Alumni discontent with the Penn State Board of Trustees culminated in the election of the slate of candidates recommended by Penn Staters for Responsible Stewardship (PS4RS). That organization has arduously campaigned to purge the BoT of those who bungled the Sandusky scandal, the NCAA sanctions, and the Paterno firing. The alumni definitely won this round.
Barbara Doran, Ted Brown, and Bill Oldsey won in a landslide. Meanwhile, alums voted out incumbents Stephanie Deviney and Paul Suhey.
In January, Ken Frazier nominated Deviney as Vice Chair. How did that work out? She’ll serve in that capacity until her term ends — which is soon. Looking at her Penn State trustee blog gave me an idea of her self-promotion, but the following sentence confounded me:
Now, my second strength (which I’ve gotten a little slack for) is the ability to “win others over” affectionately referred to as “woo”.
Not only is the sentence structure awkward, particularly for a litigator, but also the last time I heard about something referred to as “woo” was in the Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan classic flop Joe versus the Volcano.
Steve Suhey played football for the Nittany Lions and was a shoo-in for the BoT when he initially ran. However, he continually sided with the element regarded by PS4RS as tyrannical, which did him in.
Karen Peetz, the “laser focus on the future of the university” babe who resigned as Chair, will remain the Business and Industry representative on the board. At least she won’t be in a position to be quoted much. She is president of BNY Mellon.
There is still much work to be done to whip this board into shape, but for the moment, at least, PS4RS has performed as those of us who supported the organization hoped that it would.
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BigAl says
Stefi’s “wooing” was directed toward the Business and Ag Trustees, not the alumni. Although a more accurate term than “wooing” would have been “kissing ass.”
Still, it was good to see the 2nd biggest alumni sell-out get kicked off the board. (Marianne Alexander being the first biggest).
Unfortunately, I don’t think the election will make much difference since the current ass clowns passed a new set of rules that strengthens the already excessive power of the Business and Ag trustees. 10 of the 13 members of the Executive Committee (which holds ALL of the power) will now be selected ex officio (and you can guess who holds those offices) and only 3 will be elected by BOT as a whole. And the Lubrano gag rule was also approved.
So, I don’t think its really going to matter who alumni elect. The Business and Ag trustees will ignore and marginalize them unless they turn into Stefi or Marianne and sell out the alumni
The Nittany Turkey says
Yeah, I know it’s kind of a Pyrrhic victory. Each time the likes of PS4RS seem to make inroads, the inner circle tightens the screws, nullifying any perceived gain and increasing its strangle hold on the board. Nevertheless, we can’t just roll over and play dead.
—TNT
jd says
“…in the Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan classic flop Joe versus the Volcano.”
JVTV, and The Burbs, were Hanks’ best work HOW DARE YOU SIR
The Nittany Turkey says
You must be suffering from the same brain cloud as the late Roger Ebert when he gave this fluff a favorable review.
Among her other roles in JVTV, didn’t Meg Ryan play Vicky Triponey?
—TNT