In the wake of Seth Bender's controversial resignation as Penn State College Republicans chairman, the group is enduring the aftermath, including squabbles with money, e-mail and access to the group's office.

The group's remaining officers are upset over Bender temporarily giving himself exclusive access to the group's funds, deleting the group's e-mail lists and allegedly not returning keys to their office in the HUB-Robeson Center.

Bender, meanwhile, called their statements "incredibly petty."

"Seth is vindictive," College Republicans executive director Tiffany Iriana said. "He is simply trying to make the function of the club as difficult as possible."

Bender, facing possible impeachment, resigned Wednesday night at beginning of the group's meeting. Charles Gable, the group's adviser, resigned immediately after Bender.

College Republicans treasurer Dane Peterson said on Thursday he sought to remove Bender from the list of persons allowed to make purchase orders through the group's Associated Student Activities (ASA) account, only to find Bender had listed himself a0s the new treasurer of the organization.

"University policy and our club's constitution both state that it's the treasurer who has sole access to our funds," Peterson said.

Peterson said he had to consult senior associate direc-

tor for Unions and Student Activities Judy Albin, who helped him re-list himself as treasurer of the College Republicans.

Bender defended his change to the group's account, saying he only temporarily made himself the treasurer to reimburse the College Republicans' former adviser, Charles Gable, for funds.

"There's no issue of any sort there," Bender said. "I even asked ASA if I should switch the names back. The individual in the office told me that I didn't have to worry about that, so it was no big deal at all."

The College Republicans have two keys to their office in the HUB, Iriana said. One key is set aside to be used by the chairman; the other is available for any group member to check out from the HUB information desk if their name is on a list of active members, she added.

The morning after Bender's resignation, Brandon Means, the group's vice chairman, tried to check out the active member key.

"They said the keys were out," Means said. "We asked to see who had it, and they told us Seth did. [The key list] had been changed. He was the only name on the list at that time."

Bender said that, when he looked at the list of active members who are able to access the key, he noticed names of people who had graduated and others who were no longer with College Republicans.

"I thought it was best to start from scratch," he said.

Bender insisted he gave the active member key back to the HUB information desk Thursday and that he intended to return his chairman's key today.

"I don't have any intention of keeping the key or doing anything with an ASA account," Bender said.

Penn State Research Associate Bill Verity, who handles the university's e-mail lists, said Bender sent him an e-mail asking to have the College Republicans' e-mail list deleted.

"I was the administrator of the listserv; I had it deleted," Bender said. "I felt that it was within my jurisdiction to do so."

Iriana said she has been working with Verity to get it reinstated.

"I'm actually putting it back," Verity said. "It will be just like it was before."