WTF?

At the end of this piece at StateCollege.com, on the 2% merit raises that Graham, who recently received a 12.9% raise, is promising Penn State's nonunion employees, is this

Now, with the news that state funding will be level for 2010-2011, it's not clear exactly how tuition rates may shake out.

"Right now, the (university) budget office is crunching numbers," [Old Main Bullshit Artist Lisa] Powers said. " ... I can't say for sure where the tuition increase will end up, but they're working diligently to keep it in the (three- to four-percent) range."

Is that true, is the budget office still crunching numbers on this years budget?  Penn State's appropriations for this year are exactly what the Governor originally proposed way back in January. There were no last minute surprises. Old Main should have had the numbers crunched on this scenario months ago. Consider that Old Main didn't even wait for its appropriations to pass the General Assembly when it announced back in early June that it was cutting Ag extension jobs based on Rendell's proposed budget. Something's odd here. What gives?

Well, it's possible that the options are all so bad that Graham's paralyzed and  can't decide what to do.  But that's not my guess as to what's going on.  I think that Old Main Bullshit Artist Lisa Powers is doing what comes naturally;she's reflexively lying.

What do you guys think?

Technorati Tags: Penn State, tution, Spanier, Rendell,

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What Are Graham's Plans if the Bottom Falls Out?

Last week senate Republicans blocked a jobs bill which also contained enhanced financing  to the states  for Medicaid. Because the states are barred from changing eligibility standards on Medicaid, cuts will have to come from elsewhere in the budget if  Congress doesn't act soon. Our own Ed Rendell told the New York Times,

“It’s a bloodletting.”
[...]

In Pennsylvania, which is confronting a $1.6 billion revenue shortfall, the elimination of the additional Medicaid financing would mean having to come up with $850 million, Mr. Rendell said.
Because the state has already made more than $2.5 billion in cuts since the fall of 2008, when the economy went into a freefall, Mr. Rendell said layoffs were inevitable, not just at the state level but the local level.
“It’s going to be huge teacher layoffs, money to our universities, money to the counties and cities, municipal workers, firemen,” he said. “It would be enormously destructive.”
Mr. Rendell fretted that the resulting fallout from the loss of federal money would bring a halt to three straight months of job gains for the state.
“I know everyone cares about the deficit, and so do I,” he said. “But they care about the deficit until the cuts hit home.”

So Graham, what are your contingency plans should these cuts come about?

Technorati Tags: Penn State, Medicaid cuts, Rendell, Spanier, Pennsylvania,

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Place Your Bets Ladies and Gentleman

The Pennsylvania General Assembly sent a budget bill to Governor Rendell today which he is expected to sign tonight, but it is too soon for the folks in Old Main to jump for joy.

That will leave table games and funding for Penn State, Pitt, Temple, Lincoln and other universities, health institutions and museums as the only budget-related bills on the to-do list.

The House and Senate have yet to reach an agreement on the legislation that will allow the state's casinos to have table games. Until that agreement is reached, no action is expected to occur on funding those institutions.

What do the cards hold?

Technorati Tags: Pennsylvania budget, table games, state-related universities, Penn State

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An Annoucement on the Pennsylvania Budget is Imminent

The following comes from the Harrisburg Patriot-News

Gov. Ed Rendell plans to make an announcement at 8 p.m. and it has been confirmed that he will be announcing a budget deal.

[...]

The roughly $28 billion deal contains at least one new revenue source at the governor's insistence beyond what was in the plan crafted last week by leaders of the House Democratic and Senate Republican and Democratic caucuses, according to a source.

Technorati Tags: Pennsylvania budget, Rendell

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FYI

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports on the latest political maneuvering to get stimulus funds restored to the state-related universities.

Fourteen members of Congress from Pennsylvania today urged the Obama administration to reject Gov. Ed Rendell's attempt to exclude the four state-related universities from receiving federal economic stimulus money.

[...]

