Audit
report encourages
new aid computation
By JEFF HAWKES
Collegian Staff Writer
A state audit of the University's fiscal
year ending June 30, 1976 recommended
a change in the way the state ap
propriation to the University is
calculated.
The audit report alleged that the
current appropriation method poten
tially allows the University-to get more
state funds than it needs. However, the
audit does not charge that overfunding
actually has occurred.
The state legislature now determines
the University's apprdpriation based on
the University's "cost" of education, the
audit report said.
. Calculating the University's ap
propriation by the "cost" method does
not take into account money that the
University earns during a fiscal year,
PSU use of state $
for PR investigated
By JEFF HAWKES
Collegian Staff Writer
The University controller last night
said public fund expenditures for
University public relations are "just and
justified."
The state auditor general's office
announced over the weekend that it has
discovered at least one instance of the
University using state money to promote
itself. A spokesman said the public
relations expenditures will be in
vestigated.
The auditor general's new finding is in
addition to an audit released last Sunday
of the University's fiscal year that ended
June 30, 1976.
The University's public relations
expenditures included free football
tickets to certain legislators and top
state officials'. -
'University Controller Steve A. Garban
said he thinks it is important to invite
stale officials to; the University, "and
football games happen to be a good time
to have them here."
' "Nothing we've seen says it is illegal,"
said a spokesman, for state Auditor
General Al Benedict. "It may be
PSU wage
By DAVE SKIDMORE
Collegian Staff Writer
Teamsters Local 8, representing more than 2,000 University
maintenance, food service and technical workers, will vote
tomorrow night to accept or reject the University's latest
wage offer.
A vote of more than two-thirds of the members for rejection
will authorize union officers to call a strike. But union
president Jane Pikovsky said last week that a strike probably
will not be called until September, when it will have more
effect.
Last summer, Local 8 voted to reject the University's first
offer but later accepted a second offer in the fall.
"Most people feel they have nothing to lose by voting this
( offer) down," one union member said last night. He said most
union members expect the University to come back with some
kind of new offer after the strike vote.
However, University President John W. Oswald said in a
press conference last week that this offer is final.
He said in a let ter printed in The Daily Collegian and other
local newspapers that the University does not have the moeny
to meet the union's demand of an 8 per cent wage hike. The
Keating
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said a spokesman for state Auditor
General Al Benedict.
The audit report said the University
expects to receive its entire ap
propriation request if the University's
expenditures exceed its appropriations.
"In principle we are opposed to an
appropriation basis that excludes
revenues and in effect makes grants to
the Universities that can significantly
exceed their operating needs," the
report said. "We do not believe this
represents effective utilization of tax-
payers' monies."
Auditor General Benedict recom
mended that the appropriation
calculation be changed from the "cost"
method to a method based on student
credit hours or equivalent full-time
students.
An appropriation by the student credit
questionable, but we're not ready to
make an evaluatiob of that until we have
further information."
The auditor general's probe includes
looking into the public relations ex
penditures of Temple University and the
University of Pittsburgh, the state's
other two state-related universities.
The probe is to determine if the use of
public funds for public relations is
unique to Penn State or if it is a common
practice among state-related univer
sities.
"It's not a thing of crisis importance,"
said Gil Gott of the auditor's office.
"We're just going through the records
and documents."
Gott was unsure when the in
vestigation would be completed because
he said the office just recently received
Temple's audit.
Gott denied that Benedict has begun
the probe to enhance his political image
for a possible race for the governor's
seat next year.
"If he wasn't uncovering this, then
they would say he is covering it up for
political reasons," Gott said. "How do
you win?"
offer
Dam proposal is creating Controversy
As Congress and President Carter
haggle over the fate of water projects, a
similar controversy brews in central
Pennsylvania over the proposed Keating
Dam.
The Army Corps of Engineers is
studying the prospects of building a
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the
daily
before union
University has made a 5 per cent offer.
In the letter Oswald said: "It is my fervent hope that an
understanding of the University's fiscal situation will
prevail."
One union member said of Oswald's letter: "It really
doesn't mean anything to me. It's the University's problem
where they get the money."
Although the union member said chances are good for a
strike vote tomorrow, he said a strike vote probably would not
carry in the fall. •
"By that time everybody will be so disgusted the back pay
will look attractive as a lump sum," he said.
The current wage rate, which ranges between $3.72 and $6.06
per hour, expires tomorrow. Any agreement reached will be
retroactive.
He said union members would be unlikely, to vote for a strike
over an amount as small as the 3 per cent difference between
the union's demand and the University's offer.
He said if the strike lasts longer than a few days, union
members would not be able to regain their losses.
Local 8 meets 7:30 tomorrow night in the Eisenhower
Auditorim.
By STEVE LESTER
Collegian Staff Writer
11 II
re
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zanaldatid,
one
hours method would be based on the
total number of credits generated by
University students during a regular
school year.
Likewise with the equivalent full
time student, the appropriation would
be based proportionately according to
the •definition of an equivalent full-time
student. It is usually defined as the
average number of credits per year it
takes a student to graduate, or about 30
credits for University undergraduates.
