A Cal State Bakersfield student officer has run afoul of the university again.
Roger Eagleton, president of the Associated Students Inc., must apologize for allegedly threatening other students, according to a CSUB memo.

A few weeks ago Eagleton, along with former student Heather Sterk, was ordered to reimburse the university thousands of dollars.

The money must be paid back because the students claimed travel expenses for student conferences that they never attended, according to a Cal State Bakersfield committee audit.

On Friday, Eagleton said misunderstandings were to blame for the threats complaint and the travel expenses debacle.

The threat complaints stemmed from multiple arguments within the Associated Students office and from a voicemail Eagleton left for another student officer.

A memo from the Associated Students office to the university claimed that Eagleton threatened ASI staffers for months.

In the recorded voicemail, Eagleton told another staffer not to complain to an adviser that he was being threatened but that he was being threatened. The message contained many profanities, officials said.

On Friday, Eagleton said the message was taken out of context.

He disagreed that there were multiple threats, saying instead there was only one or two instances of flared tempers.

He added that some of the Associated Students officers are his fraternity brothers, and he thought they had an understanding that allowed them to communicate in a different way.

"They weren't threats. It was a disagreement with a fraternity brother," he said. "There was never any serious intention on my part. I would never do anything to harm them."

As for the travel expenses, Eagleton said he's working out an arrangement that's agreeable to him and CSUB.

CSUB spokesman Mike Stepanovich confirmed Friday that Eagleton "has begun discussions regarding repaying the money the audit committee determined he was not entitled to."

Eagleton originally said the audit findings were dead wrong.

Since then, he's looked at some of the documents and said he understands why the committee members believed what they did.

Still, Eagleton insisted that he attended the student conferences in question. He said after university "tempers calmed down," he was allowed to look at some travel documents and find "some discrepancies."

The Associated Students board will take the repayment issue to small claims court if payment arrangements aren't made by April 5, according to an agenda item approved March 12.

CSUB officials have also said Eagleton, despite the hubbub, will remain a student leader.

It would take signatures from 10 percent of the student body to hold a recall election, and the regular election for next year is nearly here, Stepanovich said.

Associated Students Executive Vice President Chris Burgy said he wished the university would intervene because ASI's rules are too weak to successfully unseat Eagleton.

CSUB can investigate misconduct, but it can't just oust a student officer, Stepanovich said.

"It's up to the ASI to solve its own problems. There is obviously a sort of a political situation here," he said.