For the Record

It was announced at yesterday's Board of Trustees meeting that Penn State had collected $203 million in donations during fiscal year 2009-2010, an amount which was claimed to be a record.  The amount is in nominal dollars and, as we learned last year when it was announced that Penn State had collected the second highest amount ever in fiscal year 2008-2009, the record is not going to hold when all monies are converted to constant dollars.

Last year when the giving time-series was converted to constant dollars using the Consumer Price Index (CPI) the amount collected turned in to be the sixth highest amount collected in the ten year time span,not the second highest amount.

As you can see in the graphs below, this years nominal record amount is only the fifth greatest amount collected since fiscal year 1997-1998 when the CPI is used to convert nominal dollars to 1998 dollars.

The CPI underestimates the rate of inflation for universities. Therefore the Commonfund has developed the Higher Education Price Index (HEPI) to track the rising cost of running colleges. The HEPI rises faster than the CPI. Hence when nominal dollars are converted to 1998 dollars with the HEPI the record turns into the seventh highest amount collected.

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In this light, Graham doesn't seem so much like a high horse-power money raising machine  so much as a worn out plow horse ready for the glue factory. 

Remind me again why Graham received a  12.9% raise.

(The data for fiscal years 1999-2000 through 2008-2009 comes from the 2008-2009 President's Report on Philanthropy. The data for fiscal years 1997-1998 and 1998-1999 comes from the 2006-2007 President's Report on Philanthropy. The number of this year comes from yesterdays press release. The CPI conversion was done with this Bureau of Labor Statistics calculator. The HEPI conversion was done using the HEPI data  found here.)

Technorati Tags: Penn State, philanthropy, Spanier

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She's On Fire

With the Penn State Board of Trustees meeting today, I think this video of Eva von Dassow, professor of Classics and Near East Studies at the University of Minnesota and critic of the University of Minnesota's central administration's budget and academic  priorities, speaking at an open forum before that schools Regents is worth a view for a few reasons.

First is her dramatic flare.

Second is the reasoning  behind her on fire presentation. That reasoning can be found in more detail at the second link above. Readers may want to bookmark that link to refer to when Old Main starts making cuts at Penn State.

Third is the novelty, to  Penn Staters, of the idea of an open forum at a Regents meeting. Could you imagine the control freak Graham allowing such a thing at a Board of Trustees meeting? Me neither.

(h/t Bill Gleason, aka Bonzo, a friend of this blog and another critic of UMN's central administration who blogs at Periodic Table and Periodic Table Too.)

Technorati Tags: Penn State, Spanier, Eva von Dassow, University of Minnesota

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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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Penn State Right-To-Know Report 2010:Revised

Old Main posted its revised Right-To-Know Report this morning. The two family members whose compensation had been left of of the original report are Sandra Spanier, Professor of English and Graham's wife, Michele Kirsch, Director of Operations for the Schreyer Honors Colleges and wife of Senior VP of Development Rod Kirsch.

Sandra Spanier's salary  the 2008 tax  year was $126,813 which placed her in the middle of the pack of full professors in the College of Liberal Arts.

Michele Kirsch's salary for the 2008 tax year was $83,171. The Stairs Report does not have the average salary of administrators in the Honors College because there are only three and the in categories with three or less employees no data is given. However,  in the other academic support units the average salaries in the Executive/Administrative/Managerial category range from a low of $79,245 in Outreach to a high of $96,708 in the Libraries. In that context, Kirsch's salary does not appear out of line.

While there's no story here, the question of whether Old Main made a reasonable effort to ascertain if any family member of trustees  should have been reported is still open, but  I doubt that we'll ever get answers to that. So this is likely the end of line on this story for this year.

Also see StateCollege.com and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for more on this story.
[Updated: 6/11/10 9:30 pm]

Technorati Tags: Penn State, Penn State Right-To-Know Report 2010 , Revised Penn State Right-To-Know Report 2010, Spanier

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Revised Penn State Right-To-Know Report 2010: Background Information Part II

I thought that while we are waiting for today's document dump , as I said below, I'd provide some context and background information  to help people analyze whatever Old Main decides to give us. (Part I is here.)