If the legislature or the governor does
not want to make the change to the
above appropriation methods, Benedict
recommended that "cost" or "net cost"
be clearly defined as well as the items of
expense and revenue included in the
University's appropriation calculation.
The "net cost" method of ap
propriation calculation was used two
years ago by the legislature, but was
changed to the "cost" method when
state auditors asked that "net cost" be
more clearly defined.
Appropriation acts do not adequately
define "cost" or "net cost," the report
said.
"To define 'net cost' and-or 'cost' has
merit and we would not object to such
definitions," said Steve A. Garban,
University controller.
Garban said there are many ways to
determine appropriations methods,
adding that each one has advantages
and disadvantages.
"We would like to participate in any
activity involving a determination of the
definition or alternative methods of
financing," he said.
Garban said the University "could live
with" either the student credit hour or
equivalent full-time student methods for
appropriations if the new method con
tinued to provide adequate funding.
He said the credit hours method would
not give the University "enough time to
plan accordingly" if there was a sudden
decrease or increase of students.
He said the class size could fluctuate
up or down in a small period of time, but
that the actual expenses cannot be in
creased or decreased as quickly.
He also said such appropriation
methods "place emphasis on generating
credit hours and the quality of education
may suffer."
He said the appropriation for the
Hershey Medical Center is based on the
equivalent full-time student method.
large multi-purpose dam on the west
branch of the Susquehanna River, about
50 miles upstream from Lock Haven in
the northern tip of Centre County, near
the village of Keating.
It would be the third largest dam in the
East, according to Peter Hart, head
geologist for the corps' Baltimore
district covering the Susquehanna River
basin.
The dam would provide flood control,
hydroelectricity and recreation, ac
cording to the corps. It would be 363-feet
high and would creat a 49-mile lake
covering about 12,000 acres, which in
cludes land occupied by 156 homes in the
village of Karthaus.
The corps says the project would cost
about $7lB million, more than any
current project except the $1.4 billion
central Arizona project.
As with many corps proposals; the
Keating project has encountered
widespread opposition.
Corps projects are usually spurred on
by local Congressmen; however, fresh
man Rep. Joseph S. Ammerman op
posed the project during his successful
campaign against the former incumbent
Albert W. Johnson.
"I opposed the . . . project for en
vironmental reasons," he wrote to this
reporter in December. "Past ob
servations over the years have made
me most suspicious of the Army Corps of
Engineers and their proposals."
Ammerman will not change his
position unless some , economic
development "drastically changed the
Wet
Raindrops glisten on a bush outside Carnegie in yesterday's downpour. But the rain didn't daunt the Collegian weatherman,
who went ahead to create this poem :
This morning some thunder and rain
the weatherman will entertain.
But those of you who are more sane,
you'll have your share so don't
complain.
My forecast also does contain,
U.S. court
WASHINGTON (UPI) The Supreme
Court ruled 7 to 2 yesterday that
Congress acted properly in treating
Richard Nixon differently from other
presidents and putting his White House
tapes and papers under government
control.
The court majority upheld the con
stitutionality of the 1974 law giving the
government custody of 880 reels of White
House tapes and 42 million docuthents
from Nixon's administration and
stipulating the materials be screened to
determine which are private and which
are public.
It rejected Nixon's argument that
when he was set apart by Congress from
previous presidents who were allowed
to dispose of their papers as they wished
he in effect was punished without a
trial and without proof that he had done
anything wrong.
Announcing the historic decision from
the bench, Justice William Brennan
declared Nixon was "a legitimate class
of one" due to the circumstances which
made him the first president ever to
resign.
He said when Congress acted in 1974
a period of "political turbulence"
Nixon's tapes were in "imminent
danger" of being destroyed and his
papers were not securely housed in a
presidential library.
The opinion said the law did not violate
the separation of
Nixon's owers principle,
unduly intrude on x privacy or
significantly interfere with his Ist
Amendment rights to' freedom of
association. And it rejected Nixon's
claim of presidential privilege, saying
this applies to the office and not to the
man.
R. Stan Mortenson, one of Nixon's
picture," his press secretary said
Friday.
Russell P. Letterman, state assembly
man from Clinton County, also opposes
the project, according to a letter he
wrote to this reporter in January.
Letterman's position is paradoxical
because communities in Clinton County,
particularly Lock Haven, would be the
main beneficiaries of the flood protec-'
lion the dam would provide.
Letterman opposes the project
because it needs "a hell of a lot more
research," he wrote. "As I understand
it, the Army Corps of Engineers is not
taking into consideration facts such as
sulphur pollution from abandoned
mines, or any form of environmental
damage that may occur as a result of the
building of this monstrosity. I have very
little faith in the 'facts' as presented by
the Army Corps of Engineers."
Sulfuric acid pollution from aban
doned mines and mine wast dumps has
been a serious problem for the
Susquehanna River. About 650 miles of
"significant tributaries" have no life
activity, government documents say,
while 230 miles of "principal rivers are
seriously degraded or periodically
threatened."
