PSAA's declaration of war on its own members is duly noted
To: PSAA
cc: alumni networking
Alice Pope's letter (http://www.centredaily.com/2015/04/18/4707175_alice-pope-alumni-association.html?rh=1) as well as Roger Williams' pathetic attempt to defend the alumni association's violations of its own Bylaws (http://www.centredaily.com/2015/04/15/4701995/roger-l-williams-penn-state-alumni.html) make it clear that PSAA is now a country club for an inbred cabal of self-perpetuating insiders, with no interest whatsoever in serving anybody but themselves. In other words, PSAA is like Keith Masser's cabal on the Board of Trustees, the same cabal that wrecked Penn State's reputation and cost it tens of millions of dollars in damage.
PSAA's leaders should have seen how the Masser faction's declaration of war on the Penn State community worked out for it, because it will work out for PSAA in the same manner. About half of Masser's cabal has been fired or forced out in disgrace (e.g. Karen Peetz recently quit the Board in disgrace), and the entire Board as of March 2012 has been proven to not only have scapegoated Joe Paterno but also to have lied about the circumstances of his dismissal. Somebody who lies to an organization to which he or she owes a fiduciary duty is ethically capable of lying to his stockholders, customers, suppliers, employees, or clients. Somebody who scapegoats any subordinate, even one who pushes a broom, is not fit to supervise even one employee let alone an entity like the Bank of New York or the Merck Corporation.
Evidence of PSAA's collusion with the Masser faction consists primarily of PSAA's involvement with Upward State which, as I understand, was backed by Masser faction members as shown below. In addition, former PSAA head Tom Hollander, the kind of person PSAA wants to install as a Penn State Trustee, threw away his honor and good name when he publicly attacked the Trustees who were doing their fiduciary duty by joining a lawsuit against the NCAA. I don't know what he expected to gain from this, but Upward State dried up and blew away in the wind like the canine solid waste described by Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) in Sudden Impact. *
The bottom line is, however, that it is probably time for alumni to create a separate 501(c)(3) service organization, perhaps something like "Alumni Association of Penn State," as a competitor to PSAA. Then PSAA's insiders can be left alone to appoint their own successors, toadies, and sycophants, and sit in a large circle telling each other how great they are. But they would have to do it without revenue from dues-paying members.
William A. Levinson, B.S. '78
* The following link no longer works because Upward State's domain is suspended--as I said, it dried up and blew away in the wind--but this is what Upward State stood for: a whitewash of the Masser faction's incompetence, dereliction of fiduciary duty (the Commonwealth Court's opinion of April 2014), placement of personal agendas ahead of a Penn State agenda (per Senator John Yudichak), and flat-out lying to the Penn State community as proven by Masser's unwilling deposition in the Corman-NCAA lawsuit.
http://www.upwardstate.org/#!UPWARD-STATES-ENDORSED-CANDIDATES-TAKE-PLEDGE-NOT-TO--SUE-PENN-STATE-INVITE-OTHER-TRUSTEE-CANDIDATES-TO-JOIN-WITH-THEM/colb/59F43506-F72C-4CCF-8419-A5D291B18C30
"It seems odd that Penn State alumni who are loyal and committed to what's best for the university would even need to consider such a pledge," said Cocco, McHugh and Schuyler. "We were shocked and disappointed when we heard that four sitting trustees decided to participate in a lawsuit against Penn State, forcing our alma mater to become a party to litigation that it now needs to spend precious resources to defend. "To us, it underscores the difference in priorities we hold as the Upward State team versus the priorities of some recently elected members. The notion of suing Penn State is ludicrous and runs counter to everything we believe in. "
Upward State knows fully well that the "litigation against Penn State" is a mere legal formality to move the lawsuit against the NCAA forward to recover Penn State's reputation, $60 million of its money, and maybe even punitive and compensatory damages that could be used, for example, to hold tuition down. "Suing Penn State" is like an endodontist drilling into a tooth to perform a root canal, or a surgeon cutting into somebody's body to remove a tumor, and Upward State's people are fully aware of this. That is why the statement above is dishonest, as opposed to merely uninformed or stupid.
