By SARA ELIZABETH PAYNE AND BOUBACAR BARRY

Controversy around the recent speaking engagements at Utah Valley State College continues, as UVSC received conservative radio talk-show host Sean Hannity's travel bill.

Hannity, who volunteered to speak at the university after liberal filmmaker Michael Moore had been scheduled, sent university officials and private donors travel expenses totaling $49,850, which surprised UVSC administrators.

In documents obtained by The Daily Universe, the invoice that was sent to UVSC stated "Charter for Sean Hannity 10/11-10/13/04" without any further explanation of costs for his travel.

Premiere Speakers Bureau, the company in charge of billing, refused to comment on the specifics of the invoice.

Most of the expense came from his private jet said Joe Vogel, UVSC vice president of academic affairs. Hannity flew from New York to Utah and then to Arizona, where he broadcasted his show during the presidential debate Wednesday night. The travel cost also includes Hannity's trip back to New York from Arizona, even though Hannity would've made the trip to Arizona anyway.

"We have hired private jets in the past," said Derek Hall, director of college relations at UVSC. "We had Larry King from California. Here and back cost $15,000."

Vogel said the Jon Huntsman Jr. campaign had offered to donate a private jet, but Hannity declined the offer. Vogel said he guessed most people in the Huntsman campaign and at UVSC had assumed Hannity would take Huntsman's jet and thus cut the cost significantly.

Although Huntsman's campaign offered $10,000 and local corporations offered $5,000 to offset the bill, it was still short of Moore's $50,000 speaking fee and UVSC must pay $34,850 of Hannity's travel expenses.

Earlier, controversy ignited when UVSC students and alumni protested Moore's invitation to speak at the college Wednesday. Further dispute surfaced when students found out Moore's speaking, travel and event security fees approached $62,000.

Hannity, after previously rejecting an offer of $40,000 to speak at UVSC this year, agreed to speak for free after hearing of Moore's invitation. Hannity waived his usual $100,000 speaking fee in exchange for travel expenses.

Travel expenses for Moore totaled $11,000. Because UVSC did not have an official speaking contract with Hannity, they did not know beforehand how much his travel would cost. Hall said UVSC officials were generally surprised when they received the bill.

Vogel and Hall both said no student money was used or will be used to pay for the fee. Hannity requested and received certified communication from UVSC that no student fees were used to cover his travel expenses.

Ticket sales for Hannity's speech reached $35,000. Hannity's travel expenses, combined with costs for event security, totaled $8,850 taken from the student budget for speakers this year.

Expenses for both events totaled $105,850, but revenue coming from donors and ticket sales offset most of the cost. The Associated Students of UVSC will have over $15,600 remaining in their speaker budget after all expenses from both events are paid.

Hall said he couldn't see any negative impact to the college because of the travel bill. In fact, the school's scholarship banquet, a posh $150 a plate dinner put on by UVSC each year to raise money for scholarships, sold out two weeks ago. The event has never sold out that quick in the banquet's history.

Hall said major players in the community comprise the new attendees this year (Carpets America, Universal Community Credit Union and Utah County Association of Realtors among others). He said he wasn't sure if the sudden boom in attendees was related to the recent spotlight UVSC has been in, but he said this attention has been for the school's benefit.

"You have two speakers both of national renown in their own right on campus within two weeks of a national election and to spend a grand total of $34,500... that's unheard of," Hall said.

Vogel said many people believe Hannity did a favor to the community by coming, so the travel bill is not a big deal.

"It will eventually blow over," Hall said.



Copyright Brigham Young University 14 Oct 2004