After months of discussions, which were sometimes tense, a Penn State Board of Trustees committee is recommending significant alterations to the board’s structure.
The board is faced with either voluntarily altering its make-up on its own or risk having the Pennsylvania General Assembly ordering reform through state law.
On Thursday, the Governance and Long-Range Planning Committee approved key recommendations 7-to-1 with Anthony Lubrano voting against the measure.
The changes include:
– Adding a trustee who represents the Penn State Alumni Association
– Adding a student-elected trustee to represent the student body
– Adding a trustee elected by the faculty senate
– Adding three at-large board members appointed by the full board
– Reducing the number of trustees required to be alumni from three to six for both the governor appointed trustees and business and industry trustees
– Eliminating voting rights from the state secretaries of agriculture, education and conservation and natural resources
The board’s size would increase from 32 to 38 members with 33 having voting rights. The board’s nine members elected by the alumni will remain the same.
One contentious issue before the committee was how alumni should be represented on the board. Through the process, committee members Lubrano and Barbara Doran, both trustees elected by alumni, opposed cuts to alumni-elected members. While committee member Richard Dandrea noted that of the 33 schools the committee determined to be similar to Penn State, none featured alumni elected members on their boards.
“It is a rich database of the schools that we thought we should look at to see how they govern themselves. They show that Penn State is highly atypical,” says Dandrea. “These data are clear and compelling.”
While Lubrano and Doran fought to maintain alumni presence on the board, both unsuccessfully spoke out against adding a board member from the Penn State Alumni Association.
Kay Salvino, president of the Penn State Alumni Association, thanked the committee for its decision, which she acknowledged was “hotly contested.”
“We will do our best to be earnest members of this board,” says Salvino.
At times Thursday’s discussion became tense. With several board members wanting to see the committee support a measure unanimously by noon, Lubrano voiced uncertainty.
“I’m not going to sit here with a gun to my head,” says Lubrano.
The measure, which is considered by much of the committee to be a compromise resolution, will go before the full board in November.
The reform the committee approved was a modified version of one of three proposals before the board. Full board Chair Keith Masser proposed the modified version at the start of the committee meeting Thursday morning.
“It’s not appeasing everyone, but it is including something from everyone,” says Masser.
Committee Chair Keith Eckel made clear at the start of the meeting he wanted to see the committee unanimously support a proposal. He’s hoping that will change moving forward.
“I had hoped it could be unanimous and I’m an eternal optimist, so I’m hoping by November it can be unanimous by the full board. I think it is a very good compromise,” he says.
The committee felt pressure to act, as in June the Pennsylvania Senate’s State Government Committee voted 11-to-0 for Senate Bill 1240, the Penn State University Board of Trustees Reorganization Act, which would reduce the board of trustees from 30 to 23 voting members.
State Sen. John Yudichak, a Penn State graduate who represents Luzerne and Carbon counties, drafted the bill.
The committee began a formal discussion of reform in January under the guidance of consultant Holly Gregory of Sidley Austin LLP, a law firm based in New York City.
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