THON: Do It For the Construction Trades

The Penn State Dance Marathon, aka THON, the self described largest student-run philanthropy in the world, is a sacrosanct institution for the hoards of the Nittany Weasel Nation. All the better for me to take closer look at the whole thing.

Some background. While it has been around since 1973, it has, starting in 1979, dedicated its proceeds to The Four Diamonds Fund. The Fund is dedicated to helping the victims of pediatric cancer and their families through financial, medical team, and research support.

Is THON even a student-run philanthropy or are students simply the workforce in a division of Old Main's fund raising apparatus? The answer is not clear, but there are indications that it is the latter.

The first thing to note is that THON is not registered as an independent charitable organization. When you make a donation to THON you use Penn State's tax-exempt identification number:24-6000-376. Hence the money disappears into the the Penn State information blackhole and since The Four Diamond Fund is also a part of the University, the money never sees the light of day again.

Is the money misused? There is no way of telling. But it is worth recalling how Old Main has been handling the donation to student groups and colleges.

Beginning this year, donations to colleges and student groups exceeding $5,000 will take a pit stop at the Office of University Development for 90 days while Penn State pockets the interest, a university official said.

And the University never told anyone about this scheme including the those donating the money. Imagine then what they might do with $6.6 million.

Another thing to note is that prior to 1999, THON gave the money they raised to The Four Diamonds Fund without any strings attached, but in that year they pledge $5 million in five years to establish a pediatric cancer center at Hershey. And this year they began to raise funds to construct a building for the center. Do you think they decided on their own to do this or do you think that the idea was put into their heads by Old Main?

And while they raise money to further Graham's building campaign, at the expense of research, they continue to sell THON via the kids. On THON's FAQs page here is how they describe the way that The Fund uses its money.

The Four Diamonds Fund allots over 92% of the proceeds from the Dance Marathon and other fundraising efforts straight to patients and their families.

That of course fineses the way that the money raised by THON has been used since 1999. I guess the slogan, "THON:Do if for the construction trades," didn't poll very well.



Technorati Tags: Penn State, THON, Spanier, The Four Dianmonds Fund, spin

Do Penn State Students Run the Development Office?

The Old Main Propaganda Shop has been very successful in branding the Penn State Dance Marathon, a.k.a  THON, as the largest student-run philanthropy in the world. They pitch the meme relentlessly. Here's the Penn State Propaganda Portal last week as THON was underway.

THON 2009 began Friday, Feb. 20, in the Bryce Jordan Center on Penn State's University Park campus. The 46-hour Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon, the largest student-run-philanthropy in the world ...

And news outlets, like the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, uncritically repeat the claim. Last year I put the lie to this idea and this year the Centre Daily Times  did some very good reporting which made it even clearer that this isn't a student-run event in an meaningful way.

Penn State spokeswoman Jill Shockey said the university’s Associated Student Activities office within Student Affairs helps the finance committee for Thon — as it does with all student clubs — and the university development office handles corporate donors and donations for those wanting tax receipts.

Information on those donors is considered “proprietary,” Shockey said.

If this were a student-run philanthropy wouldn't this information be controlled by the students and not Old Main?

In its other reporting on the event this year, the CDT,to its further credit, did not state as fact that THON is the largest student run philanthropy in the world.

Organizers call "THON" the largest student-run philanthropy in the world. They say they've
raised $52 million since 1973, including $6.6 million last year.

I  hope this signals a more skeptical attitude from the CDT toward Old Main.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, THON, false branding

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Thon: The CDT Late to the Party, But a Welcome Guest

Nearly a year ago I wrote about the lack of transparency and accountability which surrounds the fund raising for the Penn State Dance Marathon.

...THON is not registered as an independent charitable organization. When you make a donation to THON you use Penn State's tax-exempt identification number:24-6000-376. [Ed 2/19/09: The link from last year is dead. Here are screen shots from this year and of the Penn State's IRS W-9 Form used for the tax-exempt donations to Thon.] Hence the money disappears into the the Penn State information blackhole and since The Four Diamond Fund is also a part of the University, the money never sees the light of day again.

