The criminal allegations against Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State assistant football coach accused of sexually abusing young boys, have prompted questions about what officials at Penn State knew and when.
But the public’s access to e-mails, phone records and other potentially critical evidence is restricted because Penn State has a special exemption from having to disclose a host of information that state agencies and many other state universities are forced to divulge under Pennsylvania’s Right to Know Law.
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When the wide-ranging overhaul of the state’s open records provisions was made three years ago, however, exemptions were included. Practically none of the revisions pertain to Penn State, the University of Pittsburgh, Temple University and Lincoln University, which have a special state-related status in Pennsylvania because they receive public financing but maintain independent administrative control.
They are required only to issue annual reports by May 30 and make public the salaries of their officers and directors and 25 highest-paid employees.
Representatives of these universities pushed for their colleges to be exempt because, among other things, they said they would have a harder time soliciting donations if the donors’ identities could be made public. That would put them on an uneven footing when competing for dollars with private universities.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/12/sports/ncaafootball/penn-state-has-exemption-from-disclosure-law.html?_r=1And people wonder how they can get away with shite? This exemption just aids and abets those who want to act in violation of the law in many areas.
A lot of info is going to come out now because of trials and lawsuits. People will be shocked I tells ya, shocked, because this exemption has allowed a lot of things to be swept under the rug.