The annual Commonwealth mandated Penn State Right-To-Know Report was released last week. As usual, the University put the report in an image PDF and as usual I've converted it to a searchable PDF, which may be found here.

The big story this year is not what is in the report; it is what isn't in the report. The bulk of the report is an IRS Form 990. This year for the first time the University had to report payments to family members of trustees, officers and key employees in the form of business dealings in the excess of $100k and compensation in excess of $10k. Old Main acknowledged the existence of such individuals and it is obvious that Sandra Spanier, for one, satisfies the criteria. However, the University did not provide details on the payments citing an ordinary course of business exemption. The problem is that the instructions for filing out Schedule L, where the detail are to be reported, explicitly states that the ordinary course of business exemption does not apply.

Why did they fail to comply with the law? Graham hates, I mean hates, transparency. He doesn't think that this information is anyones business. He tends to forget that Penn State isn't his private fiefdom. So he unilaterally decided not to comply. That's my best guess anyway.

Having been caught cheating Old Main is now claiming that it wasn't intentional and that its  lawyers are studying the matter. This is cut and dry. There is is nothing to study. Old Main is dragging its feet hoping that this will go away.

If you are wondering about what is in the report you can find the usual salary and compensation data here.

If you are interested in holding Old Main accountable and keeping up with this story visit my blog Left of Centre where I'll continue to update on this as the story develops....it ain't goin' away.

P.S. Bill, the new rich-text editor is fantastic.