Feb 2, 2020 3 min read

It must be said right off the bat that there’s no evidence that California University of Pennsylvania did anything illegal when it accepted a little more than $67,000 in contributions from a contractor that built a parking garage on campus that later partially collapsed.

A spokesman for the State System of Higher Education said Cal U., and the commonwealth’s other public universities, “operate within state law that governs the awarding of contracts” and the process “protects Pennsylvania taxpayers and students …”

And an Atlanta-based business ethicist told our Gideon Bradshaw that it’s not uncommon for a business that works with a university or charity to make donations “as long as those donations weren’t made with the intent of getting the work.”

Fair enough. But even if the contributions that Pittsburgh-based Manheim Corp. made to the university’s athletic program around the time it was awarded a contract to build the Vulcan Garage are proper and lawful, the appearance is, well, not good. Manheim Corp. and the university seemed to enjoy a cozy relationship when a polite-but-distant one might have been best for all concerned.

The relationship now, of course, is frosty since the university has filed suit against Manheim, claiming that the company and its insurer are liable for the losses the university has incurred as a result of the partial collapse of the Vulcan Garage. While no one was killed when the collapse happened on move-in day in August 2016, it has been closed off to people and vehicles since then.

The revelation that Manheim was an enthusiastic donor to Cal U. comes after a months-long battle in which the Observer-Reporter attempted to get records from the university on donations Manheim might have made to the Foundation for California University. The university staunchly resisted making those records available, taking the case all the way to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. But the court upheld previous rulings that the information was a matter of public record.

Then, the university stated it did not have any record of donations to its foundation by Manheim, raising the question of why they fought so vociferously, expending so much time and treasure, in the first place. The Observer-Reporter is now seeking to recover its legal expenses and secure a $1,500 sanction against the university. The information about Manheim’s donations to the athletic program at Cal U. came after the O-R refiled its request in December, seeking information on donations the company made to university programs.

Few would dispute that the Vulcan Garage has been an ongoing headache for Cal U. Its reluctance to reveal information that clearly should be part of the public record has only compounded its woes.