Penn State released its annual Right-To-Know Report at the end of business on Friday before Memorial Day weekend in an image PDF. Yep, Graham is completely committed to transparency. As is tradition at Left of Centre, I've converted it to a searchable PDF and uploaded it to Scribd. I've also constructed tables of the only part of the report which most people are interested in, the compensation data.  For more, visit Left of Centre.

Old  Main, without so much as a public announcement, posted a revised version of this year's Right-To-Know report. If you click the link you will discover that Old Main didn't bother to indicate that the report had been revised.  Why? Well, there's no need  to tip-off someone that landed on the page without knowing the background that something might be up. Right?

Anyway, the new information contained in the revised report is rather bland. Graham's wife Sandra, a full professor of English,  earned $126,813 in tax year 2008. While Senior Vice President for Development Rod Kirsch's wife Michelle, the Director of of Operations for the Schreyer Honors Colleges, earned $83,171 in the same tax year. As I discussed at Left of Centre, neither  salary is out of line for the position held.

Why did Old Main initially refuse to release this harmless information with a transparently fraudulent rationale? Principle is my guess. Graham  on principle doesn't think that he has to answer to anyone, at least  if he thinks he  can weasel out of it.

The only loose end is whether Old Main made a reasonable effort to ascertain if family members of  Trustees received business income or compensation from the University. My guess is not, but I won't be holding my breath while I wait for that to be tied up.

This is a follow-up to my earlier post about Old Main's failure to comply with the Pennsylvania Right-To-Know Law.

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.

The University announced yesterday that it will file a revised RTK  with the Commonwealth on Friday which will correct the omission in the original report. A copy of the revised report will posted on the Penn State Web site. 

You can read more at StateCollege.com and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and I'll have more to say at Left of Centre once the revisions are available.

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.

As a result of last year's new Right-To-Know Law, Penn State and the other state-related universities must file a Right-To-Know Report each year with the state government. Each school must also post a copy in their library and online. Penn State hasn't made it easy to find their online version of the report, nor have they made it easy to use. The report is in a scanned pdf file which can't be searched. I've transformed it to a searchable pdf and posted it here.

Other than some salary data, which you have likely already read about, the report doesn't contain much information  that can't be found elsewhere, at least I haven't seen much in my first read of the report. Its primary value is that it gathers this information together in a single place.[Update: I have more on what is in the report over at Left of Centre.] 

By the way, we can thank Sen. Jake Corman (R-Old Main)  for watering down the new law which in its first iteration, but not in the version which was signed into law, required state-related universities to respond to open record requests. 

Graham likes to control information, hence it can be hard to get the accurate data that is needed to develop  informed opinions about Penn State, which enjoys both tax-exempt status and large state subsidies. I would hope that the law is amended  sometime soon to fully cover Penn State and the other state-related universities, since transparency is the best way to assure accountability.

Penn State hired John R. Hancock in 1993.  Mr. Hancock worked for Penn  State in the position of Maintenance Worker Utility Grade 9 for nine years, from July  1995 through May 5, 2004, when Penn State terminated his employment.   

In Fall of 2003, Mr. Hancock was diagnosed with terminal illness due to  cirrhosis of the liver.

From the Fall of 2003 to the time of his termination, Mr. Hancock’s medical  condition progressively worsened.  During this period, Mr. Hancock’s illness impaired  his major life activities, including his ability to walk and lift, his control over his bodily  functions, and his short-term memory.  It has also affected his equilibrium and impaired  his ability to eat a normal diet and caused him to suffer from extreme fatigue.

Since early November 2003, Penn State has been aware of Mr. Hancock’s  medical condition.  At that time, Mr. Hancock’s wife advised his then-direct supervisor, Mark Bigelow, as well as Human Resource Coordinator Susan Rutan, of Mr. Hancock’s illness.  

In the Winter of 2004, despite knowledge of Mr. Hancock’s disability, Penn  State required Mr.