Editorial: Pitt should disclose how it spends the Student Activities Fund

Ever wonder how much the Bigelow Bash costs? Or how much WPTS spends on its concerts? Unless… Ever wonder how much the Bigelow Bash costs? Or how much WPTS spends on its concerts? Unless you’re a high-ranking administrator, you’ll probably never know.

As The Pitt News reported last Thursday, the University allots 48.5 percent of the Student Activities Fund to five formula groups: the Pitt Program Council, WPTS, Student Volunteer Outreach, Telefact and Panther Prints. Although Student Affairs revealed the annual amount each group receives, they wouldn’t disclose how it’s spent.

“The Student Activities Fee is called the Student Activities Fee, but it’s University money,” Kenyon Bonner, Associate Dean and Director of Student Life, said. “The final decision on anything Student Activities Fee is Student Affairs.”

We’ll acknowledge that, under the Right-to-Know Law, Pitt’s lack of transparency is legally justified. But there’s a difference between withholding, say, certain faculty members’ salaries and the financial records of high-profile campus organizations. If students deserve to know the details of any University expenditures, it’s those pertaining to the clubs that directly affect their quality of life.

Furthermore, concealing formula group finances seems altogether unnecessary. Bonner maintained that, in doing so, Pitt retains its “negotiating power,” which it loses when, for example, a stage company discovers the cost of a previous on-campus concert. But we’re hardly convinced we have significant leverage as it is. Stage companies, like virtually every business in the entertainment industry, are perfectly capable of gauging what various university-sponsored events cost. And countless other — more financially transparent — colleges have hosted famous performers without squandering student funds on exploitative fees.

If Pitt’s evasiveness proves anything, it’s that legislators should fully subject Pennsylvania’s four state-related universities — Pitt, Penn State, Temple and Lincoln — to Right-to-Know regulations, which would require them to release financial records like contracts, receipts and vendor agreements. Under these conditions, University officials could neither insist on withholding club spending information, nor institute a budget cut whose particulars remain unclear.

Late last year, state Representative Eugene DePasquale (D-York) introduced a bill that would impose those regulations; unfortunately, it appears to have stagnated. Now all we can hope for is another concerted legislative push to hold officials accountable for their finances. Otherwise, formula group spending — and almost every other University transaction — will remain a matter of speculation.