Penn State is a teenager begging Dad for whiskey and car keys, to paraphrase humorist P.J. O’Rourke’s description of giving money and power to the government.
President Eric Barron is promising to drive down “preliminary tuition rate proposals” if the state kicks in more than the university’s $307 million funding request:
“This institution, if we get above our request, will be more aggressive in driving down our tuition increases … than I think anybody is expecting,” Barron said.
That may well happen.
[Pennsylvania Gov. Tom] Wolf, in his budget proposal for 2015-16, has proposed a $49.6 million increase in state funding for Penn State. The university, in its initial request last year, had sought just $17.4 million in new funds.
But hold on, Dave Ketchen of Alabama writes in a letter to PennLive.com, citing the school’s “dubious financial track record”:
According to data compiled by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, Penn State spent $60 million more on administration in 2011-2 than it did in 2006-7; an increase of 33.2 percent. During that same period, Pitt reduced such expenditures by 25 percent and Florida State (whose president was Barron) made a 35 percent reduction. Via a systematic audit, Penn State should be able to roll back the $60 million increase.
He faults plans to build dorms at two Philadelphia-area campuses at a cost of $40 million when “both campuses are surrounded by other housing options.”
Ketchen notes Penn State paid $8 million for a report by former FBI Director Louis Freeh on the Jerry Sandusky scandal that has been “debunked by credible analysts,” and asks Barron to “request a refund.”
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