AG in '88 said nonprofit's files public to that point

A little more than 30 years ago, the nonprofit that supports the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville athletic department opened its books for public inspection.

The nonprofit, then called the Razorback Scholarship Fund, quickly shut them again.

Former Arkansas Attorney General Steve Clark on Jan. 13, 1988, published an opinion that found the nonprofit had received support from UA and that its policies had an impact on the university. Because of those findings, the opinion said, all of the fund's records created before Jan. 12, 1988, were public.

That cutoff date was based on "information supplied" to Clark's office on that day indicating that the fund no longer relied on public employees, buildings or equipment. Several UA officials had resigned from the fund's governing board, and the nonprofit moved its headquarters off campus ahead of Clark's opinion, newspapers reported in the following days.

Within months, the fund changed its name to The Razorback Foundation Inc.

Today, the foundation routinely turns down requests made under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act. Director Scott Varady maintains that the law does not apply because the foundation is a separate entity with its own governing board and does not receive public funds.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette has spent months examining the foundation's relationship with the university after the foundation withheld records related to the firing and replacement of former Athletic Director Jeff Long and former head football coach Bret Bielema.

In its earliest days, there was no separation between the nonprofit and the university.

Two of the three men who incorporated the organization as a nonprofit in 1980 were university employees, according to documents obtained from the Arkansas secretary of state's office. Athletic Director Frank Broyles and UA Chief Financial Officer Fred Vorsanger were joined by Fayetteville attorney E.J. Ball.

The university's president served on the fund's first board of directors -- alongside Broyles, Vorsanger and Albert Witte, then a university law professor who later became president of the NCAA. Public employees held a majority on the seven-person board.

Archived news reports show the nonprofit's business has long been the subject of public interest. In 1983, for example, then-Gov. Bill Clinton called public access to UA athletic events "a very serious issue" when asked about the university's policy of requiring fans to donate money to the nonprofit in order to secure seats -- a practice that continues today.

Former state Rep. Ron Fuller of Little Rock requested Clark's opinion after the Arkansas Gazette asked him and several other lawmakers to do so. Only specific public officials, including legislators, may request attorney general opinions.

Clark wrote that the fund "does receive some indirect support from the University through the use of Athletic Department personnel, equipment and facilities."

Although the fund reimbursed the university $4,000 per month, its records were subject to the transparency law, he said.

"While the Fund has no regulatory function, its policies do impact upon the University Athletic Department since the Fund supplements the Department's budget," Clark also wrote, citing a 1977 Arkansas Supreme Court ruling in North Central Ass'n of Colleges v. Troutt Bros.

The foundation transferred about $15.2 million to the athletic department in fiscal 2017, or 14 percent of its total revenue, according to a university report. That's in excess of the $12 million minimum the foundation must transfer each year as part of its seating-assignment agreement with the UA System.

The athletic department, which does not receive tax money, tuition or student fees, transferred $3.2 million to the university, which does rely on tax revenue.


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