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sex, money, and secrecy

11/21/2011: I’d always wondered why reporters were spending so much time on the child rape coverup and so little time on the money that Joe Paterno and his crew were raking in. It turns out this was because Penn State had secured an exemption to the Pennsylvania public records law, the wisdom of which is now being reconsidered:

Unlike the most obscure of state agencies or the smallest municipal government, the universities, which annually receive hundreds of millions of dollars in state funds, are required to disclose “nothing, zippo” under current law, said Terry Mutchler, executive director of the state Office of Open Records.

UO is covered under Oregon public records law, and the situation is slowly improving since the bad old days of Melinda Grier and Liz Denecke. But last year the UO Foundation went to Attorney General Kroger and procured a special ruling exempting them from Oregon’s public records law. Here’s the letter from their lawyer, Frederick Batson, requesting the ruling.

The UO Foundation is mostly an expensive money laundering operation for the Duck Athletics Fund. This year they cut academic scholarships by $1.4 million, while their overhead went up $2 million. Want more details? Tough Shit. Compliance Officer Erika Funk will only release the bare minimum of data, and that as late as possible. Their IRS 990 form was due Nov 15, but in past years they’ve ran out every possible extension – here are some very old numbers. When new data comes out, someday, I expect to see CEO Paul Weinhold making over $400,000, and CIO Jay Namyet over $350,000 – despite the fact he’s way below his benchmarks on investment earnings.

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