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Results of PSAA Alumni Council Election are posted

You may need either (1) better acquaintances or colleagues, or (2) the ability to stand up for Penn State in said circumstances.

I've only heard something "pedophile-related" twice in the last 43 months, and only at football games (Wisconsin 2013 and Rutgers 2014) --- certainly not from acquaintances or colleagues. I think I well represented myself and our University in those exchanges. I just said "why the hell are you branding me, I had nothing to do with any of that. Stereotyping tens of thousands of PSU folk over one Freeh Report that arguably didn't prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt doesn't seem reasonable."

(and yes, I've always said the Freeh culture comments were a total below-the-belt cheap shot. Unfortunately, it's a shot where the correct PR play was to absorb it in July 2012 --- and fight back later).

Anyway, that's spending much of my time in OHIO --- around bunches of Bucknut fans. Who are you hanging out with that is so abusive???

I've always believed --- Penn State (or any school) is more about the current and future students than it is the past students (alumni). They are my #1 concern. Our overall reputation is fine, our gradual descent into unaffordability is not.

Don't you dare make this about me. There is no reason any Penn State alum anywhere in the world should have to deal with this crap. It is 100% the fault of the university, which still refuses to repudiate the Freeh Report.
 
To repeat my question, what have any PS4RS-supported BOT members done to show progress towards Penn State's primary mission of providing a world-class and affordable education to Commonwealth residents?

How's this for starters? Bill Oldsey's comments re: 12/15/14 BOT meeting --note how he calls out Masser for his use of the same red herring you brought up (here's the link):

"I find it deeply disturbing that so many members of this Board of Trustees have made the decision not to participate in any way in today’s Board Meeting, and it is equally disturbing that our Chairman, Keith Masser, directly and empathically dissuaded members from attending the meeting today, (a meeting, by the way, that included a very informative and useful session with General Counsel Dunham). Moreover, in his recent communication, Chairman Masser has suggested that this meeting and our focus on what many believe is the most important fiduciary responsibility in front of this Board, is merely a distraction from more important issues facing Penn State. In his December 10th email to all of us, he says, and I now quote, ‘I continue to be concerned by the single-minded focus and the steady stream of resolutions that have required inordinate amounts of trustee time spent on one issue, and deflected attention from a wide range of vital University issues.’ I’m sorry, Chairman Masser, but I find your argument on this matter to be specious, inaccurate, and insulting to me and many of my colleagues on this Board.

I serve dutifully on three committees on our Board: Business and Finance, Academic Affairs and Student Life (as Vice Chair), and the Sub-Committee on Building and Architecture. I was recently one of three trustees that helped in the selection of the Design/Build Partner that we will work with in the complete refurbishment and modernization of our East Halls Dormitory Complex.

I have spent considerable time and effort recently with Trustee Abe Harpster and others re-focusing the AA&SL Committee agenda on topics and initiatives that are squarely aimed at the quality of teaching and learning outcomes at Penn State. Up until recently, this Committee was wasting time on many relatively unimportant topics. Now we are beginning to focus on some of the things that will really move the needle at Penn State in terms of both faculty and student’s results and engagement. Things like: tuition levels and the related return on investment on a Penn State degree; measuring student outcomes and employability; time to degree metrics; student engagement and learning opportunities outside the classroom, just to name a few.

I was one of a handful of trustees selected to work with our administration on the Middle States Accreditation process for Penn State. I have conducted an extensive and careful review of the draft of our self-study evaluation and report and spoken with Vice Provost Blannie Bowen to discuss the report and give my feedback.

I was selected as one of the trustees to serve on the special task force to review and improve Penn State’s Presidential Selection process. In fact, it was my initial recommendation to the Governance Committee that this task force be formed in the first place.

I recently met, as an expert advisor, with the leadership of undergraduate and graduate student PSU governing bodies to help them with a new initiative they are working on regarding open source instructional materials and open source content that could be used in curriculum and coursework at Penn State.

