George Mason Law School professor Todd J. Zywicki is suggesting that it might be wise to apply the Sarbanes-Oxley regulations to universities.
Sarbanes-Oxley is the intrusive and pointless, feel-good law enacted in 2002 in response to the corporate scandals of the 1990s. The reporting and record keeping mandates it imposes are burdensome and expensive, and considering how most of those involved in the ’90s scandals wound up in prison, unnecessary.
Still, Zywicki points out that the reasoning behind instituting the regulations for business are just as apt for American higher education and that there is no good reason to exempt the schools from them.
He says that while it has been traditionally assumed that universities are charitable organizations run with “an eye on the public good” they have evolved into big business riven with self interests and presidents making seven-figure salaries.
He says that their boards of trustees “have all but abandoned any pretense of governing”.
And go here to see what he says fits with the situation at Penn State.