UA?s FOI Gets Fixed

In our Feb. 11 Whispers, we let you in on a little sparring between us and the University of Arkansas about some documents related to the potential purchase of Fayetteville High School that should have been turned over to us through a Freedom of Information Act request filed Sept. 25, 2007.

The email in question – that came to our attention only in the last month – outlined a proposal to fund the purchase of the 40-acre campus through either a one-time 5.36 percent tuition increase to fund an annual debt service of $3.81 million over 30 years or other staggered schedules of gradual tuition hikes.

We appreciated the UA’s response to our second FOIA request – and its correction of some previous statements – and we reached a solid level of mutual understanding going forward as this process unfolds.

The question nagging us right now, though, is why hasn’t other media picked up on this funding proposal? All the print media has a copy of the email, including the student-run Arkansas Traveler (which, in the interest of full disclosure, three editors here are proud veterans of).

Tuition increases aren’t popular, but they are easy headlines, and tuition increases to fund the premium purchase price of close to $60 million for property that may not benefit students for years would certainly qualify as both.

When you consider that tuition has more than doubled in the last 10 years, you don’t need to be Woodward or Bernstein to see the story angle here.

Some of the correspondence created since our initial request certainly makes it seem harder and harder to see how the UA will be able to justify paying full price – and thus helping FHS subsidize new construction elsewhere.

A facility assessment that looked at just utilities and maintenance costs put the annual tab for the UA at around $1.5 million. Total cost for major system upgrades such as HVAC and interior construction was estimated at more than $6 million in 2008 dollars. That figure doesn’t count audio/video and information technology upgrades, demolition, parking lots and conversion of spaces like the cafeteria and library.

The UA has long-term debt of more than $300 million as it stands now, and the one funding proposal for FHS we’ve seen would add at least $114 million to that.

With that in mind, it seems to us there should be a lot more focus on the “dollars and sense” and a lot less attention on dithering committees who have accomplished very little moving this process forward in the last two years.