Absolute control
- Penn State Football
- 13 Replies
As I mentioned I am pouring over decades of Penn Staters to confirm what my spouse and I remember from our past terms on Alumni Council. Starting in the 70's (with Lloyd Huck, Mimi Barash Coppersmith, etc) and running right up to almost 2012 (when Grass Roots efforts like Penn Staters for Responsible Stewardship broke the pattern, ousted the Old Guard and replaced them with maverick Trustees like Lubrano) the person selected as the only candidate for VP/ President elect of Alumni Council was launched immediately into a Trustee seat. Some - like Jesse Arnelle, stayed 44 years, many stayed over 20 years. from the early 70's to 1990, there were just 3 exceptions, one we know was due to health concerns and one sought an alumni seat on the BOT against power Trustees like Arnelle. He did not fit for B & I or Ag seats.The data is too long to list here, but it shows absolute control by the University over who leads the PSAA and who gets to be Trustee. I am not going to be able to reply/ post much here after Saturday for a week because I am out of the country, but will come back in as soon as possible. I saw the by-laws changes to the Alumni Council in April as a MASSIVE power grab and a bitch slap to our Alumni elected Trustees. The three at large appointees scream that to me, the automatic seat for the Past President of the Council, even though the chartering by-laws of the PSAA have always had a Trustee Liaison, and the clear evidence of decades and decades of PSAA Presidents getting an auto- launch to be Trustee and even a short path to be chair of the Board, while our Trustees are not allowed to even chair a committee just screamed out at me. Our elected Trustees deserve fair treatment.