Upward State is also apparently a front for the same people whose dereliction of fiduciary duty--the Commonwealth Court just weighed in with that opinion on 409 2014--that caused the University so much harm in the first place. The Upward State candidates all have ties, via the Smeal College of Business, to John Surma (!), Edward Hintz, and also Rick Struthers--a Second Mile Executive Director who was a colleague of Louis Freeh (!) at MBNA. Trustee Paul Silvis, another problem, endorsed Upward State.
A vote for Upward State is a vote for John Surma, whom we thought self-deported himself from the Board for good, as well as a vote for Silvis, Hintz, and Freeh.
More:
When you turn over a rock, it's amazing what you find underneath it. (The problem is not Smeal, but the obvious connection between certain individuals and Upward State.)
http://www.smeal.psu.edu/about/advisory/bov
Edward R. Hintz (11/9/2011 Trustee)
President, Hintz Capital Management
Julie McHugh (Upward State)
Chief Operating Officer, Endo Pharmaceuticals
Matt Schuyler (Upward State)
Chief Human Resources Officer, Hilton Worldwide
John P. Surma (One of the three people, along with Karen Peetz and Kenneth Frazier, primarily responsible for the harm to Penn State)
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, United States Steel Corp.
Richard K. Struthers
President, Ashford Point Enterprises (Ties to Louis Freeh via MBNA, and The Second Mile as an executive director)
http://www.smeal.psu.edu/about/advisory/alumni-society for Mike Cocco
http://www.collegian.psu.edu/news/campus/article_a86fed96-a41b-11e3-93ee-0017a43b2370.html for Tom Hollander's ties to Upward State. This reinforces the issue of collusion between PSAA leaders, or at least people using PSAA titles (as Hollander is a past Association president rather than a current official), and Upward State.
To: PSAA
cc: alumni networking
Alice Pope's letter (http://www.centredaily.com/2015/04/18/4707175_alice-pope-alumni-association.html?rh=1) as well as Roger Williams' pathetic attempt to defend the alumni association's violations of its own Bylaws (http://www.centredaily.com/2015/04/15/4701995/roger-l-williams-penn-state-alumni.html) make it clear that PSAA is now a country club for an inbred cabal of self-perpetuating insiders, with no interest whatsoever in serving anybody but themselves. In other words, PSAA is like Keith Masser's cabal on the Board of Trustees, the same cabal that wrecked Penn State's reputation and cost it tens of millions of dollars in damage.
PSAA's leaders should have seen how the Masser faction's declaration of war on the Penn State community worked out for it, because it will work out for PSAA in the same manner. About half of Masser's cabal has been fired or forced out in disgrace (e.g. Karen Peetz recently quit the Board in disgrace), and the entire Board as of March 2012 has been proven to not only have scapegoated Joe Paterno but also to have lied about the circumstances of his dismissal. Somebody who lies to an organization to which he or she owes a fiduciary duty is ethically capable of lying to his stockholders, customers, suppliers, employees, or clients. Somebody who scapegoats any subordinate, even one who pushes a broom, is not fit to supervise even one employee let alone an entity like the Bank of New York or the Merck Corporation.
Evidence of PSAA's collusion with the Masser faction consists primarily of PSAA's involvement with Upward State which, as I understand, was backed by Masser faction members as shown below. In addition, former PSAA head Tom Hollander, the kind of person PSAA wants to install as a Penn State Trustee, threw away his honor and good name when he publicly attacked the Trustees who were doing their fiduciary duty by joining a lawsuit against the NCAA. I don't know what he expected to gain from this, but Upward State dried up and blew away in the wind like the canine solid waste described by Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) in Sudden Impact. *
The bottom line is, however, that it is probably time for alumni to create a separate 501(c)(3) service organization, perhaps something like "Alumni Association of Penn State," as a competitor to PSAA. Then PSAA's insiders can be left alone to appoint their own successors, toadies, and sycophants, and sit in a large circle telling each other how great they are. But they would have to do it without revenue from dues-paying members.
