Members of the ISU Foundation and the Iowa Newspaper Association are hopeful that meetings later this month will result in a compromise.

If a compromise is reached, a bill before the Iowa Senate regarding open records and the Foundation will potentially become obsolete.

“They were very supportive of exploring this option,” said Bill Monroe, president of the Iowa Newspaper Association. “We are trying to find a middle ground for the release of records.”

Monroe said representatives of the INA and the Foundation decided further discussion, which will likely occur in February, should include all three regent university foundations.

The goal

“Our goal is to give journalists access to information they want,” Monroe said.

The Foundation wants to know what information journalists want. Monroe said future meetings will include representatives from the journalism community.

“We want to know who they are doing business with for what services, and how much they are spending to raise money,” said Bill Kunerth, ISU professor emeritus of journalism and mass communication. “This is important because the money is being raised for a public institution, for the public good.”

Monroe said he is optimistic.

“We are very hopeful that we can proceed and find a solution,” he said. “We are going to keep going until there is an environment where this information is available.”

Monroe said the groups will probably not need more than one meeting to reach a compromise.

“We should have a pretty good idea at the end of one day as to whether or not we’ll be able to reach an agreement,” he said. “We may conclude that 80 percent of a loaf is better than nothing.”

Unnecessary legislation

Monroe said House File 2003, the bill now in the Iowa Senate to force foundations to open their records, would no longer be necessary if an agreement is reached.

Rep. David Johnson, R-Ocheyedan, said he decided to sponsor the bill at the beginning of the legislative session in January “in order to keep conversation going on the issue” for three major reasons.

“First, there have been some highly publicized cases involving donations to the foundations that have raised questions about accountability,” he said.

He also said the millions of dollars raised by the foundations while the three regent universities are facing large budget crunches are sparking questions of accountability.

Third, Johnson said, it is in the interest of the regent university foundations “to satisfy some of those questions.”

“This was in no way intended to suggest that there was anything illegal or unethical going on,” he said. “This is not about the journalist’s right to know, it is about the public’s right to know. This issue is driven by the citizens of Iowa.”

Accountability

Monroe said accountability is crucial.

“If I’m a parent of a student at Iowa State and I see something in the news about record fund raising, and then something about significant budget problems, I would think `how can this be?'” Monroe said. “The answer to that question is best found in the records of the Foundation.”

The ISU Foundation is also hopeful of a compromise, said President and CEO Tom Mitchell.

“They have a greater understanding of what is already public, and we have a better understanding of what they are looking for,” he said. “We have made great progress in those discussions and I’m hopeful we can continue to make progress.”

Many of the records of the ISU Foundation are available online. Any gift funds transferred to the university for academic purposes are also public information. Information about current and prospective donors is kept confidential.

“I don’t think [journalists] are taking the time to investigate,” Mitchell said. “A common theme I hear is `I didn’t know that.'”

Mitchell said the Foundation will use these discussions to spread information.

“What we need to do is a better job of communicating the role of the Foundation, what it costs to raise the money and that kind of information,” Mitchell said.

Nationwide, the average cost per dollar raised is 14 cents. Last year, the ISU Foundation spent only 9 cents per dollar raised, Mitchell said. The Foundation is consistently below average, reaching a low of 3.5 cents per dollar in recent years.

“Fund-raising operating expenses relate to the securing part of our mission,” Mitchell said. That includes salaries, travel and office expenses of development employees, he said. “Our operation is very efficient.”

Negative impact

Mitchell said the proposed bill could negatively impact the Foundation’s fund-raising efforts.

“The proposed bill would require donors to the university foundations to specifically request that their identities and information be kept confidential,” Mitchell said. “The bill requires the university foundations to provide itemized donor-by-donor reports describing in detail the contributions of individuals and legal and business entities.”

Mitchell said if the bill passes, it may create a `donor-beware’ mentality.

“The bill does not allow donors any avenue to choose how their personal information will be used,” he said.

Mitchell said more than $234 million has been donated for use by the university in the last 10 years. In that same period, he said $7.5 million was designated for student financial aid.

“Creating a `donor beware’ climate that would discourage private support, at the very time we need it to increase, would hurt these institutions, their students, the people they serve and the state of Iowa,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell also said the bill would increase expenses and workload for staff.

Most of all, Mitchell said, he is concerned about any possible impacts on students.

“My biggest concern for students is if tuition continues to go up, which is something students ought to be concerned about,” he said. “The Foundation must continue to raise gift support for scholarships. We are working very hard to contact alumni and friends.”