North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 88, No. 63, Ed. 1 Friday, January 23, 2004 Page: 3 of 8
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North Texas Daily
News
January 23, 2004 Page 3
Arrests
FROM PAGE 1
criminal activity. He is not be-
ing charged with theft. How-
ever, police believe that he
recruited several of his friends
into his mother's scheme.
As a trusted member of the
SLIS staff who has logged over
twenty years with the university
Dale could freely tap into NT ac-
counts with virtually no supervi-
sion and no fear of reprisal from
the university or police.
Police records indicate that
Dale told Bobak Lotfipur, one
of the unauthorized employees
on the SLIS payroll, "He would
not get in trouble because she
controls everything."
All 13 members involved in
the scheme have been arrest-
ed and charged with engaging
in organized criminal activity
and theft of varying amounts.
Dale did not answer phone
calls made to her house Thurs-
day night. The other people
arrested in this case could ei-
ther not be reached or refused
SGA
to comment.
According to Richard Deter,
NT chief of police, the inves-
tigation examined suspicious
payments dating back about
two years.
Police began the inves-
tigtion after an unnamed
university employee who
worked with Dale reported
her activities to Turner in
September of 2003.
Deter believes all members
of the theft ring have been
Marine
identified.
"For the last month we've
been coordinating and or-
ganizing the data," he said.
"We're pretty sure we've
turned over every rock."
Several university students
and officials expressed outrage
over Dale's alleged crimes.
"We're sad and angry this
happened," said Roddy Wol-
per, associate director of the
office of university communi-
cations and marketing.
The recent rash of embezzle-
ment schemes on the NT campus
has prompted university officials
to restructure the way many de-
partments delegate responsibil-
ity over fiduciary matters.
A new university-wide ac-
counting system that will
more closely monitor pay-
ments to employees is cur-
rently being installed, and
additional training is being
implemented to help employ-
ees identify fraud.
According to Wolper, the
new system will hopefully be
able to flag suspicious pay-
ments before they are issued.
These additional controls are
intended to squelch future misap-
propriations of university funds.
"It scares me that there
wasn't some sort of checks and
balances," said Dana O'Brien,
Denton graduate student.
FROM PAGE 1
ing of the day, Lindsey Bacon,
SGA vice president and Fred-
ericksburg senior, handles the
administrative functions such
as checking e-mails, filing
committee reports and return-
ing phone calls.
"A lot of things I end up
working on are concerns
and special projects that are
brought my way," Bacon said.
"Every day is different, which
is really cool."
While Griffis stands as the
aggressive voice of the stu-
dent body, Lindsey takes the
administrative role in their
team.
"It's part of our personali-
ties," Griffis said. "I'm a big-
picture guy, and Lindsey is re-
ally focused on the details."
"We have a different view on
everything," Bacon said. "But
sometimes it's helpful to have
a different point of view."
At the Union Board of Di-
rectors meeting, various top-
ics such as Union fee increases
and University Union renova-
tions are discussed. The board
is looking to increase fees by a
dollar, which will raise fees to
a total of $43. While Lindsey
abstains from speaking out,
Troy speaks up, adamantly
opposed to the increases the
Union is proposing.
"It's our job to worry about
the fees and services so the
students don't have to,"
Griffis said.
However, the board decides
to go ahead with the increase
because of several reasons, in-
cluding inflation.
Many meetings later, Griffis
now stands before a roomful
of eager freshman interns. He
encourages them to be active
participants in the SGA.
"Welcome to a meeting," he
says, laughing, to one intern
who didn't bring a pencil.
They discuss the need to
learn parliament procedures
and public-speaking skills.
"It's all about getting those
wheels moving," Griffis says.
Late into the night Griffis
still has a reading to do for
his double major of account-
ing and finance. He jokes that
"you can sleep when you're
dead."
"It's a challenge," he adds.
"But I was elected to do this
job and I really love it."
Daily Reporters Amanda
Carlton and Jennifer Manis
contributed to this story.
FROM PAGE 1
p.m. Thursday in the Silver
Eagle Suite in the University
Union. Most of those in at-
tendance were members of
the sponsoring group.
With the title of the lecture
being "Why it Pays to Fly
Marine," the majority of the
discussion was dominated
by technical naval aviation
jargon. Adams, however,
did mention some details of
his time in Iraq.
"We were flying 500 feet
over the desert in the mid-
dle of the night," explained
Major Adams, "... with
no moon light ... literally
watching the moving map
display."
Adams was called to duty,
from the reserves, on Jan. 14
of 2003 and was sent to the
Middle East for the Baghdad
campaign that began a few
months later. He said the
reality of his situation never
set in until the moment he
was fired at, while in flight,
by Iraqi 23mm guns.
"Then it sunk in ... these
guys are trying to kill us,"
Adams said.
Adams managed to get
himself through the situa-
tion and was stationed in Iraq
long enough to help with hu-
manitarian aid missions.
The planes that Adams
flew after the months of
combat were filled to ca-
pacity with things such as
school supplies, water and
religious figures to help ease
the pains of a war-stricken
land.
Trial
FROM PAGE 1
sor of computer education and technology cognition at NT for 14
years. He was indicted on federal drug charges on September 11,
2002 after being stopped in Pilot Point with firearms and almost
217 grams of methamphetamines.
Cobb could not be reached last night for comment. The US Dis-
trict Attorney Maureen E. Smith chose to hold her comments on
the trial until after the closing arguments.
Luncheon
FROM PAGE 1
said.
The amount of funding
that NT receives in contri-
butions is lower than that
of other large universities in
Texas.
"We have about one-
fourth of the scholarships
numbers of any of the major
universities in Texas," Jacobs
said when comparing NT's
scholarship funds to those of
UT-Austin and Texas A&M.
Jacobs said she is passionate
about increasing the num-
ber of scholarships for hard-
working students.
There was also a discus-
sion on the importance of
money management for NT
students, which was in large
part facilitated by Kenneth
Ballom, dean of students,
who said he will be holding
a money management work-
shop titled "Financing Your
Education: What Do You Do
Now?" on Jan. 28.
"We want to help students
avoid the pitfalls of not be-
ing financially aware of op-
portunities," Ballom said.
Representatives from
credit unions and Career
Services will be on hand
to educate students on us-
ing credit cards responsibly
and finding employment on
campus.
"We know that students
that work 20 hours or less a
week do better in class," Ja-
cobs said. "Anything more
than that and your grades
are in trouble."
The money-management
workshops will be held
Wednesday from noon to 2
p.m. in University Union 413
and from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. in
the Crumley Conference
Room. Students are encour-
aged to come out and learn
practical ways to manage
their money better.
Another hot spot for the
students was the NT Daily.
The main complaint was
the fact that the students
did not feel that they were
represented correctly and
were often misquoted. Erin
Causey, Dallas senior, com-
mented on being misquoted
by the Daily staff when she
was consulted for informa-
tion.
"They would quote me
incorrectly," said Causey. "It
makes me reluctant to ever
talk to the Daily again," she
said.
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North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 88, No. 63, Ed. 1 Friday, January 23, 2004, newspaper, January 23, 2004; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth145091/m1/3/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.