William A. Levinson, B.S. '78
* The following link no longer works because Upward State's domain is suspended--as I said, it dried up and blew away in the wind--but this is what Upward State stood for: a whitewash of the Masser faction's incompetence, dereliction of fiduciary duty (the Commonwealth Court's opinion of April 2014), placement of personal agendas ahead of a Penn State agenda (per Senator John Yudichak), and flat-out lying to the Penn State community as proven by Masser's unwilling deposition in the Corman-NCAA lawsuit.
http://www.upwardstate.org/#!UPWARD-STATES-ENDORSED-CANDIDATES-TAKE-PLEDGE-NOT-TO--SUE-PENN-STATE-INVITE-OTHER-TRUSTEE-CANDIDATES-TO-JOIN-WITH-THEM/colb/59F43506-F72C-4CCF-8419-A5D291B18C30
"It seems odd that Penn State alumni who are loyal and committed to what's best for the university would even need to consider such a pledge," said Cocco, McHugh and Schuyler. "We were shocked and disappointed when we heard that four sitting trustees decided to participate in a lawsuit against Penn State, forcing our alma mater to become a party to litigation that it now needs to spend precious resources to defend. "To us, it underscores the difference in priorities we hold as the Upward State team versus the priorities of some recently elected members. The notion of suing Penn State is ludicrous and runs counter to everything we believe in. "
Upward State knows fully well that the "litigation against Penn State" is a mere legal formality to move the lawsuit against the NCAA forward to recover Penn State's reputation, $60 million of its money, and maybe even punitive and compensatory damages that could be used, for example, to hold tuition down. "Suing Penn State" is like an endodontist drilling into a tooth to perform a root canal, or a surgeon cutting into somebody's body to remove a tumor, and Upward State's people are fully aware of this. That is why the statement above is dishonest, as opposed to merely uninformed or stupid.
Upward State is also apparently a front for the same people whose dereliction of fiduciary duty--the Commonwealth Court just weighed in with that opinion on 409 2014--that caused the University so much harm in the first place. The Upward State candidates all have ties, via the Smeal College of Business, to John Surma (!), Edward Hintz, and also Rick Struthers--a Second Mile Executive Director who was a colleague of Louis Freeh (!) at MBNA. Trustee Paul Silvis, another problem, endorsed Upward State.
A vote for Upward State is a vote for John Surma, whom we thought self-deported himself from the Board for good, as well as a vote for Silvis, Hintz, and Freeh.
More:
When you turn over a rock, it's amazing what you find underneath it. (The problem is not Smeal, but the obvious connection between certain individuals and Upward State.)
http://www.smeal.psu.edu/about/advisory/bov
Edward R. Hintz (11/9/2011 Trustee)
President, Hintz Capital Management
Julie McHugh (Upward State)
Chief Operating Officer, Endo Pharmaceuticals
Matt Schuyler (Upward State)
Chief Human Resources Officer, Hilton Worldwide
John P. Surma (One of the three people, along with Karen Peetz and Kenneth Frazier, primarily responsible for the harm to Penn State)
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, United States Steel Corp.
Richard K. Struthers
President, Ashford Point Enterprises (Ties to Louis Freeh via MBNA, and The Second Mile as an executive director)
http://www.smeal.psu.edu/about/advisory/alumni-society for Mike Cocco
http://www.collegian.psu.edu/news/campus/article_a86fed96-a41b-11e3-93ee-0017a43b2370.html for Tom Hollander's ties to Upward State. This reinforces the issue of collusion between PSAA leaders, or at least people using PSAA titles (as Hollander is a past Association president rather than a current official), and Upward State.
