Money trail is hard to follow – CDT
Many people would probably guess that the biggest sacred cow at Penn State is Joe Paterno. Well, as recent years have shown, he’s not completely sacred. The actual sacred cow is Dance Marathon, known as THON. It is an event that raises millions annually for charity but has little public oversight:

But Thon and the Four Diamonds Fund are not independent charitable organizations. Rather, they are part of Penn State and get their tax exempt status from the university. As such, they — and Penn State — are not required to make any part of their finances public.

This has not historically been an issue, but the local newspaper is wondering where all the money comes from. What they should be asking is “where does all of it go?”. THON and its beneficiaries would benefit from being forthcoming about where the money is going. I don’t see that coming to light or even being pushed for though. It should be.

Three years ago, I called out the “Greeks do THON, so we should get to play by different rules” crowd: “You’re either for Thon or for cancer.”

UPDATE

THON opens its books a little – 12.09.2009