As of Wednesday, we know that Old Main will acknowledge in its revised RTK report that there are two family members of influential people at the Penn State who either received payment from the University in  a business transaction or who are employed by and received compensation from the  University in fiscal year 2007-2008. Is this list of two individuals exhaustive? This question is almost certainly unanswerable with information in the public domain, but here's some context for those who may want to ask questions of those who know the answer.

The number of family members of influential people with business income or compensation listed by Pitt and Temple are six and one, respectively.  These numbers are in line with Old Main's claim of only two family members. No red flags here.

Did Old Main make an honest effort to determine all family members of influential individuals with business income or compensation? The IRS only require an annual survey to determine if such relationships exist. From the instructions for Schedule L, page 4.

The organization is not required to provide information about a business transaction with an interested person if it is unable to secure the information regarding interested person status after making a reasonable effort to obtain it. An example of a reasonable effort for Part IV is for the organization to distribute a questionnaire annually to each current or former officer, director,trustee, and key employee listed on Form 990, Part VII, Section A, that includes the name, title, date, and signature of each person reporting information and contains the pertinent instructions and definitions for Schedule L, Part IV. The organization is not required to distribute such a questionnaire to organizations or individuals with which it does business, but who are not current or former officers, directors, trustees, or key employees of the organization, in order to have made a reasonable effort or this purpose.

It would be worth asking about the reasonable efforts Old Main made in  its attempt to fill-out Schedule L, Part IV.

If the answer is that they used a questionnaire as described above, then the follow-up should be may we see a blank copy of it.

If the answer is  that as part of their conflict-of-interest policy the Board of Trustees must report the business transactions of family members, then you should be aware that the Bylaws  of the Board of Trustees has a narrower definition of family member than does the IRS and the reporting thresholds for business relations are different and no provision is made for reporting relatives employed by the University.  You can find the IRS guidelines in the instructions for schedule L and the appendix of the  instructions for the Form 990. The Bylaws are here. The relevant part is Article 6. So if this is their answer, it is an admission of their failure to make the reasonable effort demanded by the IRS.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, Penn State Right-To-Know Report 2010, Spanier

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Old Main to Come Clean: Penn State Right-To-Know Report 2010 Will Be Revised.

Via the invaluable Adam Smeltz at StateCollege.com

Penn State on Friday will file an amended and expanded version of its annual Right-to-Know report, spokesman Geoff Rushton said Tuesday.
Rushton said the amended report, to be filed in Harrisburg, will disclose the salaries of two university workers who are family members of key leaders at the institution. The report also will be posted on the Penn State website, he said.

...more once the report is available.
[Update: 06/08/10, 10:50pm. Bill Schackner at the Post-Gazette also has the story.]

Technorati Tags: Penn State, Right-To-Know

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The Outside Legal Counsel That Aided the Trustees in Determining Graham's Compensation is....

Like I said below, Adam Smeltz's StateCollege.com piece on Graham's contract extension is full of nice little tidbits. For example, the Trustees used

...the services of outside legal counsel, [Penn State Bullshit Artist Lisa]Powers said, to help them gauge fair-market value and demand as they set presidential compensation.

The truth is I don't know who the outside legal counsel is. But shortly after I put up the post, Who Decided to Give Graham More Time?,  the blog had a visit from the Cleveland office of the law firm Baker and Hostetler. Here's a screen capture.
It just so happens that one of Baker and Hostetler's areas of practice is executive compensation.


That doesn't mean that Baker and Hostetler is the outside legal counsel used by the Trustees. Heck, someone  over in the Cleveland office may have been trying to check up on the competition. But if they were the outfit  used by the BOT that would go along way in explaining the Trustees' decision.

You see, some of the lawyers over a Baker and Hostetler might have trouble spotting a con artist.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Most people don't fall for the African inheritance scam where a huge sum of money sits in a foreign bank account waiting to be claimed -- but at a price.
But some do.
Nine people, including several from the Cleveland area, sued a Solon woman and two lawyers this week claiming they duped the plaintiffs into helping the woman recover $14.5 million left behind in the African nation of Burkina Faso.
The lawsuit, filed in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, claims Willia Burton and two attorneys from Baker Hostetler in Cleveland persuaded the plaintiffs to give her more than $1 million. The money was for legal fees and other payments necessary to recover the inheritance left to Burton by her father. Each contributor was promised "a huge return," the lawsuit states.
It's been five years and none of the nine has seen a dime.

