LITTLE ROCK — The university that used to get my paltry little check hasn't missed it, but I sorta miss sending it.
Actually, what I miss is the good feeling I got from knowing that my modest sum combined with other modest sums would make a difference to students who have the same interests I had when I went there.
But what are ya gonna do when you learn that those students aren't likely to receive any benefit from it because the money you contribute gets diverted to uses you never intended-athletics, perhaps, or non-academic "scholarships" awarded by the university president just because the recipient has a friend or relative in high places? I can't do anything about the part of my taxes that goes to a public university that engages in these practices, but writing a check, however modest, for such purposes wouldn't give me a very good feeling, so I write it for something that does.
Speaking of scholarships bestowed for non-scholastic purposes, let's quit calling them that, OK? Call them tuition supplements or walking-around money or incentive pay, but don't suggest that they reward academic excellence, because they don't. If they did, more former "student" athletes would have college degrees.
And that's the day's last dig at college athletics. What has my dander up is that attorney general's opinion advising the University of Central Arkansas to withhold information about those infamous "scholarships" that UCA presidents have been passing out to alleged students-who's to know for sure, what with all the secrecy involved?-solely upon the request of their friends and relatives.
Well, actually the opinion didn't advise anything. What it did was defer to the judgment of the new UCA president, Allen C. Meadors. Citing a Texas-Texas!-attorney general's opinion, it noted that "[d]eterminations under FERPA must of necessity be made by the education authority in possession of the education record."
We know where the education authority in possession of the "education" record stands, although what these alleged scholarships to alleged students have to do with education is anybody's guess. Alas, the alleged authorities on the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act at the U.S. Department of Education can't seem to make up their mind what FERPA says about monetary awards such as those disbursed by Meadors' predecessors, most notably former state Sen. Lu Hardin, under the Presidential Discretionary Scholarship Program. First they said that releasing details about discretionary awards did not require prior consent from the recipient, then they said it did.
Ask a question often enough and you're bound to get an answer you can live with. UCA officials hit pay dirt on the second inquiry, and in writing, too.
"The enclosed letter, which was solicited from the Department of Education by the university's interim president, is directly addressed to the question you have posed concerning the Presidential Discretionary Scholarship Program," Attorney General Dustin McDaniel advised Meadors. "I can add nothing to this letter; nor can I, in any event, definitively opine regarding FERPA."
Our editorialist called this non-opinion opinion (out of Texas via the Arkansas attorney general's office) an invitation to abuse. I call it a blessing upon an abuse of institutionalized standing. UCA may be a public university, but it does not serve us well because in too many instances it hasnot been made to be accountable to us by its presidents, its trustees, governors, General Assemblys or anyone else.
True enough, some of the institution's accounting practices are under investigation, but when was the last time any prosecutor seriously wrangled with a public agency?
In the final wash, it's all politics all the time, but at the very least maybe it'll make for an easier choice when McDaniel goes up against Lt. Gov. Bill Halter for the governorship.
Addendum
"One can scarcely blame the attorney general's office for advising a state agency to do the prudent thing and not take the slightest risk of endangering its federal aid, rather than the right thing and level with the public," our editorial stated.
Wanna bet?
Although by law the feds can withhold funding from schools that release private information in violation of FERPA, an attorney advocate with the nonprofit Student Press Law Center in Virginia, told our reporter in the wake of the AG's non-opinion opinion that the Department of Education has never withheld any funding from any school for violating the privacy law in its 35-year history.
Because of this, Adam Goldstein added, schools simply opt to "always say no."
"The kicker, of course, is that schools often have a reason to say no, like the information is humiliating or it reveals wrongdoing. So FERPA, which is a law intended to protect the accuracy and integrity of student information, functions more like an excuse for schools to avoid accountability for any decisions they make ever."
I think that sums up the situation quite nicely.
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Associate Editor Meredith Oakley is editor of the Voices page.
Editorial, Pages 17 on 08/26/2009