An outspoken Penn State trustee who has sued the university for access to financial information was barred from seeking reelection to the board this year after a new nominating subcommittee deemed him “unqualified” to appear on the ballot.
Barry Fenchak was the sole candidate among 19 put forward on Wednesday to be disqualified from running for one of three alumni-elected trustee positions this spring. The Board of Trustees nominating subcommittee voted 8-1 to not place Fenchak on the ballot, with Jay Paterno the lone dissenting vote.
“Candidate Fenchak’s record of service includes eight records advising the candidate of failures to abide by board standards of conduct, including one relating to an incident of inappropriate behavior directed toward a university employee in July 2024 that violates the board’s past expectations of membership and current code of conduct,” trustee Daniel Delligatti said when subcommittee chair Dan Onorato asked if there were any objections to Fenchak’s nomination.
The incident in question occurred following a board meeting at the Penn State Altoona campus, when Fenchak asked a junior female staff member to try on her ball cap. In what he later said was a reference to a line from the movie “A League of Their Own,” Fenchak remarked that when he wears a ball cap, his wife says he “looks like a penis with a little hat on.”
The staff member and two other employees said they were made uncomfortable by Fenchak’s remarks and felt they couldn’t end the conversation because of his position. After a complaint was filed, the board scheduled a vote on his removal for October, but a Centre County judge issued an injunction preventing the vote from occurring, saying in part that Fenchak had provided evidence of retaliatory behavior against him since he joined the board in 2022.
The complaint came after Fenchak filed a lawsuit against the board and then-Chair Matthew Schuyler last July after he said his requests for information about the management of the university’s $4.6 billion endowment and its rising administrative fees, as well as information about Penn State’s 10-year athletic department deal with ticketing and fan engagement vendor Elevate, were repeatedly denied. He says the documents are necessary to his fiduciary oversight as a trustee, while the board argued they are not, and that much of what he sought was protected by confidentiality agreements.
Earlier this month, Fenchak and the board consented to a confidentiality agreement allowing him access to the documents sought, and in a court filing this week Penn State wrote that 510 pages of endowment information and the Elevate contract had been made available to him.
Fenchak’s board record was included in a “screening matrix” reviewed by the subcommittee in an executive session prior to the public meeting on Wednesday afternoon. Under changes to board bylaws made last year, the subcommittee is tasked with reviewing nominated candidates who met basic qualifications. By a two-thirds vote, the subcommittee can deem a candidate “unqualified,” and not include them on the ballot.
The screening matrix includes review of submitted materials with a focus on the “candidate’s alignment with Penn State’s mission and values,” needed skills they would bring to the board, relevant past experience, a background check and commitment and service to the university, which for incumbent candidates includes their record as a board member.
Delligatti said that based on the July 2024 incident, “candidate Fenchak’s materials do not reflect alignment with Penn State’s mission and values and for that reason I move that candidate Fenchak be deemed unqualified and not included in the ballot.”
Fenchak requested to speak during the virtual meeting, but university general counsel Tabitha Oman told Onorato it was “a time to call for a vote,” and Onorato said that trustees who are not members of the subcommittee do not participate in the deliberation.
Motions were made to disqualify two other candidates, Jolie Elder and Robert Bowsher for lacking significant relevant experience, but both failed.
After the motion was made to exclude Bowsher, trustee Anthony Lubrano, who is not a member of the subcommittee, said “This is shameful.”
Earlier in the meeting, Lubrano pressed Onorato and board Chair David Kleppinger to explain how the alumni-elected trustees on the subcommittee — Paterno and Ali Krieger — were selected. Kleppinger said he had discussions with members of the alumni trustee group about the appointments and that they were approved by the full board.
“I feel like I’ve been misled the whole way,” Lubrano said, noting that he was not asked about the appointments.
In another bylaw change, only 50 nominations were required to be eligible for the alumni ballot, down from 250 in previous years. The result was a total of 22 total nominations as compared to just five a year ago.
One nominated candidate withdrew prior to Wednesday’s meeting, Two others were found to be ineligible by the board office — one who has already served a total of 12 years as a trustee and another who was a university employee as of 2024, which would run afoul of a rule that prevents current university employees running for the board and requires five years since the last day of employment for former employees.
Onorato said that in addition to an increase in candidates, there was an increase in the number of nominations cast by alumni.
“We are encouraged by both the number of candidates and the level of alumni engagement in the nomination process this year,” Onorato said.
Alumni will begin receiving ballots on April 21 and will have until 9 a.m. on May 8 to vote. Results will be announced during the board meeting on May 9.
In addition to Bowsher and Elder, candidates deemed eligible to appear on the ballot include Jeffrey Ballou, Kevin Carey, Joseph DiRenzo, Trevor Hale, Karen Keller, Kelley Lynch, David Morgan, Uma Moriarity, Jordan Mott, J. Greg Pilewicz,, Dale Predmore, Pat Romano, Laurie Stanell, Steve Wagman, Katherine Whittle and Daniel Zahn.
