A Couple of Observations on Graham's Remarks to the BOT

The Board of Trustees are meeting today in at the Du Bois campus. The big ticket on the agenda are tuition rates for the upcoming year. There's no news on that or much else coming out of meeting yet, beyond Graham's opening remarks.

Graham's discussion of applications and admissions did grab my attention for two reasons, one rhetorical, the other substantive.

As you heard throughout the year, our application and enrollment numbers look very strong for this year’s class. It is clear that this is another record setting year in the number of admissions applications received by Penn State.
Graduate applications are ahead of last year by 10 percent, and we have received more undergraduate applications to date than in any prior year. Applications to Dickinson are up 31 percent and applications to Hershey are up 7 percent. Out-of-state minority applications are ahead by 7 percent and Pennsylvania minority applications are ahead 8 percent. Total applications, for all campuses, are ahead by 6 percent compared to 2009.
Acceptances have been on pace so we fully expect to achieve the target of 7,350 new students for University Park summer and fall, and Commonwealth campus acceptances are shaping up to be record highs.
Out-of-state acceptances overall are up 17 percent compared to last year for University Park. This means that out-of-state students will comprise one-third of the incoming class. Almost 10 percent of the entering class will be international students.
Out-of-state paid accepts at the campuses are up 8 percent, which includes an increase in the international cohort. Most campuses will continue to accept applications and make offers into the summer. We will keep you informed as the numbers progress.

Note that Graham managed to talk about applications without repeating his favorite lie that Penn State is the most popular university in the country.

More substantially, I'm not sure what to make of Graham's claim that 17% increase in out-of-state acceptances over last year means that out-of-state students will comprise a third of the incoming class. Last year 34%,i.e. a little more than a third, of freshman were from out of state. 

Is Graham trying to downplay an actual increase in the percentage of out-of-state students in the new freshman class, have things actually not changed as a result of the increase in the percentage of accepts  or is something else at play? Someone should ask Graham about this.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, Spanier, Penn State Board of Trustees

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WTF?

At the end of this piece at StateCollege.com, on the 2% merit raises that Graham, who recently received a 12.9% raise, is promising Penn State's nonunion employees, is this

Now, with the news that state funding will be level for 2010-2011, it's not clear exactly how tuition rates may shake out.

"Right now, the (university) budget office is crunching numbers," [Old Main Bullshit Artist Lisa] Powers said. " ... I can't say for sure where the tuition increase will end up, but they're working diligently to keep it in the (three- to four-percent) range."

Is that true, is the budget office still crunching numbers on this years budget?  Penn State's appropriations for this year are exactly what the Governor originally proposed way back in January. There were no last minute surprises. Old Main should have had the numbers crunched on this scenario months ago. Consider that Old Main didn't even wait for its appropriations to pass the General Assembly when it announced back in early June that it was cutting Ag extension jobs based on Rendell's proposed budget. Something's odd here. What gives?

Well, it's possible that the options are all so bad that Graham's paralyzed and  can't decide what to do.  But that's not my guess as to what's going on.  I think that Old Main Bullshit Artist Lisa Powers is doing what comes naturally;she's reflexively lying.

What do you guys think?

Technorati Tags: Penn State, tution, Spanier, Rendell,

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Pittsburgh Tuition Tax Proposal is Still Alive

The despite the  reported demise of a proposal by Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl to tax college tuition it is in fact alive and well

Tuition tax battle lines began to emerge on Pittsburgh City Council today, as Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's Philadelphia legal gun laid out the case for the levy and encountered a conflicted council.
[...]
"When you tax post-secondary education, you are taxing something that is extra, that is beyond the basic requirement," said [Joseph C. Bright, former chief counsel to the state Department of Revenue who was brought in by the administration to add heft to its argument that a 1 percent levy on tuition is legal.]. "Is college essential in an economic sense? ... Not in the same sense" as education through high school.

Mr. Bright said the city is "going to win" a likely court fight over the tax, since state law gives municipalities broad power to tax "privileges," and nowhere excludes higher education. He said a tuition tax isn't a sales tax -- state legislation is needed to levy those -- nor is it preempted by a statutory ban on taxing admissions fees charged by nonprofit organizations.

"Tuition is not an admission fee, plain and simple," said Mr. Bright.

The problem this is tax is intended to address is one that the Centre Region faces as well.