"It doesn't make sense to saddle
upstream communities with a big acid
lake while downstream communities
reap the benefits of flood control
protection," said John Sweet, faculty
advisor to the Penn State Outing Club.
The staunchest opposition would most
likely come from those people whose
a fair afternoon to regain.
Highs of eighty-two can attain,
in you no feeling of disdain.
Look tonight at a weathervane,
for what it shows it should pertain,
to clear skies that we will retain,
upholds tape ruling
lawyers, said yesterday afternoon he
had received a copy of the opinion and
was "still trying to go through and un
derstand it and all of its ramifications.",
He said "no decisions have been made"
whether the court will be asked to
reconsider its action within the 25 days
allowed.
As for Nixon,. Mortensen ' said in
response to a question: "Yeah, he's
aware of the decision. I'd rather not talk
to you about it."' .
Police nab Rockview
prisoner after chase
State police apprehended an
escapee from Rockview Correctional
Institute who had been at large for
more than a year, after a high-speed
chase and a foot race.
John Franklin Loesch, Jr. sus
tained minor injuries after he drove
over a 70-foot embankmerit off the un
finished State College bypass on a
stolen motorcycle, State Police at
Rockview said.
The motorcycle, a gold Honda with
Maine license plate, was stolen from
Larry R. Parks, of Lemont, who had
bought the bike on Tuesday night,
police said. ,
Loesch wrecked the motorcycle
after driving off an embankment over
Old Boalsburg Road.
State policeman Ronald Avellino
apprehended on foot Loesch after
following him over the embankment
in his patrol car.
lives would be drastically changed by
the project.
Glen Gakle, chairman of the board of
supervisors in East Keating Township,
said he was "born and raised" in the
area and he opposes the dam project.
"As far as I know it's going to hurt,"
he said. "There are some beautiful
campsites up there and there's a lot of
action on that river," most of which
would be eliminated by the project.
He said a large number of young
people use the west branch for white
water recreation, and "(the number is)
multiplying every year. I hope a lot of
them kick against it."
Despite the apparent opposition by
politicians, environmentalists, hunting
and fishing clubs, white water en
thusiasts and local residents, research
on the project still continues.
"Who authorizes such research?" one
might ask.
The answer lies in Harrisburg.
At a public workshop in Lock Haven
last summer the corps said the project
was not economically feasible.
Shortly afterward, Maurice K. God
dard, state Secretary of the Department
of Environmental Resources, authorized
further corps study on the project in the
name of the Commonwealth of Penn
sylvania, a corps spokesman said.
In addition to flood control,
hydroelectricity, recreation and area re
development, the corps is now studying
the benefits that could be derived from a
concept it calls "low-flow augmen
tation."
and cooler fifty-eight obtain.
For tomorrow we should maintain,
the fair weather that now doth reign.
Highs of eighty should cause no pain,
for those of you who are more sane.
by Bill Dovico
The opinion did not cover the
Watergate tapes that were used in the
coverup trials, since they are part of the
public domain.
"The constitutional questions to be
decided are, of course, of considerable
importance," Brennan wrote. "They
touch the relationship between two of the
three coordinate branches of the federal
government, the executive and
legislative, and the relationship of ap
pellant Nixon to his government.
Police said Loesch fired shots from
a .30 caliber rifle he had in his
knapsack at Avellino and John
McCabe, a State College policeman.
State College police first spotted
Loesch in the Oak Hall area and
established roadblocks in the
Boalsburg area.
After Loesch drove over the em
bankment, police chased Loesch on
foot from Oak Hall Road near
Boalsburg and pursued him along a
power line that carried a live current.
• Loesch was taken by ambulance to
the Mountainview unit of Centre
Community Hospital where he was
still in the emergency room with a
possible shoulder injury, hospital and
police spokesmen said.
Loesch escaped from Rockview in
April of 1976 and had been at large
since then.
This new project involves regulating
the river's depth during dry weather to
reduce pollution.
When asked why he authorized more
research, Goddard said, "You can't
build a dam without further study."
"We need flood control, we need low
flow augmentation, (and) more
recreation waters," he added.
In regard to Ammerman's position
and Letterman's calling the project a
"monstrosity," Goddard said, "That's
one of the problems of America. People
make snap decisions."
He said the Raystown Dam near
Huntington received much opposition
during its planning stages but "you try
to take that project (away, today and I
don't think the people of Huntington
would let you."
The town of Clearfield "didn't get a
crop"r of flood water during tropical
storm Agnes, he said, because of the
flood protection provided by a nearby
dam at Curwensville.
If the dam were not built, "Clearfield
would have been decimated," he said.
"I'm not endorsing the (Keating)
project, just encouraging further study
on it."
The corps plans to announce its fin
dings on the new study some time next
spring, a corps spokesman said.
By that time the project may be
considered economically feasible.
The second part of this article will deal
with the corps' method of determining
economic feasibility the concept of
cost-benefit analy.ls. '-)