Donors’ names should be public

A cloak of secrecy is about to descend on some of the financial dealings of the University of Virginia.

The state’s flagship university wants permission to keep the names of its financial backers a secret. Lawmakers are close to acquiescing to this request. They should reconsider.

Wealthy donors can already give anonymously by writing a check to any of the university’s 14 private foundations. Only direct contributions to the university are subject to the state’s Freedom of Information Act. Donors have a choice. They can give directly and on the record or give to a foundation in secret.

The university is requesting the law change at the same time that it is growing an ever-more-impressive endowment nest egg. UVa’s endowment has soared over the past three years and is now worth $5.1 billion, according to university President John T. Casteen III.

The university is in the middle of a $3 billion fundraising campaign. Of $1.45 billion raised so far, $74 million came from anonymous donors, according to The (Charlottesville) Daily Progress.

There is a danger in concealing the identities of the university’s big-money backers. Donors could make financial gifts in exchange for admission of their academically mediocre offspring. A similar problem could exist in the case of companies hoping to do business with the university.

Disclosure of financial backers decreases the likelihood of such mischief. At the very least, it makes it possible for the public and press to scrutinize the university’s financial dealings.

That this nation’s elite private universities and some elite public institutions give preferential treatment to the children of wealth and privilege is well documented. In some cases, these well-connected students have taken slots that could have gone to academically superior students of more modest means. At a time when the nation needs to educate its brightest young minds to compete in a global marketplace, such a preference system makes little sense.

If the University of Virginia gets its way, no scrutiny of its dealings with donors’ children or grandchildren will be possible.

The university argues that its donor database also contains private information, including Social Security numbers, net worth and the like. We have no problem with such information remaining private, but donors’ names should stay in the public domain. The bright minds at the university should be able to separate public and private data in their computer system. Information on private foundation donors should be kept in a separate database. These problems require a technical, not a legislative fix.

But that doesn’t appear to be what state lawmakers are contemplating. They appear eager to do the university’s bidding. The Virginia House and Senate have passed separate, but identical bills to cloak the donors. Senate passage was unanimous; just six delegates voted against the House bill.

The bills now go to the opposite chamber for consideration. We urge them to reconsider and reject this measure. Keep the university’s donors in the light.