By Ryan E. Smith
Fraudulent misrepresentation or merely a case of misunderstanding? Pat Collins, TC '96, has been accused of being "unethically ambitious" by the Conservative Forum for allegedly unlawfully changing the lease for the organization's office.
Since last fall, the Conservative Forum had leased space on the third floor of the Sherman Building on Chapel Street from the Schiavone Management Company. According to a member of the Forum who wished to remain anonymous, "Collins claimed to be a representative for the Conservative Forum, and he indicated that he should be allowed sole access to the office."
Then, he said, Collins proceeded to have the name on the lease transferred from the Forum's name to "Pat Collins and the Light and Truth Fund." However, the source explained that Collins, who is the Republican candidate for the Ward One Alderman seat, was no longer connected with the Forum in any way. "Starting in March, he was no longer a president or an executive of any kind. He had no business in the Conservative Forum," he said.
Collins, on the other hand, said that it was the Forum that had no business in the office. "The notion that there is a Conservative Forum is quite debatable," he said. He said that the lack of Forum activities and speakers led the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI), which provides its funding, to take action. "All actions that were taken in regard to the office were with respect to our assumption that they probably wouldn't care," he said.
Light and Truth had a much better claim to the office space since it needed it to layout its issue, whereas the Forum was not using it at all, Collins said. He further explained that he did not anticipate any problems in response to the action taken.
Forum officials maintain simply, however, that "The Conservative Forum should not have been evicted. If the action was taken because no one would object, they said, he should have waited until there was someone [back from summer break] to object," they said.
Whatever the reason, the name on the lease was allegedly transferred. But the conflict does not end there. Collins then proceeded to change the office's lock and maintain sole ownership of the key.
In a letter dated Aug. 30, Collins explained this move to the Commercial Leasing Agent for the Schiavone Management Company by saying that unauthorized members of the organization had entered the office and posed a security threat. "We have taken care of this problem by changing the locks, and hope that you will help us maintain a secure office environment," he wrote. "As of August 30, I will be the only person in our organization that has a key."
In the letter, he then instructed the company for forbid others involved with the Forum entrance to the office, even though all of the group's equipment was housed within. "You may be contacted by people who used to be active in our organization who still have property in the office," he wrote. "Please do not give him or anyone else access to the office."
According to the source within the Forum, Collins had access to the Forum's office previous to his procurement of the lease. The source said that since he was a former president of the group and his magazine, Light and Truth, which used to be under the umbrella of the Forum, needed to use the equipment, "in good faith we allowed them to continue to use the office." He went on to say that there is no doubt that the office rightfully belonged to the Conservative Forum since it had receipts showing that it had paid until September.
Collins, however, said that since ISI funds both the Conservative Forum and Light and Truth that the "ball was clearly in their court."
Dan Waldman, ES '98, said that what had befallen the Forum was not just the work of misfortune. "They did something wrong," he said. He said that after elections last semester, the organization "just sort of disintegrated." This lack of general activity and contact with ISI, he said, was the cause for ISI and Collins' action.
Collins said the measures taken to insure the security of the office were due to the vandalism of the group's computer by Conservative Forum members, which took the form of disablement by a password program.
The Forum maintained that the program was merely a screen saver program with a password option.
Whatever the reasons and motivations the Forum said that its loss of an office has hurt it greatly in preparing for this semester. According to Aaron Honn, TD '96, spokesman for the Conservative Forum, "In removing the office, the Conservative Forum has been deprived of its computers, furniture, phone, and central meeting place."
Honn called Collins' actions misrepresentation and said the Forum is still weighing its options as to how to respond. "The Conservative Forum is going to investigate the matter to determine whether it has any legal recourse," he said.
Collins said that this issue is merely being blown out of proportion to divert attention away from the Forum's failings. "The big picture is not the office. It is what did these guys do with what they had?" he said. "I'm just very disappointed with what's happened [to the organization]."
Representatives of ISI and the Schiavone Management Company were unavailable for comment.
Copyright 1995, The Yale Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
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