated. The bylaws also set forth EAC’s authority to sanction a HUSC-affiliated student organization by any one of the following a) not reimbursing the overspending; b) subtracting the overspending from next year’s budget; c) establishing a funding agreement with the organization; or d) freezing the group funding at the discretion of EAC.

Senior representative Tim McDonald, a four-year member of EAC, who has been the HUSC member most critical of the cheerleaders, voted against the punishment. In his view, it is unfair to other student organizations that the cheerleaders can apply their entire budget to one line item, something no other student organization is allowed to do.

Independent funding

The Cheerleaders are searching for alternative means of funding their organization, however.

To help defer the costs of the growing program under a sanctioned budget, the team has planned two fundraisers this fall. The first fundraiser, selling t-shirts, profited $500, Maxfield said.

In addition, the Cheerleaders are raffling off a pair of cruise tickets and the corresponding round-trip airfare. Maxfield said each of the 14 cheerleaders is expected to sell 75 tickets at $10 apiece. The money for the first 30 tickets is due on Wednesday, Maxfield said. If all the money comes in, Maxfield said, the cheerleaders will have enough to cover the cost of the cruise and the 17 basketball uniforms for winter season. If each cheerleader sells 75 tickets, the organization could make over a $5,000 profit.

Maxfield was unsure if the Cheerleaders would go to HUSC to match fundraising through the congress’s challenge grant fund, which allows an organization to ask HUSC to match fundraising profits of up to $1,000 up to twice each year.

Winiecki said that if the cheerleaders came, they would be looked at with scrutiny, as they are not in good standing with HUSC and EAC, as opposed to other student organizations.
When it came time to purchase new uniforms for new cheerleaders, the team approached the Piper Athletic Association (PAA) for support. At their July 17 meeting, the PAA approved a one-time donation of $1,000 to the Cheerleaders, Director of Athletic Development Dana Johnson said.