Is the money misused? There is no way of telling. But it is worth recalling how Old Main has been handling the donation to student groups and colleges.

Beginning this year, donations to colleges and student groups exceeding $5,000 will take a pit stop at the Office of University Development for 90 days while Penn State pockets the interest, a university official said.

And the University never told anyone about this scheme including the those donating the money. Imagine then what they might do with $6.6 million.

Yesterday, Anne Danahy at the Centre Daily Times wrote a piece about this very issue.

...Thon and the Four Diamonds Fund are not independent charitable organizations. Rather, they are part of Penn State and get their tax exempt status from the university. As such, they — and Penn State — are not required to make any part of their finances public.

Aside from the list of the top 10 fundraising fraternity and sorority teams, and the top three independent fundraising groups, Thon releases few details on its donors. Similarly, the Four Diamonds Fund doesn’t have to provide specific information about its budget.

In Pennsylvania, educational institutions are exempt from the Charitable Purposes Act, which oversees registration of charities.

Danahy does some good reporting and the article is well worth a read. I would like to see more of this type of reporting in the CDT.

Technorati Tags: Thon, Penn State Dance Marathon, Centre Daily Times, Ann Danahy, Penn State,

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It's Beginning to Look Like Penn State Exists Solely For THON

Today's Collegian has a half-assed story  on Penn State's precipitous drop in the Washington Monthly National University Ranking.  The reporter, Micah Wintner, makes no effort to explain why the University dropped like a rock from 7^th to 35^th place.  Basically the story is Penn State drops in Washington Monthly ranking....hey, look over there THON....economic impact...wait!... is that Graham playing the washboard?

You would think that explaining the drop would be the obvious angle on this story.   Let's review, this is from my post last year on the ranking.

This brings me to Social Mobility which clearly is what drives Penn State in to the top ten schools on the overall ranking and something ain't right here. Anyone who has spent any time in Happy Valley over the past fifteen years knows that the Main Campus of Penn State is increasingly populated by upper middle class and upper class students. It's gotten so bad that the University Faculty Senate issued a report a couple years ago on Access and Affordability. It did not paint a pretty picture.

Then there is the 2006 report from Education Trust, Engines of Inequality: Diminishing Equality in the Nation's Premier Public Universities, which I blogged about at the time. Penn State received and overall grade of an F and an F on low income access. The Old Main Propaganda Shop wasn't happy.

The grade on low income access was based on the percentage of Pell Grant recipients at the University Park campus in 2004 which stood at 18.0%, according to the report, compared to 33.6the% of all college students in Pennsylvania with Pell Grant that year. The report also noted a trend toward less access at the Main Campus of Penn State. In 1992, the percentage of students with Pell Grants at the flagship campus was 22.2% compared to 27.7% overall in Pennsylvania.

Washington Monthly has the percentage of Pell Grant recipients at Penn State in 2008 as 25%. Has the University dramatically improved low income access to the Main Campus in the last four years? It is highly unlikely.

The Education Department keeps track of this statistic. For 2008, the total number of recipients of Pell Grants at all campuses of Penn State stood at 16,707 or roughly 25% of system-wide enrollment. (You can download the Excel file here.) That percentage is very likely to be lower at University Park and higher at the branch campuses.

Unfortunately, the most recent data on Pell Grant with a campus breakdown from the National Center for Educational Statistics is 2006. It shows substantial inequality amongst the campuses from a high of 63% at the Shenango campus in northwestern Pennsylvania to a low of 14% at the University Park, the flagship campus. However, the percentage of students with Pell Grants at the University Park campus has been very stable around 15% from 1999 through 2006, hence it is likely that the current percentage is significantly lower than the 25% system-wide number used by the Washington Monthly.

You can find a comparison to the other Big Ten schools plus Berkeley for 2006 here.

I think that it is reasonable to concluded that the Washington Monthly over estimated the percentage of Penn State University Park students on Pell Grants...

So this year Washington Monthly got the Pell Grant percent right and Penn State plunged in the ranking.  How hard was that?

Next question, what does that low Pell Grant percentage  tell us about Penn State fulfilling its mission under Graham?....hands....anyone....com'on people....did anyone do the assigned reading?