YSU trustees' chairman should review spending

Youngstown State University President David Sweet's decision to have the director of budget planning and resource allocation review his travel and entertainment expenses meets the spirit of a special audit report recommendation, but it falls short of creating a true system of accountability. Why? Because the director is a university employee.
Instead, we believe the chairman of the board of trustees fits the description of someone "in a position of authority to challenge the appropriateness of the related expenses" called for in the audit.
Sweet serves at the pleasure of the trustees and carries out policies set by them. The trustees are appointed by the governor to nine-year terms, which means they are answerable to no one but him.
Therefore, the chairman of the board would be able to challenge any expenditures without fear of retaliation.
We are certainly not suggesting that Sweet's past spending demands such scrutiny, but we believe the move would reassure a cynical public that there is a credible oversight system in place.
Indeed, the audit of Sweet's travel and entertainment expenses for the period July 2002 through March 2004 by Packer Thomas, certified public accountants and business consultants, found no misuse or illegal use of funds by him. But Packer Thomas, which has a contract with YSU to conduct internal audits, said that its assignment from the board of trustees' audit subcommittee did not include determining the "appropriateness or reasonableness" of the president's spending.
Sweet asked for the special audit in April after The Jambar, the student newspaper, published a series of articles highlighting his travel and entertainment expenses between September 2002 and this January. The series revealed exorbitant spending of public dollars by Sweet, his wife, Pat, and a high-ranking member of the administration, Dr. George McCloud, on meals, drinks, hotels room and travel.
The norm
The president has insisted that his expenditures were within the bounds of policy and arrangements with the board of trustees and that they were "well within the norms" for university presidents. He also said that much of what The Jambar reported was "taken out of context."
McCloud also defended his spending as being necessary to performing his duties as special assistant to the president for development and public relations.
But the fact remains that such spending grabs the public's attention. Given the ever-increasing cost of attending YSU and the reduction in state funding, every dollar spent by the president on down is open to scrutiny.
That is why it makes sense to have the chairman of the board of trustees review the president's travel and entertainment expenses, as opposed to an individual on the university's payroll.
Last September, Sweet appointed a committee to review and update YSU's travel policies and procedures. The revised policies will be submitted to the trustees for review and adoption at their September quarterly meeting.
Trustees should make it clear that the days of departments' spending everything in their travel and other budgets as the fiscal year comes to a close are long gone. The keyword at YSU should be frugal.