Gary A. Shivers, who was formerly in charge of Residence Halls Association's main budget, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of embezzling $200 to $1,000 from RHA on July 19.

Shivers, who graduated in May with an accounting degree, was originally charged with two felony counts of embezzlement, but the prosecutor lowered the charges to a misdemeanor in a plea agreement. The bargain also includes no up-front jail time, defense attorney Andrew Wilkins said.

This was partly because Shivers had no previous record of felonies or misdemeanors, Wilkins said.

"Everything else in his life up to this moment showed that he was a regular MSU student with a clear record," he said. "He felt that the way to resolve this was to admit he made a mistake."

On May 24, RHA's finance records were turned in to the police suggesting that Shivers had spent $4,500 of RHA's money to buy gift certificates at Best Buy and Value City, RHA President Kevin Newman said.

Shivers is not being held in jail and was scheduled for sentencing on Aug. 22.

"People were pretty shocked," Newman said. "Even though we knew he was guilty, this just made it real."

Newman said there is no reason to believe that Shivers had done anything else wrong during his two-year career with RHA.

"All the evidence is pointing that it was something at the end of his tenure," he said.

No one expected this from Shivers, RHA spokesman and communications senior Geoff Schwartz said.

"It boggles my mind, personally," he said. "We are an organization really dedicated to honest people."

RHA is trying to find an accounting firm to assess its budget practices to avoid any future incidents, Newman said.

This is in part due to a suggestion from ASMSU, Student Assembly Chairperson Andrew Schepers said.

ASMSU is audited every year by an external accounting firm to help avoid mistakes, the political science and pre-law senior said.

Newman said he expects the process to finish by the beginning of fall semester.

"The goal is to be proactive, not reactive," Schwartz said.

Schepers said he was impressed by the way the situation was handled.

"The folks at RHA are really taking this in a responsible way," the political science and pre-law senior said. "It's very commendable to say to the public, 'Hey, someone in our organization screwed up. We found the problem and took care of it right away.'"

Newman said he is just happy the situation is over.

"We just want to make sure we get full restitution," he said.

If RHA receives the $4,500 back this summer, it will go toward the fall budget. If not, it will go to a general fund, Newman said.