USAC to submit petition to Judicial Board to investigate Rustom Birdie’s alleged conflict-of-interest violation
Rustom Z. Birdie's e-mail to the Daily Bruin
On Feb. 8, Financial Supports Commissioner Rustom Z. Birdie contacted The Bruin from his office's e-mail address, [email protected]. Birdie addressed the e-mail to Kelly Zhou, an assistant news editor, and Cody Geib, a Bruin contributor. Birdie also carbon copied Farzad Mashhood, editor in chief. Birdie has since said he has cut off all ties with Jobbook.com. The full, unedited text of the e-mail is below; his personal contact information has been redacted for privacy.
Hi Cody and Kelly,
I wanted to share a program/serivce my office, USAC FSC, is bringing to the UCLA campus. It's called Jobbook (http://www.jobbook.com/) and was launched worldwide last week. Here is the Facebook event for it as well: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jobbook/173929515983119. It is basically the brain child of a Canadian lawyer in Montreal named Jean de Brabant and is a website that helps students out of college find jobs; it is completely free to use. Jean needed representatives from student governments of colleges around the world and I represent UCLA the same way others do at Stanford, Berkeley, USC, Princeton, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, LSE and many many more. My office is marketing, advertising and educating Bruins about the benefits of Jobbook. Of course all this ties in well with financial supports and in fact one of the goals I'm working on (with the Career Center and the Alumni Association) is to have a free (or reduced cost) jobs website for graduating seniors.
Since this is something backed by several top level employers (Accenture, Air Canada to name a few) it is sure to go viral pretty soon and Daily Bruin coverage would be great for publicizing it to the Bruin population. I'm hoping you are interested in this story and looking forward to sharing more information with you.
Have a great rest of the week,
Rustom Z Birdie
Financial Supports Commissioner, Undergraduate Students Association Council
usac.ucla.edu/fsc
By Serli Polatoglu
Feb. 18, 2011 2:05 a.m.
Correction: The original version of this headline was unclear. As of publication, the Judicial Board had not decided to investigate the alleged conflict-of-interest.
Undergraduate student government officials said an investigation will be initiated regarding Financial Supports Commissioner Rustom Z. Birdie’s alleged conflict-of-interest violation.
The Undergraduate Students Association Council first learned that Birdie signed a contract to promote startup Web company Jobbook.com on Monday following a Daily Bruin inquiry. Birdie declined to comment for this story.
In a statement released Thursday, USAC President Jasmine Hill said Birdie planned to personally ask the Judicial Board to investigate the matter within the next few days. The Judicial Board is currently comprised of six students who are appointed by USAC to enforce the Undergraduate Students Association constitution and bylaws.
Hill cited the importance of the council’s transparency and integrity.
“Students on council took this conflict-of-interest allegation very seriously,” said Willard Tressel, USAC alumni representative.
Tressel said consequences for Birdie will be discussed once the Judicial Board’s investigation is completed.
The Office of the Dean of Students may become involved if it appears a student’s actions violated university policy.
If a student is found to have promoted an outside company while using university property ““ for example, university computers, flyers or e-mail accounts ““ there could be a problem, said administrative adviser Debra Geller. Geller said she could not comment specifically on Birdie.
In a statement to the UCLA community, Birdie said he did not use university property to promote Jobbook.
But when he first contacted The Bruin about Jobbook, Birdie used his official USAC e-mail and referred to the program as a Financial Supports Commission service.
Birdie has since cut off ties with Jobbook and has not received compensation for his work with the site, according to his statement.
Geller said acting as a marketing representative for a website is equivalent to having a part-time job, which university policy allows. But conflict of interest may be a concern when elected officials are involved, she added.
“Just because something is … legal, it does not mean it’s the best idea. So, if there is no violation, we might still say that it doesn’t mean you were smart in what you did,” Geller said.
Though the council is currently calling Birdie’s situation an alleged conflict-of-interest, there is nothing in the USAC bylaws or constitution clarifying which actions are inappropriate for a representative to take, Tressel said.
This is a problem, he said, and he thinks the council should reexamine its bylaws in light of these recent events.