Food for thought, anyway.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, Spanier, Compensation, Penn State Board of Trustees, legal counsel

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Spanier Has 'Overwhelming Support' For Contract Extension, Aide Says; Or Does He?

Is the BOT "overwhelmingly"  behind Graham as Penn State Bullshit Artist Lisa Powers insisted to Adam Smeltz yesterday? Maybe. Maybe not. Here's why it's unknowable. 

According to the BOT Standing Order IX (1)(f)(5),

Expectations of Membership. In exercising the responsibilities of trusteeship, the Board of Trustees is guided by the expectations of membership, each of which is equally important:...Speak openly within the Board and publicly support decisions reached by the Board.

I believe in legal circles that's called the toe-the-line rule. Since the BOT Standing Order VII(13)(a) allows the Board to meet in secret when considering employment matters, those "within the Board" discussions about Graham will never be heard outside the Board. Any dissent  "within the Board" gets channeled into high blood pressure.

So the next time you're talking to a Trustee and they start telling you what a super guy Graham is and how they never tire of him pulling a nickle out of their ear and how lucky the University is to have his services and what a great racquetball player he is and on and on and on, shake your head knowingly and smile, because you know Penn State  puts the bot in BOT.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, Spanier, Board of Trustees

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Who Decided to Give Graham More Time?

In my rush to snark the other day, I failed to note some interesting tidbits in Adam Smeltz's  StateCollege.com story on Graham's lifetime presidential appointment. Here's one: Who exactly is charged with deciding  Graham's future?

[Penn State Bullshit Artist Lisa] Powers said a small committee of trustees considers presidential contract extensions in consultation with other board members. The committee includes the board chairman or chairwoman, the vice chair, the immediate past chair and the chair of the board's Committee on Finance and Physical Plant.

Who holds these position at this time?

• Steve A. Garban, Chairman
• John P. Surma, Vice Chairman
  
• Linda B. Strumpf, Chairwoman Committee on Finance and Physical Plant
• James S. Broadhurst, Immediate Past Chairman

These are the people to blame.

With the exception of Garban who is an alumni trustee, all of these people are business and industry trustees and Garban, as Senior Vice President of Finance and Operations/Treasurer Emeritus of The Pennsylvania State University, is an Old Main insider. There is no one representing the interests of the working people of the Commonwealth who it is the University is supposed to serve ....and it shows.

And why might Graham sellout the interests of the working class? Well, here's an interesting fact. John P. Surma is CEO/Chairman of Board/President/Director US Steel and Graham is a Director of US Steel. ...and drumroll please...In 2009, the compensation for a  director of US Steel was $171,000.00 and the previous year it was $270,980.00. That didn't show up on this years RTK report. You see it is so much more lucrative to serve the interests of the fat cats than it is to serve the interests of working people. And by show'in Graham a little lov'in, Surma might get a little lov'in back from Graham.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, conflict of interest, John Surma, US Steel, Spanier

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BOT & Graham BFF

Adam Smeltz at StateCollege.com reports this morning that the Board of Trustees really, really, really likes Graham.

Penn State President Graham Spanier had "overwhelming support" from the university trustees when they agreed to extend his contract, university spokeswoman Lisa Powers said late Friday.

Also according to Adam, Graham plans on sticking around after he steps down as president.

It's not clear if Spanier wants to conclude his presidency in 2015 or  later. But "my current plan would be to rejoin the faculty and go back to teaching and research when my tenure as president is completed," he  wrote via e-mail.

...no doubt to manage his legacy through the recently created  Graham Legacy Project.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, Penn State Board of Trustees, Spanier, StateCollege.com

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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.

Technorati Tags: Seth Williams, Penn State

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Why Yes, Eva Pell Did Have Her Head in the Sand

It was reported last December that graduate student applications were down at Penn State despite the bad economy and the fact that grad school enrollment has historically tended to be counter cyclical. At the time, Dean of the Graduate School Eva Pell pooh-poohed the notion that anything was amiss and guessed that

...a better test of the hypothesis will come when we see what applications look like this January when the bulk of applications arrive for 2009-10[.]

