Spotlight PA is an investigative news agency that opened a regional bureau in State College this summer. A nonprofit, Spotlight PA provides content to other news outlets, including WPSU. One of the new reporters in Centre County, Wyatt Massey, is focused on covering Penn State, with an emphasis on accountability and shedding light on the university’s internal operations. WPSU’s Anne Danahy spoke with Massey about what he’s learned so far.
Anne Danahy
Wyatt Massey, thank you for talking with us.
Wyatt Massey
Yeah, thank you for having me.
Anne Danahy
You're an investigative reporter at Spotlight PA's first regional bureau here in Centre County, which includes Penn State. It's a huge university. There's a lot going on. How do you decide what to focus on?
Wyatt Massey
The focus so far has really been on kind of the internal workings of the university, the administration leadership, how decisions are made, kind of what's happening behind the scenes. So we're not as interested in kind of what's happening in the classroom day-to-day or how things are going on the football field, but looking at the bigger picture, the kind of influences that are shaping the university and how it's kind of making decisions.
Anne Danahy
And I can speculate, but why do you think that's important? Why is there a need for more of that reporting?
Wyatt Massey
So Penn State has this huge geographic footprint as well as influence in terms of the thousands of people, it employs the tens of thousands of people it educates, the economic influence it has on the region. And with that it has a special status within the state of Pennsylvania, that kind of allows it to be largely exempt from open records laws. So there are things that the government has to tell you that you can request through open records. Whether that is your local county, your local police department, state government in Harrisburg. But Penn State is one of four universities in the state that have this kind of special exemption. So that apart from some pretty high level, financial information, that's pretty broad. You can't get down to like granular levels, or you can't request documents. So it kind of exists in this shroud of secrecy. And that's not necessarily to imply that there's nefarious things happening, but people just kind of want to know what's happening behind the scenes. What are the influences that are leading to decisions that they hear about.
Anne Danahy
Right. So Penn State is often thought of as a public university, but it isn't. It's state-related, as you were talking about, one of four state-relateds in Pennsylvania. How does that affect your reporting and getting that access to the information, because you can't file a Freedom of Information or Right to Know requests in the same way?
Wyatt Massey
Yeah, a lot of my reporting becomes very relational in terms of getting to know people within the university structure, who have connections, who can talk about what's happening behind the scenes, who can share information, whether that's tips, whether that's hard documents. So it becomes a lot more of a conversation rather than relying on kind of legally forcing institutions to turn over documents or information.
Anne Danahy
And what type of reception are you getting so far?
Wyatt Massey
It's been pretty positive. I mean, of course, there's people that are kind of questioning why we're here doing this type of reporting. And then on the other kind of far end of the spectrum, there's people who maybe have a bone to pick with the university. But I also feel there's a huge kind of middle section where people want the best for the university, maybe they work there, maybe their kids have gone there. But they also kind of want to know more about what's happening. They want to see more accountability, or better understand how the university makes its decisions.
Anne Danahy
You wrote a long piece about Penn State's new president, Neeli Bendapudi, looking at her work as president of the University of Louisville. What's your overall impression of her working style? And what we might expect to see from her at Penn State?
Wyatt Massey
Yeah, so we spent about three to four months kind of looking at her background. She was the new president here in State College. So we looked at the kind of two or three years that she was the president at the University of Louisville, to kind of better understand, okay, how will she lead here, kind of looking at the big decisions that she's made in the past. And some of those big decisions included acquiring a hospital system, kind of responding to the protests for racial justice in 2020, as well as just kind of handling the day to day operations of the university. They had a, the University of Louisville had a budget crunch kind of similar to what Penn State is going through. So we really wanted to like provide people an opportunity to better understand the new president by kind of looking at the decisions of her past. So now that she's had to make some tough decisions, I think that kind of reporting kind of provides a better light on the processes she takes, the people that are in her kind of inner circle and how people can expect the university to move forward.
Anne Danahy
And did you get a sense when talking to people and doing all of that reporting of what her leadership style is?
Wyatt Massey
Yeah, I mean, I think looking at her leadership in Kentucky, and then just talking to people here, she does seem very open to having conversations and being very collaborative and taking in information, but she's also not afraid to kind of make big decisions.
Anne Danahy
You've also been following President Bendapudi's decision to call off plans for creating the Center for Racial Justice and the pushback that she's been getting. Where does that stand?
Wyatt Massey
Yeah, as of now the university is not going forward with its center. They had a town hall last week, that involved some faculty, kind of a back and forth. There were pre-submitted questions versus kind of like an ongoing Q&A. But at this point, the university is not going to move forward with that venture. It had been kind of a key commitment following the protests in 2020. But that commitment was made under the former president, Eric Barron. And the university has said it's going to invest at least as much financially as it would have in the center. So there are some questions kind of about what made the university change its mind. But President Bendapudi has kind of her plan to address diversity and equity issues at the university.
Anne Danahy
On the question of finances, though, how will you go about trying to follow up with that and find out about it? Because as you said, they don't necessarily have to provide the details on that.
Wyatt Massey
Yeah, that was one of the questions we had asked the university in one of our most recent stories. So if you make this financial commitment, let's say for example, you're going to invest $10 million. At other universities, you could sort of see, OK, they said they're going to invest $10 million in the center, we can look at their line items in the budget and see 2022, 2023, is there $10 million there? Did they invest nothing? But with Penn State and its status, it doesn't have to release those kind of line-item budgets. So it's really hard to track whether the that financial commitment is going to be seen. And the university didn't answer our question about kind of how the public can track year over year, those commitments.
Anne Danahy
And anything else on the agenda that you have coming up for Penn State that you want to mention?
Wyatt Massey
There's a variety of things we're kind of always interested in. One of the big things that I think will be a conversation, for at least the next year, is just kind of how the university grapples with its budget deficit. And I think in the next couple of months, we'll be seeing the kind of impacts or the potential impacts of that, as it kind of looks to balance the budget in the next couple of years.
Anne Danahy
Wyatt Massey, thank you so much for talking with us.
Wyatt Massey
Yeah. Thank you.
