Officials may release General Fee budget

A SAC request may lead to more details on the $26.5 million budget. Two years ago, when then-Undergraduate Assembly Treasurer Steve Schorr first asked University administrators to explain how the school allocates revenue from the General Fee, he had no idea a response would take so long. Still without an answer last Wednesday, the Student Activities Council voted to give the administration an ultimatum: either submit the requested information on the General Fee to the student body by October 8, or SAC will pay for a federal government agency to search through University fund data. Schorr, now a Wharton senior and SAC chairperson, submitted the request for information to University President Judith Rodin's office last week. "Unfortunately, I am yet to receive an official response, and I hope that I do before the two-week period ends," he said. But University administrators said they are reviewing the General Fee budget to determine how much information they can disclose to students. Officials from the federal Department of Health and Human Services told The Daily Pennsylvanian that if SAC continues with its request, the agency may be able to release all information, with the possible exception of confidential figures such as personnel salaries. At last week's SAC meeting, Schorr told the body that the General Fee, which every student pays as part of the University tuition, adds up to a total revenue of approximately $26.5 million dollars. This year, undergraduates paid a General Fee of $1,766, while graduate and professional students paid slightly less. Less than $1 million of that money goes to fund student organizations such as the UA, the Social Planning and Events Committee, Connaissance and all SAC-funded groups. That leaves $25.5 million unaccounted for. "I don't know where the money goes," Schorr told SAC. Last week, SAC allocated $500 to pay for a Freedom of Information Act search -- which would be conducted by HHS' FOIA office -- if the administration does not respond with information on the University budget. Time magazine reporter and 1976 College graduate Erik Larson used similar methods to gather information for a story last spring on Penn's tuition. "In the federal government, HHS is the biggest granting agency," he said yesterday. "It provides money and grants to universities." Schorr said that when he first approached then-Budget Director Ben Hoyle two years ago with a request for information on the General Fee, Hoyle gave him an "extremely broad outline" of where the fee goes. "When I asked him for a more specific breakdown, he said a budget didn't exist that was more specific," Schorr recalled. In February 1996, Rodin provided the DP with a very general breakdown of the General Fee, broadly outlining allocations to various campus offices. Budget Director Mike Masch is reviewing General Fee allocations this week to see whether more detail can be provided without revealing individual employee salaries, according to Rodin's chief-of-staff, Steve Schutt. "As soon as he is finished, we will provide more information if we can," Schutt said. HHS officials said it may be illegal to disclose confidential information such as personnel salaries. "It may be something that we would look closely at, and we would determine whether release of it would be an invasion of privacy," FOIA Officer for Public Health Services Darlene Christian said. Every federal government agency has a FOIA office responsible for sorting out public requests for information on its funding, personnel or operations. Although Penn is not a federal agency, Christian explained that "any information that the University submits to the government becomes within the custody and control of the federal government." Any information, therefore, that the University submits as part of requests for research grants, student financial aid grants or scholarships can be released to the public. FOIA can withhold records if they meet any of nine exemptions, such as including national security data, information that is already prohibited by law or information that would compromise personnel privacy. Although her office has yet to review the University's records, Christian predicts it would be able to release the records in full. "I believe we have reviewed data similar to [SAC's request in the past], and we see no exemptions to withhold it," she said. Christian said she received SAC's request for a FOIA search September 25. By law, her office has 20 working days to respond to SAC with any records it can access that do not violate the nine exemptions. Schorr said, however, that he hopes the administration will release budget information before then, enabling SAC to cancel its FOIA request.