"Property that was [previously] taxed was bought up by nonprofits, so that they could increase and be larger and larger," said Councilwoman Darlene Harris. Now there is no tax revenue from those properties. "Our residents are just struggling. I know I get complaints all the time that this isn't fixed and that isn't fixed. They're looking at the buildings that we have, and we can't [fix] it" because the city lacks money.

In other news from the nonprofit front,

Pittsburgh City Council today gave its initial approval to legislation to study the value of property held by tax-exempt institutions, estimate the cost of protecting and serving college and university students and then enter into negotiations for voluntary payments in lieu of taxes.

The 'Burgh may pave the way for the Centre Region.


Technorati Tags: Penn State, Pittsburgh, nonprofits, tuition tax

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Helping Penn State Live Up to Its Mission

The Collegian had a story earlier this week on Seth Williams' victory in his race for Philly DA. I'm very happy about that win and I'm sure that Seth will be an extremely good, progressive district attorney. But from some of the quotes in the story, it appears that he's lost touch with what Penn State has become since his days at Penn State when he fought valiantly to make the University a more inclusive place.

Williams, Class of 1989, said he owes his new job to a simple principle he learned from his father, one he used at Penn State and has stuck to ever since: "Unless you're willing to be part of the solution, you forfeit your right to complain."

[...]

At Penn State, Williams quickly showed his willingness to be part of the solution. He joined the Alphi Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., became president of Penn State's Black Caucus and was later elected president of the Undergraduate Student Government (USG).

But it wasn't always easy.

After Williams was elected president of USG, the Ku Klux Klan posted racist slurs about him around campus. He even received death threats.

The incidents never changed how much he loves the university, he said.

[...]

In 1989, Williams' senior year, protests erupted over the unwelcoming atmosphere for black students at Penn State.

Sit-ins were conducted at the Telecommunications Building until then-President Bryce Jordan promised to raise black attendance at Penn State to 8 percent.

Williams said the protests taught him to find similarities between people, rather than pointing out their differences. Finding common ground was what got him elected as district attorney, he said.

[...]

Williams said Penn State is a great university because it provides education for the middle class of Pennsylvania. He spent his time here making sure Penn State provided education for everybody, regardless of skin color or ethnicity."Penn State's mission is to provide an affordable and quality education for the working class," he said. "I wanted to help Penn State live up to its mission."

Twenty years ago Seth wanted a promise of a student body with 8% black representation. Today the student body is only 4% black. Seth believes that the University is great because it provides an education for Pennsylvania's middle class. But at what cost?  The debt load of graduation seniors averages $26, 800 and the total need based loans which parents take out-this is excluded from the student debt calculation-is  $57,615,173. That number is up from zero at the beginning of the decade.

Then there is the question of the most needy students.  At about the time (1992) that Seth graduated, 22.2% of Penn State University Park students had Pell Grants compared to 27.7% of students overall in Pennsylvania. Penn State's number had dropped to 18% in 2004 while the Pennsylvania number grew to 33.6% according to study done by the Education Trust (Dead link fixed here.). Today only  15% of  University Park students have  Pell Grants.

There is more on Penn State's abandonment of its mission in this University Faculty Senate report on Access and Affordability from a few years back.

I don't write this to be critical of Seth, because, as should be clear from his victory, he has been busy with other things and he is to be forgiven for losing touch his Alma Mater.  And while I don't think that his dream job-"As Williams prepares to take office in January, he said the only other job he would want is president of Penn State."-will open up anytime soon, I do think that there is a role that he can play right now to help Penn State "live up to its mission."

He could  field a progressive slate of alumni candidates for Board of Trustees election next year. Ideally I would love to see him be a part of that slate, but I understand that he will have a lot on his plate for the next few years. However, with his political connections I'm sure he could find a group of alumni  who will help Penn State "live up to its mission."  

It is  time for Seth to help finish the job he began two decades ago.

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Oh Graham, Oh Graham, How Deep Are Thy Pockets?

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, comes the following news.

Penn State mailed out second-semester tuition bills today with rates unchanged from the fall even as state funding remains in legislative limbo.

It would seem to me that Old Main must have been hoarding quite a bit the tuition increases from recent years.


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We Have Your Students and Unless We Receive the Money...Well You Don't Want to Know...

