Editorial: Explaining the SGA budget reporting
Members of the Central Michigan University’s Student Government Association 2025-2026 Executive Cabinet recite an oath as they are sworn into office during thier meeting on Sept. 9, 2025 in Anspach Hall. (CM Life | Blace Carpenter)
Central Michigan Life covered the discrepancies in the budget of Central Michigan University’s Student Government Association last month. Later, we learned that the story didn’t contain the full information.
SGA Treasurer Carnell Poindexter brought up budget issues at SGA meetings. CM Life made multiple attempts to get ahold of Poindexter and was able to reach him at the end of the semester. In addition, when seeking a second source and an example of the budget challenges, CM Life interviewed Christian Dunn, chief of staff for SGA.
Dunn told CM Life on Nov. 24 that his stipend was accidentally assigned to another position. His full interview is attached below. The story ran with this information on Dec. 17.
But on Dec. 19, Dunn clarified that the mistake was made on the spreadsheet only, which was resolved, and he received his stipend. CM Life issued an update to the original story the same day.
As a result, CM Life was given incomplete information.
This situation has been a learning curve for us. We should have verified Dunn’s claim with another source, such as the organization’s supervisor and the paper records.
We take this lesson seriously and held an editing training for our leadership team ahead of the spring semester.
CM Life is committed to student journalism. We are guided by the Society of Professional Journalists' Code of Ethics, which tells us to seek truth and report it accurately.
Another important value for us is independence. When journalism is under pressure, we are dedicated to its purpose – informing our community so that it has the resources to govern itself in a democracy.
CM Life is an independent news organization; we are not CMU or the university communications. Our mission is to serve as the voice of the students and to hold those in power accountable.
To keep SGA accountable, we reported on its budget issues. The full budget of SGA is provided here.
We are going to grow from this lesson, and we stay dedicated to the freedom of student press.
