A financially strapped community college in Pennsylvania has allowed its president to bill it for several thousands of dollars in travel and dining expenses with virtually no oversight.

The president of the Community College of Allegheny County, Stewart E. Sutin, billed the college $449.39 for a 2004 dinner in San Francisco without naming any of the other diners present, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Last September he spent $457.43 in college money to rent a car and pay for five nights of parking while in Seattle on college business, but he drove the car only to and from the airport. Round-trip taxi fare would have been $80, and Mr. Sutin provided no justification for the rental car, according to the Post-Gazette.

Just two months after the Seattle trip, Mr. Sutin ordered curbs on out-of-county travel by college employees, to help reduce a budget deficit that led to job cuts last fall and spring, according to the newspaper.

Mr. Sutin was hired in 2004 from outside academe because the college’s trustees were looking for someone creative and business-minded to turn its finances around (The Chronicle, March 31).