Spring semester tuition bills are set to go out soon and the Penn State and the other state-related universities still haven't received their appropriations from the state. Will tuition go up come January? That's what the presidents of the state-related universities suggested in a letter to House Speaker Keith McCall (D-Carbon). I guess the answer will come in the mail very shortly.
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Devastating

That's how the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette characterized Penn State Bullshit Artist Geoff Rushton's response to Rendell's proposed cuts to state-related universities. Old Main still has not outlined  its options should the cut go through. They continue to hold out hope that they can twist arms in Harrisburg to get the money.

"That proposed amount would certainly be a catastrophic cut to the university," Mr. Rushton said. "But at the same time, we anticipate that this will be resolved by [the Legislature and governor] over the coming months."

Pitt was a bit more willing to say what the consequences of the cut would be.

In a statement, Pitt said it was "stunned" by Mr. Rendell's moves and warned they would place "very significant new tuition burdens on tens of thousands of Pennsylvania students and their families."

Whatever the response of these schools, Rendell has sent a clear message to the state-related schools: As long as he doesn't have some control over their spending, he does not consider them fully public universites. Could this funding problem be resolved by restructing the governance of the schools and would Spanier and the Board of Trustees be willing to go along with any restructuring? That's a question an enterprising reporter should ask Rendell and Spanier.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, Pennslyvania budget, Penn State budget cut, tuition

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"Catastrophic"

Things have been quiet around Old Main this Spring and as I suggested at the end of this post, it maybe that the folks were hunkering down waiting to see what happens with the budget maneuvering in Harrisburg. With the July 1^rst deadline looming, the state budget battle is heating up. Today Governor Rendell suggested a 13% cut to the Penn State budget which someone in the Old Main Propaganda Shop described as "catastrophic."

It is too soon to tell how things will play out in the budget negotiations, but it is now certainly nail biting time. What happens if the cuts go through? Will Old Main hike tuition more than the 4.5% that it suggested in March? ....more than the 5.5% it originally proposed? Or will Old Main begin to layoff staff and non-tenure track faculty? Will it halt infrastructure work? Certainly if the cut goes through we will see what type of leader Graham really is.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, Pennsylvania budget, Penn State budget cut, tuition

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The Hundred Million Dollar Plus Question

I've put together a little slide show for you based on Penn State's Audited Financial Statements covering fiscal years ending June 30 of 2000 through 2008. This show tells the story of how Penn State uses its revenues from tuition, fees, and state appropriations.



A story you hear all of the time from Graham is that the Commonwealth doesn't support Penn State the way it once did, but, to the extent that this is true, it is only part of the story. This part of the story, the revenue side, is captured in slide number two.

In 2000, the Commonwealth appropriated 57 cents for every dollar of fees and tuition (Henceforth I'll use the shorthand tuition .) that Penn State collected. The amount of dollars of appropriations per dollar of tuition has decreased every year since. Last year it stood at 29 cents of appropriations for every dollar of tuition. While over those nine years appropriations have gone up, they have have done so at a much slower rate than tuition.

The other side of the story is the spending side. It's difficult to trace from the audited financial statements exactly how Penn State uses all of its money, but the audit does list four categories of direct expenditure on students: instruction, academic support, student aid, and student services.

The story of direct expenditure on students is told in slides three and four. In 2000, Penn State spent $1.03 on instruction for every dollar of tuition it collected. By 2002, this had dropped below a dollar for the first time and steadily declined until 2007, when it stood at $0.78 spent on instruction for each dollar of tuition collected. It bounced up to $0.79 last year. Student aid has never been a penny or more per dollar of tuition and it was dropped as a category in the 2007 audit. Academic support, which started out at $0.37 spent per dollar of tuition collected in 2000, has dropped every year but one until it reached $0.25 spent on academic support per tuition dollar collected last fiscal year. Student services has declined slowly over the nine years form $0.15 spent per dollar of tuition collected to $0.12 spent per dollar of tuition collected.

The revenue and spending sides of the story lead to the final part of the story, surpluses.

The total direct expenditures on students has gone from $1.55 per dollar of tuition collected in 2000 to $1.16 in 2008. The way to look at this is that in 2000 the University spent all of its tuition revenue plus 55 cents of appropriations revenue for every dollar of tuition revenue it spent directly on students. That left $0.02 of appropriations for every tuition dollar to be spent on things other than students. By 2007, the University was spending all of its tuition revenue plus $0.15 of appropriations for every dollar of tuition it spent on direct student expenditure. This left $0.16 of state revenues per dollar of tuition to spend on things other than students. That surplus is a factor of 8 greater than what it was in 2000.