And sure enough come January the application numbers looked pretty damn good. Here's what Graham told the Board of Trustees that month.

Graduate applications are up 6.4 percent compared to last year. International graduate applications are up 13 percent...

Why the turn around? My guess is that a front page story in the New York Times on November 20, 2008 about cloning a woolly mammoth might have had something to do with it. Penn State professors Web Miller and Stephen Schuster had just published a paper in Nature about their efforts to sequence woolly mammoth DNA and they were ready to speculate to the times about bringing one of the hairy beasts back to life.

Did The Old Main Propaganda Shop help to plant this story in the Times in the hopes of boosting interest in Penn State amongst potential grad students? That's my suspicion. Did the story actually help to increase grad school enrollment? Well, not so much.

Yesterday the Collegian reported that Eva Pell did indeed have her head in the sand last December.

Enrollment data shows graduate student enrollment has dropped by 1,795 students since 2003, Senior Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School Eva Pell said in a presentation. This year, 9,088 students are enrolled in the graduate school.

"It will not be healthy if it drops too much more," Pell said.

Pell explained that the decrease can be attributed to the instability of the economy and faculty insecurity about funding for doctoral students.

She said many people expected graduate school enrollment to increase once the economy took a turn for the worse a few years ago, but that has not proven true in Penn State's case.

See added cryptically,

"Graduate education is not top-down, it's bottom-up," Pell said. "Some of these are trends that will turn around in time."

I'm not sure what she means about it not being top-down, but my guess is that that is code for don't blame me.  She attributed the decline to

...the instability of the economy and faculty insecurity about funding for doctoral students.

Insecurity about funding?  The Penn State Propaganda Portal announced today that external funding at the University was up this year by $30.5 million over last year.

Oh well, I wonder if the decline in grad enrollment had anything to do with her decision to take a job at the Smithsonian starting next year.


Technorati Tags: Penn State, Graduate Student Enrollment, Eva Pell

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A Year of Challenges...

The Board of Trustees met today to talk things over and to watch the latest promotional video out of The Old Main Propaganda Shop titled The 2009 State of the University Address. This year Graham decided not to prance around in the Nittany Lion get up and he focused on research, teaching and service, rather than his ability to borrow money to build buildings.

While the video is more subdued than last year's effort, it comes off as an extended version of one of those school promos you'll see run on any fall Saturday during the halftime of a college football broadcast. And after a brief nod to the fact that no one got raises and people had to work harder this year-"increased workloads, sacrificed salary increases,...." yada yada yada...- there really isn't any mention of how the Great Recession has impacted the state of the university.

It's happy talk in somber tones.

Speaking of somber tones and buildings, The Penn State Propaganda Portal tries to downplay Penn State's continued spending on buildings with a piece of bullshit headlined Capital plan to focus on facility renewal

Penn State's Board of Trustees Friday (Sept. 11) received an update on the University's capital plan, which will focus strongly on renewal of existing facilities. The updated plan will guide construction at University campuses for the next four years through 2013.

Renewal of existing facilities... it sounds so responsible in these tough times. Let's take a closer look at what's on deck.

• A new classroom and laboratory at Penn State Berks 
• Additions and renovations to the Henderson
• Additions and renovations Moore Buildings at University Park
• Replacing outdated research and teaching greenhouses
• A replacement for Fenske Lab, a chemical engineering building.
• A phased renovation of South Halls
• At Penn State Hershey, plans continue to construct a new Children's Hospital
• Construction of a new softball facility

That's eight projects in total the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh items on the list are all new construction. The second and third items on the list are, at least in part, new construction. That leaves only the renovation of South Halls as purely renewal of an existing facility. How much will this modest renewal cost? Let's try $820 million. A year of challenges ...indeed.

In two separate article, it was announced that Old Main would be spending $6.4 million on a new control tower at University Park Airport and that

Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, will purchase the facility that is home to its Early Learning Center in Knowledge Park on the southeastern edge of campus, as approved by the Penn State Board of Trustees today.
[...]
...The cost to purchase the 8,568-square-foot Early Learning Center facility, currently owned by GEIDC, is projected to be $225,000.

