May 2, 2012
The Badger Herald
Why is it so difficult to obtain information on the characteristics and financing of the Minority and Disadvantaged Student program operated by the University of Wisconsin’s University Housing Division?
Undergraduates living in the dorms may be interested in knowing that University Housing reported M/D expenditures, which averaged between $450-500 per residence hall student in 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2008-09, jumped to more than $1,200 per student in 2007-08 and 2009-10 and then dropped dramatically to less than $1 per resident in 2010-11. What explains these gyrations?
Adding to the mystery, the number of FTE staff associated with University Housing’s M/D program ranges from a low of 0.25 to a high of 2.00. How could expenditures of roughly $3.5 million in 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2008-09 or expenditures of more than $8.5 million in 2007-08 and 2009-10 be managed with so few full-time personnel?
Where did the infusions of the extra $5 million in 2007-08 and 2009-10 come from? These amounts are listed as coming from “Other Ex,” meaning other extramural sources. What could these sources be? And is there any special reason these almost identical infusions of funds came in alternate years?
It is also evident the regular contribution of almost $3.5 million from Fund 128 (auxiliary enterprise revenue — could this be from room and board charges paid by dorm residents?) ceased in 2010-11? What accounts for the termination of this funding source? Was it a consequence of UW’s tight budget that year? Or something else?
Equally mystifying is how University Housing could continue to offer its M/D programs in 2010-11 with only $6,100 in funds, all of it used to pay salaries. What reductions in its programs had to be made?
The information presented here comes from a little-known 60-row, 44-column spreadsheet prepared annually by the Office of the Vice Provost for Diversity and Climate. The UW System uses this information in preparing its Annual Minority and Disadvantaged Student Program report. Neither of these documents are accessible on UW websites. I obtained them by special request.
Finding out what kinds of programs are financed by these M/D expenditures in University Housing is not easy. Its websites contain information about its Center for Cultural Enrichment and the role of its Squad of Diversity Coordinators. Nothing there even hints at how its M/D funds are spent.
Perplexed by these spending gyrations, the small FTE count of M/D program staff and the lack of website detail, I addressed a succession of open records request to Paul Evans, director of University Housing. As I had been asked to do, I submitted these requests through the UW Office of Administrative Legal Services.
On March 25, 2011, I made my first request, asking for information on the purpose of the University Housing 2008-09 M/D expenditure of $3.5 million, most of which was listed as being spent on “other” in contrast to “salary” expenditures.
The lengthy response in an April 5, 2011 letter from the OALS said the expenditure of interest was for “diversity and climate in student services.” It went on to say “the university does not have an existing record that would accurately represent the purpose of expenditures related to diversity initiatives in University Housing.” It added that the coding of expenditures “resulted in the inclusion in the report of a broad range of university housing expenditures not specifically related to M/D programs in housing.”
On April 13, 2011, I initiated another more detailed request, again through OALS. I asked for information on why there was not salary expenditure for the 1.0 FTE entry. How there could be only 1.0 FTE listed when the University Housing Diversity Initiatives website indicated the presence of 10 diversity coordinator positions? How could there be no records on the expenditure of the $3.5 million for M/D programs? I have no evidence of any response to this inquiry, probably because my request was poorly framed in terms of the open records law.
On May 2, 2011, I made still another request for “detailed record or records that describe M/D expenditures for University Housing for 2005-06.” The OALS response on May 25, 2011, stated simply, “The University has not located any records responsive to your request.”
I made one more attempt in a letter of Nov. 30, 2011. This time I asked for records for 2009-10 inquiring about entries found on the UW M/D Spreadsheet on (1) both the $3 million expenditures shown in the column “Total 128” [Fund] and the source of revenue that financed these expenditures, and (2) both the $5.7 million expenditures shown in the column “Total Other Ex” and the source of the revenue that financed these expenditures. A Feb. 10 response from OALS said, among other things, “the University has not located records responsive to your request for revenue/expenditures as related exclusivity to the diversity initiatives in UW Housing.”
These denials may have been the result of my inability to properly phrase these open records requests. This is a familiar problem. Though my requests failed to bring forth the requested information, I find it difficult to believe University Housing does not have this information. I also find it difficult to understand its reluctance to release this information. Or am I missing something?
After Plan 2008 ended several years ago, the Wisconsin State Journal published an editorial, “UW diversity efforts needs audit” (Aug. 26, 2008). It called for an independent audit to be conducted by a group such as the Legislative Audit Bureau. To the best of my knowledge, no such audit ever occurred.
There is a clear need, based on the information presented here, for not only a financial but also a performance audit of all M/D programs, particularly the University Housing program. Only then can UW officials, faculty, students, as well as the public be assured that the substantial resources invested in M/D programs are being spent wisely.
W. Lee Hansen (wlhansen@wisc.edu) is a professor Emeritus of economics.