The complete story of the surpluses is told in slides four, five and six.

To fully appreciate the magnitude of these surpluses one must look at the actual dollar amounts. In 2000, Penn State had a bit more than $11 million left over from tuition and appropriations after all direct expenditures on students were made. In 2002, it was more that $26 million. It nearly doubled the following year to a bit more than $52 million. In 2007, it was over $169 million. It dropped to a tad more than $149 million last year.

The bottom line is that Penn State currently takes in much more in tuition, fees and appropriations, than it spends on education, academic support, and student services. Hence, while they may not know it, when students lobby the Commonwealth for more appropriations or to be included in Rendell's Tuition Relief Act, they aren't asking for more money for their education, because the University already has more than enough money for that, they are asking for more money for things not directly connected to their education.

But what are those things? That's the $100 million plus question.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, Penn State budget, Tuition, Tuition Relief Act, Spanier, Rendell

Tomorrow is St. Patty's Day and...

...Governor Rendell is scheduled to meet with student leaders at 10:45am over, I am assuming, his Tuition Relief Act which leaves student's at state-related schools out in the cold. I do have one piece of advice for those leaders:don't run down the the Phyrst for a quick one before the meeting.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, Gov. Rendell, Tuition Relief Act, humor

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Irony Alert

The Penn State Propaganda Portal

They're alluring, they're glossy and they're filling up your mailbox. The flower and vegetable gardening catalogs have arrived, and a specialist in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences has tips to avoid being seduced by a pretty picture while harvesting useful information.

The expensively photographed catalogs are meant to mesmerize gardeners who are planning their spring plots while winter's snow still covers the ground. But Ginger Pryor, state coordinator for Penn State's Master Gardeners program, says before immersing yourself in the catalog, take a minute to decide whether you want lots of pretty flowers, a bountiful harvest for canning or a season-long supply of fresh vegetables.

"A lot of people plant things because they see a pretty picture in a catalog or a store, so they just pick one up and plant it," Pryor explains. "They don't necessarily do research into the different varieties available and what grows best in their region or climate zone. It's important to know a little about vegetables and flowers, so you can pick the right kind for your needs and situation

Penn State First Thirty



The Harrisburg Patriot-News.

Central Dauphin High School senior Ashley Matio applied to Penn State University, along with the less expensive Shippensburg and Bloomsburg universities, to pursue a degree in criminal justice.

Lots of her classmates applied to Penn State, she said.

"It's all about Penn State," Matio said. "You know, all the 'We are Penn State' stuff...

[...]

Anna Griswold, Penn State's assistant vice president for undergraduate education and executive director for student aid, suggested the reason cost might not deter some applicants could lie in the conversations at home.

"We encounter families who probably should say to their students, 'No, we can't afford that,' but they won't say it. They want to give them what they want," she said.

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You Can't Make This Stuff Up

Times are tough. No raises are likely next year Graham has said. Governor Rendell doesn't understand that Penn State needs more money than has been proposed and tuition will have to go up, Graham has told the General Assembly. It's so sad. These are hard times. That mean old Rendell has left Penn State out of his Tuition Relief Act and Graham isn't happy. What's a prexy to do to brighten up his day? How about a shopping spree?

Penn State Lehigh Valley announced today the planned purchase of a property located at 2809 East Saucon Valley Road in Center Valley, pending approval of the Board of Trustees...

[...]

"This is certainly a rare opportunity to more effectively serve the needs of the students in the Lehigh Valley. This purchase provides a more cost-effective solution than others we have previously explored," said Penn State President Graham Spanier. "It was important that we evaluated our priorities to be sure we were doing what is best for Penn State and its students."

How tough are times exactly?

Technorati Tags: Penn State, financial crisis, expansion, Spanier, Rendell

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Hey Graham, Can You Beat This?

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that

Carnegie Mellon University today announced a 2.94 percent increase in undergraduate tuition, the smallest increase in 34 years.

What can Penn State undergrads expect next year?

"It is not a good time to try to raise tuition any more than even a fraction of a percent over what was proposed," [Spanier] said. "It would come at a time when it is harder than ever for the families of our students to cope with that."