I served on the Presidential Selection Committee and in the selection process that culminated in the hiring of Dr. Eric Barron.

I have been very deeply involved in all of the ongoing Hershey Medical School M&A work, including both Pinnacle Health System and St. Joseph’s Hospital in Reading, as a part of my role as an engaged member of the Committee on Finance and Business.

I have visited 10 PSU campus locations during my first year as a trustee—many times of my own volition—including Penn Tech College, Dickinson School of Law, PSU Brandywine, and PSU Greater Allegheny, to name a few.

I have presided over four commencement ceremonies at University Park for various Colleges and Undergraduate Groups.

I have spoken at a number of Alumni Association events and attended two very successful Penn State Capitol Days in Harrisburg.

My engagement level as a Trustee on this Board has been 100 percent. My attendance record at all meetings, interim meetings, planning sessions, and conference calls has been 100 percent as well.

I am certainly not going through this list of Board responsibilities and accomplishments to blow my own horn. In fact, many of my Board colleagues here today have comparable lists of their own. We serve because we are proud to serve our alma mater, and we put in the time necessary to do whatever is in the best interest of Penn State. I am going through this list of BoT duties to make an important point. I do not feel the least bit distracted by the work at hand at today’s special meeting, nor do I feel that I am not spending enough time on many other crucial issues that face Penn State.

We, the alumni elected trustees, are tired of having people on our own Board attempting to frame our willingness to fight hard against the NCAA and protect our University as a “distraction.” We are tired of being portrayed as people who are single-minded and don’t have the best interest of the University at heart. We are tired of having the Chair of this Board insinuating that we don’t care enough about the nearly 100,000 students that attend Penn State.

Disagree with us, if you like, in terms of our position on the NCAA, the Consent Decree, The Freeh Report, etc. But, stop suggesting that we are somehow not doing our jobs as part of the effective governance of Penn State. You would be well served to remember that most of our alumni-base at Penn State believes that it is those of you who disagree with us and chose not to attend today’s meeting who are not participating in effective governance and not fulfilling your fiduciary obligations to Penn State.

We are all in this governance job together and we, the alumni-
elected trustees, are pulling more than our fair share of the weight.

Disagree with us if you like, but stop disrespecting us. It is beneath you to do so, and I for one am sick and tired of it.”
 
If alums were apathetic, the psaaforall candidates wouldn't have won.


There's apathy from many (like anything else in life). There are many that I'm sure didn't even know there was an election.
 
A sobering note:

On the PSAA web site, where the election results are announced, it also contains this info:

"In addition, and in accordance with the bylaws, the officers of the Alumni Association will be appointing 10 additional members of Alumni Council. The 10 appointments will be announced in the near future."

The web site also contains this piece of info:

"Of the 136,059 eligible voters, 7,587 voted, for a voting percentage of 5.58 percent. The turnout this year is a slight increase from last year’s participation of 5.31 percent. The election was administered and results were certified by Votenet Solutions Inc., of Washington, D.C."

There were 400+ more voters this year than last. The minimum number of votes needed to be elected this year was 2618 vs 2006 last year. I received almost 900 more votes this year than last. The conclusion is the "new" voters this year came out in support of the full PSAAforall slate. This is a strong message.
 
Don't you dare make this about me. There is no reason any Penn State alum anywhere in the world should have to deal with this crap. It is 100% the fault of the university, which still refuses to repudiate the Freeh Report.

Don't forget: if there was ONE police report that we could point to re: Sandusky & 2002, we aren't having this discussion.

That's unfortunate that PSU alums occasionally have to "suffer" (though I'd like to think we can all put on our "big boy pants" and not play the "victim card" here) because of that lack of a police report, but it is.

BTW, what is my punishment for "daring" to make this about you?
 
Don't forget: if there was ONE police report that we could point to re: Sandusky & 2002, we aren't having this discussion.

That's unfortunate that PSU alums occasionally have to "suffer" (though I'd like to think we can all put on our "big boy pants" and not play the "victim card" here) because of that lack of a police report, but it is.