Of the 19 U.S. representatives from Pennsylvania, the 14 who signed the letter are Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair; Jason Altmire, D-McCandless; Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills; Kathy Dahlkemper, D-Erie; Bill Shuster, R-Blair; Glen Thompson, R-Centre County; Charles W. Dent, R-Allentown; Jim Gerlach, R-Chester Springs; Tim Holden, D-Schuylkill County; Todd Russell Platts, R-York; Joe Sestak, D-Delaware County; Christopher Carney, D-Susquehanna; Patrick J. Murphy, D-Bristol; and Robert A. Brady, D-Philadelphia.

Technorati Tags: stimulus funds, Penn State, politics,

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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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Travlin' in Style With the Putz

You would have had to have been asleep for the past several years not to know that Graham plays a washboard, which has suffered as much mission creep as the University has under him, in a local dixieland jazz band, The Deacons of Dixieland.


You may not know that the Deacons have preformed quite a bit in the South. For example, in 2002 they traveled to the W.C. Handy Festival in Florence Alabama. Here's a picture of their transportation to the festival that year.


Graham wasn't with them on that excursion, but in 2004 he made the trip to Florence for the festival. This time here's how some of the boys got home.

Notice a difference?

Gee, I hope Arne doesn't see this picture before he decides on whether Penn State deserves the stimulus money Rendell wants to deny the state-related schools. Remember the bad reaction to the mode of transportation that the GM executives used? Aaaaah... these sorts of appearances aren't good when you have your hand out Graham.


Technorati Tags: Penn State, Deacons of Dixieland, W.C. Handy Awards, Spanier, private jet, Rendell, stimulus money, state-related universities

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Devastating, Catastrophic, Nauseating

The effect of the proposed budget cuts on Penn State have been described as devastating and catastrophic. Today the Penn State Propaganda Portal finally responds to those cuts and I find the response nauseating.

As I noted in an earlier post, Governor Rendell does not consider Penn State, or the other state-related universities, to be fully public schools. Where might he get such an idea? Perhaps this is where he got it.

But we are very concerned about Right to Know legislation that would force the University to make information public that could undermine the operations of the university. There are dozens of examples of information that if made public could interfere with and undermine the quality of Penn State or erode privacy

Penn State and three other universities-University of Pittsburgh, Temple University, and Lincoln University--have been singled out for such intrusion. No other state-aided universities or private universities that receive appropriated funds are included in the legislation as drafted. These other universities receive tens of millions of dollars in state appropriation every year.

This proposal goes far beyond making Penn State accountable for how it spends public funds. Should such legislation pass, we would be treated as if we were part of state government, as if we were a state agency. We are not. We are a university that operates in a highly competitive environment. We are put at a competitive disadvantage when certain information must be revealed that is proprietary, or where such revelation would put us at a disadvantage.

That would be Graham arguing against being held accountable. In second paragraph, he argues that receiving funds from the Commonwealth does not distinguish Penn State as a public university, because many other unambiguously private schools also receive state funds. In the third paragraph he comes right out and says it: Penn State is not a state agency. Bottom line... Graham thinks Penn State is like Penn rather than like Lock Haven or the other state-owned universities. So he wants to be treated like Penn not Lock Haven. Fair enough.

Here is Old Main's response to the Rendell agreement with Graham's argument that Penn State is private.

In removing the state-related universities from eligibility for stabilization funds, Rendell has declared that they are not public universities, contrary to their missions and history of state support. Penn State is Pennsylvania's sole land-grant institution and carries out multiple missions in service to the state and its citizens. Its character as a public institution has been supported by 154 years of history, legislative action and legal documents. The law providing the federal stimulus funds notes that the intent of the money is to shield students at colleges and universities supported by state tax dollars from unusually large tuition hikes due to fiscal pressures the economy is placing on state budgets.