Ah yes, a year of challenges....it really is challenging to keep up that level of spending while convincing people to work harder without raises.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, economic crisis, state of the university, Spanier, borrow, spend

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A Tale of Two Weather Tycoons

From today's headlines, comes the tale of two weather tycoons.

---

Joel N. Myers, the founder, president and chairman of AccuWeather Inc. and current Penn State trustee and alumnus, has committed $2 million to help ensure Penn State’s continued international leadership in meteorology, University President Graham B. Spanier announced at the Board of Trustees meeting today

---

Over the years,... [Frank Batten,Sr., founder of the Weather Channel,]  donated more than $223 million to schools and other educational organizations. His donations included a 2007 gift of $100 million to his alma mater, the University of Virginia, to establish the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, and a $60 million gift in 1999 to the university’s Darden Graduate School of Business Administration.

---

Just sayin'....

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Leadership 101, Lesson One: Take Head Out of Sand

The  Penn State Propaganda Portal has just posted  Graham's opening remarks to the Board of Trustees this morning. Much happy talk. No mention of the impending budget crisis.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, Board of Trustees, Spanier, stimulus funds, budget crisis

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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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You Read It Here First

Last Friday at the Board of Trustees meeting Graham was talkin' the happy talk about how Penn State was well positioned to weather the economic crisis we have entered. I noted that it was likely  that he was maneuvering to blame the Commonwealth for any hardship born by Penn Staters. As I wrote,

No he'll say, we were in great shape relatively speaking and I didn't think layoffs would be needed, but the State didn't come through.

The Collegian reports that at today's University Faculty Senate meeting Graham has begun the pivot toward  placing the blame in Harrisburg.

Penn State President Graham Spanier introduced the possibility of laying off "select positions" at Tuesday's University Faculty Senate meeting.

[...]

Spanier also mentioned the dilemma Penn State faces, as state appropriations will likely decrease and tuition will increase.

He hasn't blamed this on the  Commonwealth just yet, but he's set up the shifting of blame in that second clause.

In related news, Hershey Medical Center isn't feeling too well.   The Medical Center's problems could eventually impact the University itself since the Medical Center is not a separate entity from the University.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, economic crisis, layoffs

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The Players May Be Watching Too Much Porn in Their Hotel Rooms

Here's something that Jan Murphy, the Patriot-News reporter on the story in the last post, didn't catch. In 2007 , Penn State contracted with Toftrees to house football players prior to home games for $125,000 for the season, but ended up paying $131,715.92. Last year the contract was for $134,000. This year the contract is for up to $170,000. That's a whopping 27% increase in one year and up 40% 36%* from the original contract two years ago. Wow.

And this is why you should read the minutes and agenda of the Board of Trustees meetings and not just he Penn State Propaganda Portal's dispatches.

[Update: Thanks to a reader, there's video of Friday's BOT meeting!]
* This is why you should check my calculations.

Technorati Tags: Penn State football, Conflict of Interest,

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Iceberg? You Must be Hallucinating

The Board of Trustees is meeting today. Graham's opening remarks to them are up at the Propaganda Portal. Once more there is happy talk about Penn State's financial state. Most of it is old news. He did reveal that the retention rate between fall and spring semesters is "holding steady". Of course, "holding steady" is rather vague. Numbers would have been nice.

It is really hard to judge if there is a problem at Penn State or not. All we have to go on is Graham's word things are copacetic and he's a bullshit artist extraordinaire.  This leaves me with the feeling that things aren't fine, but we will only find out after the catastrophe has occurred.

The next reality check is Rendell's budget next month. If Penn State's appropriations come in significantly lower than this year's, then there will be no hiding from the reality.

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

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Trustee Trivia

What do the three Trustees,Brosius , Junker and Rowell quoted in this morning's Collegian article on the SOE rumor have in common? Since 1997, all three have only contributed to to Republican candidates in federal elections. (Here, here and here.)

[Update: I fixed the links.]
Technorati Tags: Spanier, Obama, Secretary of Education, Penn State

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