BTW, what is my punishment for "daring" to make this about you?

And we can thank MM for that, NOT PSU admins. In case you forgot --MM testified that when Curley called him to follow up with their action plan a few weeks later MM NEVER expressed any dissatisfaction, never said the police needed to be involved, and never said more needed to be done.

Also, at no point in time did anyone at PSU EVER tell MM to be quite about what he saw, he could have filed a written report to UPPD whenever he wanted to or if he felt PSU admins didn't do enough with his report, apparently he never felt the need to....so not real sure how you transfer that failure onto PSU admins/football coach.
 
And we can thank MM for that, NOT PSU admins. In case you forgot --MM testified that when Curley called him to follow up with their action plan a few weeks later MM NEVER expressed any dissatisfaction, never said the police needed to be involved, and never said more needed to be done.

Also, at no point in time did anyone at PSU EVER tell MM to be quite about what he saw, he could have filed a written report to UPPD whenever he wanted to or if he felt PSU admins didn't do enough with his report, apparently he never felt the need to....so not real sure how you transfer that failure onto PSU admins/football coach.

I must have missed it --- did MM get charged with "failure to report"? Were those charges dropped as relates to CSS?

I'm sorry, much as some would like to pin this all on MM, it wasn't ultimately his responsibility to report to law enforcement.
 
That's unfortunate that PSU alums occasionally have to "suffer" (though I'd like to think we can all put on our "big boy pants" and not play the "victim card" here) because of that lack of a police report, but it is.

The ONLY reason we have to hear this crap is because the idiots who seized control of Penn State in November 2011 screwed up.
 
I must have missed it --- did MM get charged with "failure to report"? Were those charges dropped as relates to CSS?

I'm sorry, much as some would like to pin this all on MM, it wasn't ultimately his responsibility to report to law enforcement.

OMG. HE WAS THE WITNESS. ONLY MIKE COULD SAY WHAT HE SAW. Of COURSE it was his freaking responsibility.
 
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OMG. HE WAS THE WITNESS. ONLY MIKE COULD SAY WHAT HE SAW. Of COURSE it was his freaking responsibility.

Then why was MM not charged with "failure to report"?

Again, the very lack of charges against MM (& the charges against others) indicate it was NOT MM's legal responsibility!
 
Then why was MM not charged with "failure to report"?

Again, the very lack of charges against MM (& the charges against others) indicate it was NOT MM's legal responsibility!

You don't screw with your main witness against Sandusky??
 
The web site also contains this piece of info:

"Of the 136,059 eligible voters, 7,587 voted, for a voting percentage of 5.58 percent. The turnout this year is a slight increase from last year’s participation of 5.31 percent. The election was administered and results were certified by Votenet Solutions Inc., of Washington, D.C."
An uptick of 0.27% (20 voters?) certainly isn't enough to significantly influence the outcome, so I think it speaks a lot that the people who voted chose to pick who they did.

In some ways, I think it says more that these are probably the same voters who vote year-to-year and not some surge of new single-issue voters.
 
An uptick of 0.27% (20 voters?) certainly isn't enough to significantly influence the outcome, so I think it speaks a lot that the people who voted chose to pick who they did.

In some ways, I think it says more that these are probably the same voters who vote year-to-year and not some surge of new single-issue voters.

If that's the case, then it's interesting that the same people who have participated in Alumni Council elections year-after-year rejected the nominating committee's choices.
 
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Then why was MM not charged with "failure to report"?

Again, the very lack of charges against MM (& the charges against others) indicate it was NOT MM's legal responsibility!

You can't possibly be this dense. Because MM did report the incident to his superior per PSU policy/state law (as did Joe) and he was the state's main avenue to pin JS on PSU admins/football instead of TSM/CYS/OAG/etc...he was the key to the state's entire case against CSS. It's his word vs. theirs and that's all the state has. The problem for MM is, when he did make a statement to LE he played revisionist history thus making NO ONE'S actions in 2001 make any sense.

