Welcome back, readers, to an adventure in open records.

In last week's column, I told you a little bit about the problems of the open records law in Pennsylvania.

This week, I'll share some of my experiences trying out the law by requesting records from various organizations that get money from the state.

On Oct. 18, I took two letters with me when I left for class. One was a request for documents from Penn State, and one was for documents from the State College borough.

My letter to the university asked for expense reports from the Board of Trustees meeting at which the trustees approved this year's tuition. I wanted to know how much the trustees spent while they voted on how much to charge students. I also asked for an explanation of the university president's annual non-salary benefits.

I sent similar requests to Indiana University of Pennsylvania, a school completely run by the state, and Pitt, which is classified as state-related, just like Penn State. Pitt and Penn State get funding from Harrisburg, but aren't state-operated.

I should tell you that none of my requests said that I was connected to The Daily Collegian in any way or identified me as a Collegian columnist. This is because I wanted to get the documents as a plain student, just like any of you readers could do.

After being shuffled around a few offices in Old Main -- no one was quite sure where my request should be received -- I ran into a higher-up whom I recognized, and gave him the letter. He skimmed it quickly, then handed it back to me, saying, "We just don't provide any of those."

When I pointed out that the letter asked for a denial of records in writing, and inquired as to whether I could get one, he said expense reports were "not something we would make public."

I started to wonder if wearing my powersuit would have changed the response, but any student in jeans and a sweater -- or any community member, for that matter -- should be able to request information from an entity that gets state money. You should not be discriminated against or treated differently based on your age, outfit or anything else.

I was happy to find that in the borough office, I was greeted with a smile, in spite of my obviously student attire. The staff assistant who took my request, Cynthia Hanscom, made sure she had a way to contact me when the documents were ready. Assistant Borough Secretary Barbara Natalie processed my request, and within just two days I had an e-mail telling me I could pick up the documents.

When I didn't show up that day to retrieve them, I got a phone call the next morning checking to make sure the e-mail message had gone through.

My response was on borough letterhead, and the attached documents had the appropriate information highlighted. They even added information for this year to date, which was more than I had requested!

Hanscom and Natalie, and the borough itself, get a big thumbs-up from me for a quick, kind and comprehensive response to an open records request.

Upon receiving my letter, IUP's open records coordinator sent me an e-mail noting that my request would be processed within 10 business days. The State System of Higher Education sent a formal letter to notify me when my request arrived. They're being compliant thus far.

Pitt didn't contact me, so on Wednesday I called there. An assistant who answered the phone told me my letter was in the inbox of the appropriate party, but that she hadn't looked at it yet. (This assistant also asked, "What's an open records letter?" I have a feeling my discussions with Pitt might prove frustrating.)

Last week, I mailed a follow-up request to Penn State, arguing that I felt the trustees' records should be made available. When I hadn't heard anything by Wednesday, I called. I was e-mailed a link to parts of the Penn State online budget www.budget.psu.edu and told that to get average meeting costs, I should divide the totals by the number of trustees' meetings each year.

That's a step, but it doesn't help students analyze whether, for example, a meeting held in New York City (there was one in Manhattan in the spring) broke the bank compared to one held on campus.

I've scheduled a meeting in Old Main to try to learn more about why Penn State keeps more detailed financial documentation closed to the public.

In a future column, I'll share some of what the records I received have taught me. Stay tuned to learn how much the borough pays for the "canyon cameras," as well as other public information.