The proposed increase, voted on at the Sept. 19 Penn State Board of Trustees meeting, would raise tuition by 4.5 percent for out-of-state students and 5.5 percent for in-state students at University Park for the 2009-10 academic year.

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Is There Enough Room in There for Both Feet?

I had thought that Tom Shakely's fifteen minutes of fame had lapsed. He used to be a go to guy for local reporters looking for a juicy quote, but he seemed to fade into well deserved obscurity this year. Then on Wednesday he and UPUA president Gavin Keiran, who I though would have known better, made a triumphant return to the pages of the Collegian riding a harebrained scheme. They want the Commonwealth to re-institute the Tuition Challenge Grant program (1989-1996) which rewarded Penn State with increased appropriations in exchange for holding the line on tuition. That's right, Rendell just announced a projected $1.9 billion dollar budget shortfall for this fiscal year, he's already told Penn State that he want about $21 million back at the end of the fiscal year, the economy shows no signs of improvement, but Tom wants the Governor to fork over more money next year.

Where exactly is this money supposed to come from? Well, Tom, never one to let information get in the way of an indignant response, has a ready answer,"The bottom line is that the government has proved it doesn't have a problem with deficit spending." Tom, a political science major, doesn't seem to realize that unlike the Federal government Pennsylvania has to balance its budget. Tom's partner in this venture, the usually level headed Keirans, must have realized that Tom's foot was once more in his mouth. Yesterday he stepped up to defend their proposal and show the world that unlike Tom he didn't sleep through his high school civics class.

Some may dismiss this as foolish because of the economic downturn that we are in, as well as the state of Pennsylvania being obligated by its constitution to have a balanced budget.

Keirans wasn't the only who wanted to prove that they were better educated than the Shake. Council of Commonwealth Student Governments President George Khoury also want to make sure that the world knew that he knew that Pennsylvania had to balance the budget. He was interviewed by the Collegan this morning concerning his efforts to meet with lawmakers to discuss Penn State's appropriation.

"With a $21.2 million rescission, it is not realistic to freeze tuition," Khoury said. "That's impossible because the state needs to balance the budget."

And it doesn't sound like Khoury thinks much of the Challenge Grant idea either. To make the Shake's day even worse, one last group wanted to tell you that they knew more than him. The Collegian editorial board weighed in this morning. They don't like the Tuition Grant proposal either and they know all about the need to balance the budget.

The first is a practical one. Simply: The state cannot afford it.

Currently, Pennsylvania is projecting a deficit of $1.4 billion for the fiscal year and is taking measures to cut costs wherever it can. At best, the state government is operating in a zero-sum game, and whatever incentives Penn State would be rewarded with under this program would likely be directly negated by a decrease in yearly appropriations.

So how did Tom take all the rain on his parade? If you guessed with an indignant response you'd be correct.

Passing an updated version of the Tuition Challenge Grant may be unlikely, but no one else is proposing any other alternatives, Shakely said.

"Our times call for a new approach," Shakely said. "The tried-and-failed approach of simply meeting and asking for money, I don't think is going to work."

Shorter Tom: No one is proposing any good ideas. We thought we'd propose a bad one.

Technorati Tags: Collegian, economy, Penn State, appropriations

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got tuition?

The NEA and the Huffington Post are running a video contest designed to draw attention to the high cost of a college education. Given the high tuition at Penn State, students here should have a competitive advantage in this contest. Go check it out. Enter the contest. Give Old Main some of the national exposure it so craves.

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Another Review Session

Here's another Princeton Review ranking that is unlikely to make the University's official list.

A recent ranking found University Park students are among the unhappiest in the nation when it comes to financial aid, and their student president has experienced those feelings, too.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, ranking, Princeton Review, financial aid

The Collegian Gets Tough

Today's Collegian Editorial on Penn State tuition is tough-minded and hard-nosed. Congratulations. Keep up the good work.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, tuition, Collegian

Your Personal Clipping Service

I thought that some of my readers, in light of another tuition increase at Penn State, would find this Kevin Carey piece in today's Inside Higher Education interesting. Here's a sample.

