A group of students who visited a Tucson strip club during a student-funded trip in March included two ASU student leaders, according to a student government official.
Sophie O'Keefe-Zelman, the newly elected Undergraduate Student Government president, and Tracy Chavis, the new Graduate and Professional Student Association president, were among those who visited the club, according to the high ranking student government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Arizona Students' Association Executive Director Maceo Brown, board member James LaBar and other students also were in the group that visited the strip club during a trip to the Arizona Board of Regents' tuition-setting meeting in Tucson on March 11 and 12, the source said.
The ASA is an organization that lobbies regents and legislators on behalf of student interests and is funded by a $2 annual fee paid by all university students in the state.
The ASA traveled to the UA to have its own meeting and also to lobby the regents to approve a tuition amount lower than what the university presidents had recommended. The regents passed the tuition amounts as recommended.
After the regents' meeting, the group of students visited the strip club.
While ASA funds covered travel expenses, the cost of food and hotel rooms for the board members, GPSA President Brian Collier said none of the ASU delegates used ASA money at the club.
Russell Reiten, an ASA director from Northern Arizona University, told The State Press last Thursday that the he went on the outing and that the students who went did not use ASA funds there.
He said the trip to the club was a bachelor party for LaBar.
LaBar told The State Press "it was a harmless bachelor party with friends."
O'Keefe-Zelman issued a statement to the newspaper that said there were no ASA or student government funds used during the strip club outing.
Chavis also issued a statement. "My decision to attend a friend's bachelor party on my personal time and expense is separate from my role in student government," she said.
Chavis added that because she hadn't yet been elected to her position atop the GPSA in March, she was not an ASA delegate.
Over the weekend, Brown denied the student government official's allegations. Brown said he did not go with the students and knew nothing of the trip.
"I did not go to any club," he said.
USG President Brandon Goad went on the trip to Tucson, but said he did not visit the strip club.
ASU spokeswoman Nancy Neff could not comment on the incident specifically, but said that all student code of conduct cases are handled through Judicial Affairs and that no information is available on individual cases.
Due to their positions in student government, the students may have violated the ASU Extra-Curricular Conditions for Participation code by visiting the strip club.
The University implemented the code in 2002 after then-student government vice president Brian Buck was found to have participated in a pornographic video and was removed from office.
The code states that the privilege to participate in ASU extra-curricular activities "is conditioned on the important responsibility to represent the University with honor, dignity and integrity."
The policy also says that the code applies not only when students are directly involved in the extracurricular activity, but also extends to "all other conduct on and off campus."
The Conditions for Participation apply to membership in recognized student organizations and elected or appointed offices in student government, as well as any activity in which the student could be seen as representing the University.
Janessa Bailey, an ASA board member from NAU, said she did not go to the club.
"I don't think this will affect our relationship with the regents," she said. "We have a good working relationship with them."
Regent Ernest Calderon, who helped to create the ASA, commented on the incident via e-mail.
"My advice would be 'Now that they've been there, they have no need to go back,' " he wrote. "Life is a process of learning lessons. I'm sure they recognize that time is better spent in other pursuits. But you have to live in order to learn."
Reach the reporter at lindsay.butler@asu.edu.