Whoa...come again. Penn State is public? Let's get this straight. When Old Main wants to dodge accountability, Penn State is private. When Old Main wants some government money, Penn State is public. What a bunch of crap.

If Old Main wants the stimulus money, it should be willing to accept it with some heavy accountability strings attached.

This rank hypocrisy isn't the only nauseating thing about Old Main's response. Consider this paragraph.

"While news of these proposed cuts is troubling, the discussion at this time is between the governor and the state Legislature, which must come to some agreement on a number of budget issues," said Penn State President Graham Spanier. "We realize the state is facing some serious fiscal challenges, but to cut funding for institutions like Penn State is really a step in the wrong direction."

Now read this one.

In a letter to the U.S. Department of Education, Spanier asks officials there to look closely at Pennsylvania's stimulus funding application and to examine its exclusion of Penn State from the funding formula.

To paraphrase, look we understand things are tough in Harrisburg and we'll let you work things out between yourselves...and by the way, we telling Daddy....

Nauseating.



Technorati Tags: Penn State, stimulus funds, Rendell, Spanier, propaganda

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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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"Catastrophic"

Things have been quiet around Old Main this Spring and as I suggested at the end of this post, it maybe that the folks were hunkering down waiting to see what happens with the budget maneuvering in Harrisburg. With the July 1^rst deadline looming, the state budget battle is heating up. Today Governor Rendell suggested a 13% cut to the Penn State budget which someone in the Old Main Propaganda Shop described as "catastrophic."

It is too soon to tell how things will play out in the budget negotiations, but it is now certainly nail biting time. What happens if the cuts go through? Will Old Main hike tuition more than the 4.5% that it suggested in March? ....more than the 5.5% it originally proposed? Or will Old Main begin to layoff staff and non-tenure track faculty? Will it halt infrastructure work? Certainly if the cut goes through we will see what type of leader Graham really is.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, Pennsylvania budget, Penn State budget cut, tuition

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The Hundred Million Dollar Plus Question

I've put together a little slide show for you based on Penn State's Audited Financial Statements covering fiscal years ending June 30 of 2000 through 2008. This show tells the story of how Penn State uses its revenues from tuition, fees, and state appropriations.



A story you hear all of the time from Graham is that the Commonwealth doesn't support Penn State the way it once did, but, to the extent that this is true, it is only part of the story. This part of the story, the revenue side, is captured in slide number two.

In 2000, the Commonwealth appropriated 57 cents for every dollar of fees and tuition (Henceforth I'll use the shorthand tuition .) that Penn State collected. The amount of dollars of appropriations per dollar of tuition has decreased every year since. Last year it stood at 29 cents of appropriations for every dollar of tuition. While over those nine years appropriations have gone up, they have have done so at a much slower rate than tuition.

The other side of the story is the spending side. It's difficult to trace from the audited financial statements exactly how Penn State uses all of its money, but the audit does list four categories of direct expenditure on students: instruction, academic support, student aid, and student services.

The story of direct expenditure on students is told in slides three and four. In 2000, Penn State spent $1.03 on instruction for every dollar of tuition it collected. By 2002, this had dropped below a dollar for the first time and steadily declined until 2007, when it stood at $0.78 spent on instruction for each dollar of tuition collected. It bounced up to $0.79 last year. Student aid has never been a penny or more per dollar of tuition and it was dropped as a category in the 2007 audit. Academic support, which started out at $0.37 spent per dollar of tuition collected in 2000, has dropped every year but one until it reached $0.25 spent on academic support per tuition dollar collected last fiscal year. Student services has declined slowly over the nine years form $0.15 spent per dollar of tuition collected to $0.12 spent per dollar of tuition collected.

The revenue and spending sides of the story lead to the final part of the story, surpluses.

