University Spin

In Friday's Wall Street Journal we have yet another article on University marketing tactics.  Daniel Golden's "To Boost Donor Numbers Colleges Adopt New Tricks."  In an example of revenue smoothing that would put major corporation fraudsters to envy, we have universities spreading very small donations, $30, over five and six years to claim the donor in the percentage of alumni giving figures in later years.  There is no authority, other than public embarrassment when practice come to light, to hold universities accountable for gross distortions by some of what they are and what they do.  Just ask the folks at U.S. News & World Report.   There are well know "tricks" in post graduate employment numbers and in mean standardized test scores, among others.  How ironic that academics, that call for sanctions on private business who are subject to a plethora of anti-fraud rules, live in institutions that often would not satisfy the basic standards of Rule 10b-5 when it comes to sending in numbers for ranking services.