Watergate At CSU Stanislaus

Students at CSU Stanislaus discovered shredded documents pertaining to Sarah Palin's upcoming visit to the campus in a dumpster.




"This in fact is a dark day for the CSU, particularly for the Stanislaus campus," said Senator Leland Yee, quoted in the CFA's newsletter. "To some extent this is our own little Watergate here in California."

The documents, which the university claimed did not exist, included parts of the speaking contract between Palin and the university. The documents were found in a dumpster outside the school's administration building during a furlough day. Although the discovered documents did not reveal how much Palin is getting paid for the event - reported the Los Angeles Times - they did specify two round-trip, first-class commercial air tickets to the event city, a one-bedroom suite, two single rooms in a deluxe hotel, bottled water, and bendable straws.


The Attorney General Jerry Brown will launch a broad investigation into the alleged dumping of the documents, reported the San Francisco Chronicle. Brown will also look into whether the foundation uses its reportedly $20 million in assets for educational purposes.


"It is truly shocking and a gross violation of public trust that such documents would be thrown away and destroyed during a pending investigation," said Yee in the CFA newsletter. Yee was already criticizing the foundation for the secrecy of their contract with Palin, and was calling for the disclosure of their finances.

Several students retrieved the shredded documents after one of them received a call that the documents were being destroyed, reported the Times. "We were very shocked that documents such as these that the university had in their possession would be discarded like this," said Alicia Lewis, one of the students who found the papers, in an interview with the Times. "We started making contacts right then to make sure the documents were put in the right hands."

The controversy further exemplifies the need for government transparency and accountability says Yee.


The video, courtesy of Youtube, is the press conference of Yee and two of the students who discovered the documents.
Photo courtesy of the LATimes.com