The total direct expenditures on students has gone from $1.55 per dollar of tuition collected in 2000 to $1.16 in 2008. The way to look at this is that in 2000 the University spent all of its tuition revenue plus 55 cents of appropriations revenue for every dollar of tuition revenue it spent directly on students. That left $0.02 of appropriations for every tuition dollar to be spent on things other than students. By 2007, the University was spending all of its tuition revenue plus $0.15 of appropriations for every dollar of tuition it spent on direct student expenditure. This left $0.16 of state revenues per dollar of tuition to spend on things other than students. That surplus is a factor of 8 greater than what it was in 2000.

The complete story of the surpluses is told in slides four, five and six.

To fully appreciate the magnitude of these surpluses one must look at the actual dollar amounts. In 2000, Penn State had a bit more than $11 million left over from tuition and appropriations after all direct expenditures on students were made. In 2002, it was more that $26 million. It nearly doubled the following year to a bit more than $52 million. In 2007, it was over $169 million. It dropped to a tad more than $149 million last year.

The bottom line is that Penn State currently takes in much more in tuition, fees and appropriations, than it spends on education, academic support, and student services. Hence, while they may not know it, when students lobby the Commonwealth for more appropriations or to be included in Rendell's Tuition Relief Act, they aren't asking for more money for their education, because the University already has more than enough money for that, they are asking for more money for things not directly connected to their education.

But what are those things? That's the $100 million plus question.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, Penn State budget, Tuition, Tuition Relief Act, Spanier, Rendell

Tomorrow is St. Patty's Day and...

...Governor Rendell is scheduled to meet with student leaders at 10:45am over, I am assuming, his Tuition Relief Act which leaves student's at state-related schools out in the cold. I do have one piece of advice for those leaders:don't run down the the Phyrst for a quick one before the meeting.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, Gov. Rendell, Tuition Relief Act, humor

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You Can't Make This Stuff Up

Times are tough. No raises are likely next year Graham has said. Governor Rendell doesn't understand that Penn State needs more money than has been proposed and tuition will have to go up, Graham has told the General Assembly. It's so sad. These are hard times. That mean old Rendell has left Penn State out of his Tuition Relief Act and Graham isn't happy. What's a prexy to do to brighten up his day? How about a shopping spree?

Penn State Lehigh Valley announced today the planned purchase of a property located at 2809 East Saucon Valley Road in Center Valley, pending approval of the Board of Trustees...

[...]

"This is certainly a rare opportunity to more effectively serve the needs of the students in the Lehigh Valley. This purchase provides a more cost-effective solution than others we have previously explored," said Penn State President Graham Spanier. "It was important that we evaluated our priorities to be sure we were doing what is best for Penn State and its students."

How tough are times exactly?

Technorati Tags: Penn State, financial crisis, expansion, Spanier, Rendell

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Stimulating Pennsylvania

Rendell's original budget proposal assumed Federal funding as allocated  in the original House stimulus bill. The Senate bill slashed much of that funding which would have meant deep cuts in that budget.  Today Rendell  said the compromise bill will not require any major retooling of his proposal.

Technorati Tags: compromise stimulus bill, Rendell, Pennsylvania

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IHEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek

The latest on the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund from Inside Higher Ed firms up the numbers I wrote about in my last post . The result is a bleak picture for higher education in Pennsylvania, Penn State included

The Senate version would also provide significantly less money to states that have been counting on the stimulus package to help them backfill budget gaps for education programs. The original Senate legislation, like the House version, would have created a $39 billion “stabilization” fund designed to be distributed to states to keep their higher education and K-12 budgets at their 2008 levels, as well as $25 billion in additional money for states to use to sustain crucial public services, including education.

Under the revised Senate version, the stabilization fund would be cut by a third, to $26.7 billion, and the additional $25 billion pool would shrink to $9.6 billion.

This is likely to be a major issue in states such as Missouri, where Gov. Jay Nixon’s agreement with university leaders to keep higher education whole in the 2010 budget, in exchange for freezing tuition, depends on the federal stimulus funds to make it work.

