Yes, Alumni Trustees should sue PSAA
(I am also copying this to alumni networking)
Re: http://www.pennlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/04/penn_states_alumni_executive_d.html
The alumni Trustees are 100 percent correct for suing the Penn State Alumni Association for making up Bylaws as it goes along. PSAA knows fully well that the "rule" under which the alumni Trustees were excluded from the ballot is not present in the written Bylaws, just as the manner in which the Bylaws are written does not permit PSAA to exclude petition candidates from the ballot. PSAA backed down under the threat of another lawsuit to include the two candidates in question.
"Williams said the alumni council nominating committee has previously determined that Penn State trustees should not be permitted to run for council seats." In other words, the nominating committee made up a rule without going to the trouble of having it added to the Bylaws--an excellent argument for having a court of law step in to rein in an out of control group of power brokers whose ethics are similar to those of Keith Masser and his cabal on the Board of Trustees.
PSAA has meanwhile proven that the rest of the reasoning is less than honest. "Firstly, there is a potential for disproportionate influence in council proceedings. Secondly, there is a potential for conflicts of interest. And lastly, there is a potential for compromising the association's independence and autonomy as a nonprofit organization separate from the university." This is simply not believable because PSAA is more than willing to have itself represented on the Board of Trustees. A PSAA Trustee also would have conflicts of interest, and jeopardize PSAA's autonomy, and PSAA knows it.
We need to look at the elephant in the living room, which is the infestation of PSAA by toadies and sycophants of the controlling majority of the Board of Trustees; the same group that, as proven by Keith Masser's and Kenneth Frazier's unwilling depositions in the Corman-NCAA lawsuit, not only scapegoated Joe Paterno (and thus destroyed the University's reputation), they subsequently lied about it to the public and the University. Former PSAA President Tom Hollander then threw away his honor and his good name by shilling for Upward State, and even attacking the handful of Trustees who were doing their fiduciary duty by joining the lawsuit against the NCAA.
It is quite clear that PSAA, as currently led, is an out of control, unaccountable appendage of Keith Masser and his fellow (proven) liars. I encourage the alumni Trustees to push their lawsuit forward, and also to use PSAA's initial exclusion of Elizabeth Morgan and Jim Smith from the ballot as evidence that PSAA is making up rules as it goes along (maybe taking ethical cues from Mark Emmert and the NCAA, and look where that got the NCAA) rather than following the rules on the books.
William A. Levinson, B.S. '78