The consequences of these bad actions have largely been hidden from public view. Student loan default rates have been a non-issue since the early 1990s, when federal policymakers cracked down on unscrupulous fly-by-night colleges that were abusing the system. But the most commonly-used measures — the institutional two-year default rates that were established after the scandals — are seriously flawed. As my colleague Erin Dillon recently noted, the average time to default is four years. While widely-reported 2-year default rates hover below 5 percent, the 10-year default rate for low-income students is more than 15 percent. For students who borrow more than $15,000, it’s more than 20 percent. For black students, it’s nearly 40 percent. These numbers, moreover, are for students who graduated from a four-year college. Default rates for drop-outs, of which there are many in higher education, are substantially worse. But since colleges get paid up front, and the federal government guarantees most lenders’ loans, there are few incentives for those institutions to care.

The tectonic shift toward debt-financed higher education reinforces the notion that college is a fundamentally private good — exactly the wrong message in a time when the nation’s collective prosperity is increasingly tied to competition for information-age jobs that can cross national borders with ease. It has embroiled college financial aid offices in embarrassing scandals. It limits the life choices of debt-burdened graduates, and can devastate the financial futures of those who default. It fuels inefficiency, price escalation and public disinvestment in higher education while transferring scarce resources from families and students to financial giants’ bottom line. Debt in moderation is the right choice for some students, some of the time. But it’s no substitute for efficiently-run universities supported by real aid policies for students in need. Higher education debt has grown into far too much of a good thing.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, student debt,

A Flight of Fancy

Breaking News. I saw Graham roaming the Arts Festival yesterday evening around 7:30pm. Yawn you say? Let me connect some dots for you.

We know he was in Erie for the Board of Trustees meeting yesterday. The drive from Erie to State College is 226 miles with an estimated driving time of 3 hours and 42 minutes according to Google Maps. If Graham drove back that would mean that he left Erie no latter than 3:15pm.

Did the meeting adjourn in time for him to make the drive? If not, then that means that he likely flew back on one of the University's private jets planes.

I would hope a reporter would look into this, because such an extravagance would be hard to justify in the face of Penn State raising tuition yet again. And Graham's assurance to the public that the budget “reflects our concerted efforts to tighten our belts even further in the face of significant challenges,” would look a wee bit hypocritical... would it not?

Technorati Tags: Penn State, Spanier, hypocracy, tuition, private jets

A Closer Look at the Numbers

My last post concerning the way in which the University tried to hide the amount of its debt service in the 2006-2007 University budget very likely was wrong. I couldn't find a line item for debt service in the budget and deduced that an item labeled capitol improvement was in fact debt service. It is possible that the purpose of this cryptically name line item was to give the impression of a much lower debt load than is in fact the case.



Today I found a report, issued in August of 2006, on Virginia Tech's debt policy which uses the debt policy of several universities, including Penn State, to assess its own policy. This report contains informations from Moody's bond rating service which combined with other information allowed me estimate the debt service.



Penn State's total debt, at the time the report was issued, was $849 million. The ratio of debt service to operation costs is 0.027. The total budget for 2006-2007 (Erickson's report to the Penn State Faculty Senate, p. 21 of the pdf file.) is $3.2 billion. If one assumes that that total budget and operating costs are the same (Since the budget is balanced, this is not unreasonable to assume.) then debt service would be $86.4 million and not the paltry $3.65 million which I guessed at yesterday. Total student enrollment for the 2006-2007 academic year, according to the Collegian, is 83,721. Therefore the amount of debt per student is $10,141. The debt service per student is $1032 based on total operating costs. If you exclude Hershey and Penn College the numbers are more than halved, but still substantially more than yesterday's guess. The debt service per student in this case drops to $442. This later number does not leave out the students from Hershey and Penn College in the total number of students. If those students are dropped, then that number would increase. Either way, $1032 or $442, it is a substantial contribution to tuition.

The state also incurs debt on behalf of the University for capitol improvements, which are payed-off with tax dollars. These numbers are not included in the report.

Let me set aside the size of that numbers for a moment and return to the original point of my post yesterday. The University does not make these numbers readily available. I had to spend the better part of today looking for the information which I needed to estimate the debt service per student and I was lucky to find the Virginia Tech report. Without that report I wouldn't have been able to do the calculations.

I believe that the budget information that the University places online is designed to give the appearance of openness while, in fact, obscuring the situation as much as possible. We need more sunshine. The University should be required to put a detailed budget online in an easily searchable format. Work to get the Mahoney open record law passed.

Technorati Tags: tuition, Spanier, debt, sunshine, Mahoney, spin

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