The IHE piece is well worth a read, as it contains a complete run down of the implications of the senate bill for higher education. Not all of the implications are bleak, for example, increased funding for Pell grants remains in the compromise bill.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, Pennsylvania, State Fiscal Stabilization Fund, stimulus bill, higher education

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Something About a Frying Pan and a Fire

When Governor Rendell released his budget proposal earlier this week, I wrote that the roughly $20 million cut in Penn State's appropriation was not as bad as it could have been. The reason it isn't as bad as it could have been given the state's dire financial straits is that the Governor's budget assumed that Pennsylvania would  receive its share, $2.52 billion over two years,  of the $79 billion State Fiscal Stabilization Fund originally included in the economic recovery plan currently being thrashed out in Congress. More than $38.8 billion of those funds were targeted to education. Pennsylvania share was to be $771 million per year over the next two years.

As of last night, things may have gotten  worse. The Senate "centrists" compromise stimulus bill has stripped $40 billion out of the stabilization fund. It's not clear from the early reporting how the cut was distributed between the portion of the fund designated for education and the remainder of the fund. This means that the situation could be anywhere between  the total elimination of the education fund and the preservation of the remainder  and  a preservation of the education funding and the elimination of the remainder. Neither would be good for the Commonwealth, but the latter would be a disaster for education in Pennsylvania, in general, and Penn State in particular. However, while the reporting isn't clear on the point, earlier reports were that the state education block grants were being stripped by these "centrists".

Keep in mind, this is an unfolding story and things can change at any moment. Even if the Senate passes a bill with the education funding stripped, it can be restored in the House-Senate Conference Committee. But if you care about these things, then it's time to get to the phones and start calling your senators and representatives. Senator Specter in particular should be a target. He was one of the "centrists who have helped to weaken the stimulus bill.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, State Fiscal Stabilization Fund, Pennsylvania, Rendell, economic crisis, stimulus bill

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The Governor's 2009-2010 Budget Proposal

I'll have more to write about the  budget proposal latter, but I wanted to note that Penn State did not take a big hit in the proposed budget. The legislature appropriated $338 million for the University last year, but a little more than $20 million was taken back in a  mid-year rescission. The Governor is proposing $318 million for next year which is the end amount the University received this year. This is not  as bad as it could have been.

Technorati Tags: Penn State, budget, Pennsylvania appropriations, financial crisis, economy, Rendell

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Of Ballooning Debt and Trial Balloons

I've had a bit more time to mull over this week's rumor about Graham being considered for the Secretary of Education job (Here, here and here) and my best guess is that the rumor was a trial balloon set afloat by the person or persons that Graham was lobbying for the job. And my best guess about who that would be is Senator Casey.

Read Casey's denial carefully.

Casey, an early Obama supporter, said he expects to offer names for some political appointments in the new administration. He did not, however, recommend Spanier.“I did not,” Casey said. “He is a wonderful president. I know him well. I think he’s done a great job at Penn State. He’s brilliant. He’s a strong administrator.”

He denies that he recommended Graham, but he doesn't deny that he was the source for the rumor. Rendell, on the other hand, through his spokesman, claims not even to have heard the rumor which is essentially a denial of being the source of the rumor. Anyway, Casey was an early Obama supporter and Rendell supported Hillary in the primaries. Hence Casey would be the more likely person for Graham to lobby for the job.

Here's the scenario. Graham has decided that presidenting isn't fun anymore-what with the financial crisis, and Penn State's $1 billion debt load, a tight state budget, a football coach who won't retire and everything-and he wants to get out while the getting's good. No use, after all, of being in the house of cards when it collapses. SOE is just the ticket. So he pushes Casey to recommend him to Obama for the job. Casey floats the trial balloon to see how the public and others in the education community react. The reaction isn't good, so he doesn't make a recommendation and when asked he truthfully denies that he did so. But he adds some soothing words to assuage Graham's bruised ego.




Technorati Tags: Secretary of Education, Spanier, Senator Casey,

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