That's the problem with the state's case...CSS never should have been charged with anything in the first place b/c MM was playing revisionist history in 2010 when he FINALLY did make a written statement to LE which stated he was certain JS was sodomizing a boy and reported it as such to PSU admins (versus the truth that in 2001 MM saw an inappropriate late night shower and wasn't sure what JS and the boy were doing but thought it was over the line and made him uncomfortable and reported it as such to PSU admins/Joe).

Since CSS were charged, why weren't JM, Dr. D, and JR also charged with FTR/EWOC, etc???
The state wants to pick and choose who to apply this law to based on who they want the focus of the media on and that's not how the law is supposed to work.

On a side note.....Whatever happened to your argument that the alum elected reps aren't doing anything besides focusing on the PS4RS mission? Oldsey's comments that I linked shut you up real quick huh?
 
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Then why was MM not charged with "failure to report"?

Again, the very lack of charges against MM (& the charges against others) indicate it was NOT MM's legal responsibility!

The charges against the others are completely bogus. The only thing those charges indicate is that Fina and his crew wanted to leave a flaming bag of poop at Penn State's door.
 
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If that's the case, then it's interesting that the same people who have participated in Alumni Council elections year-after-year rejected the nominating committee's choices.
There are two possible ways to interpret this. As you hypothesized, the same people may have voted in both years and were more swayed by our message than the OG's message, or we replaced the current apathetic PSAA constituency with a new group of motivated voters who wanted to change the status quo. In any case, the PSAA leadership should heed the message!
 
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What happened to you, MichNitt? You were so reasonable for a while, and now, you are back to being vituperatively anti-Paterno, the guy who's been dead nearly 3 years.

Doesn't make much sense for you to resurrect your hatred at this point in time.
I posted then to not trust him. He never lost his Paterno hate.

All Mich ever cared about was the sanctions. Once they were gone he could care less about the truth.
 
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Fine, I'll play along --- let me agree that they are "trying to marginalizing the opposition."

Marginalizing groups whose primary motivation is centered upon the past, winning the discussion on how a former football head coach is viewed --- yes, I guess I would say I am in favor of marginalizing groups whose primary motivation is that.

Penn State's primary motivation going forward should be (as it ever was): providing an affordable and world-class education to residents of the Commonwealth. That should be the primary mission of the BOT and PSAA. Leave the "Paterno fight" to the Paternos.

Anyway, I'd really like to hear more about what the PS4RS (and eventually the PSAAforall's) elected members are doing toward that primary motivation. Mr. Lubrano, for instance, he posts here --- he's been a BOT member for 35 months now. What can he specifically point to to show progress toward that goal?

What a dumb post. I'm just going to leave it at that.
 
I must have missed it --- did MM get charged with "failure to report"? Were those charges dropped as relates to CSS?

I'm sorry, much as some would like to pin this all on MM, it wasn't ultimately his responsibility to report to law enforcement.
There's a good reason why younger, less experienced co-workers are steadily progressing ahead of you at work and why you only have "3 Likes" on this board.

Bottom line...you're disliked here and at your place of employment. What else do you have left?
 
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Fine, I'll play along --- let me agree that they are "trying to marginalizing the opposition."

Marginalizing groups whose primary motivation is centered upon the past, winning the discussion on how a former football head coach is viewed --- yes, I guess I would say I am in favor of marginalizing groups whose primary motivation is that.

Penn State's primary motivation going forward should be (as it ever was): providing an affordable and world-class education to residents of the Commonwealth. That should be the primary mission of the BOT and PSAA. Leave the "Paterno fight" to the Paternos.

Anyway, I'd really like to hear more about what the PS4RS (and eventually the PSAAforall's) elected members are doing toward that primary motivation. Mr. Lubrano, for instance, he posts here --- he's been a BOT member for 35 months now. What can he specifically point to to show progress toward that goal?
 
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