Myers Moves On

Incumbent trustee Joel "We have to move on" Myers has moved on, as the Alumni of Penn State have voted his pathetic butt off the board for the first time in 33 years.  According to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette:

Alice Pope, a psychology professor at St. John’s University, had 10,025 votes; Al Lord, the former CEO of Sallie Mae, 9,516; and Bob Jubelirer, a former Pennsylvania state senator, 8,101. All three candidates ran on platforms that included the need for the university to reassess past decisions made regarding the firing of Joe Paterno, the Freeh Report and the NCAA sanctions.  

“With nine new alumni members I would hope that there is a recognition by the existing board that is there that it’s important we work together,” Mr. Jubelirer said. “And there’s only one way that’s going to be effective: We have to get to the truth. Due process does matter. I heard that man in Hershey, (trustee) Ken Frazier, a year ago in March say it didn’t matter. Like hell it doesn’t matter.”

Notable candidates who lost to Mr. Lord, Mr. Jubelirer and Ms. Pope include Joel Myers, who had been an alumni trustee for the past 33 years, and Upward State candidates Dan Cocco, Julie McHugh and Matt Schuyler. None of those candidates garnered more than 4,000 votes. 

I was afraid Mr. Myers would benefit from voters splitting their votes with Upward State candidates and free-lancers like Ryan Bagwell, whom I personally supported with my vote.  But the Alumni would not be denied.  They crushed Mr. Myers and his platform of "moving on."  I'm not holding my breath that the remaining Board members from 2011 have learned anything from this crushing defeat of Myers, but they will have to deal with an increasing number of representatives that do not want to simply move on at the expense of truth and justice.

Also coming out of today's BOT meeting is this gem:  the Food Sciences building which houses the famous Penn State Creamery will henceforth be known as the Rodney A. Erickson Food Sciences Building.

Bon appétit!

Old Main Banner

Donations Up Despite Dismay

The Centre Daily Times notes that donations at Penn State are up 15% over the previous year, despite " a year filled with turmoil and alumni angst."

That’s the second-highest figure in that category in university history, Kirsch said. It is eclipsed only by $274.8 million in the 2010-2011 fiscal year, when alumnus Terry Pegula donated more than $100 million toward a hockey arena here and NCAA Division I hockey programs . 

Of the $237.8 million in cash for this past fiscal year, alumni contributed $87.6 million of the total, Kirsch said. That is up 19 percent from the previous year, when alumni gave $70.9 million. 

While the alumni donations are up, the number of alumni who donated is down almost 5 percent. The fiscal year that just ended saw 72,111 alumni give money to the university, but the year before, 75,593 alumni gave.

This has prompted some on the message boards in Nittany Nation to question the sanity of those who still give money when the Board of Trustees continues to push a "move on" agenda without any regard to truth and members continue to shirk their own responsibility in the whole scandal.

Oooh Rodney, you almost had it!

One poster writes:

I am proud to skew the data. I was a contributor, so I am in the count. I taped a penny to the annual fund card with a note that substantially more will follow when there is real governance reform.

I loathe this BoT. How could anyone donate?

Unfortunately, as angry as we are about how the BOT handled this whole mess, withholding donations is simply not a practical method for effecting change.  Loyalty to Penn State transcends the mistakes that may have been made (I qualify this as the trials of Schultz, Curley, etc. are still pending) and the mistakes that were made (e.g. the way Joe Paterno was sacrificed to the media) and not all donating alumni give a hoot about the football program.  The situation is eerily analogous to Catholics who continue to donate to their church despite horrendous allegations of abuse by individual priests.  An effort like this would have as much chance of success as organizing everyone to withhold paying taxes in protest of the government until Congress agreed to stop wasting our money.  The theory is good, but the real-world application is impossible.  But I digress.

First of all, ask yourself this . . . who is hurt by decreased donations?  Students.  If you think for one minute that Rodney Erickson will have his salary cut because of diminished donations then you live in a dream world.  You need to look no further than financial institutions which gave lucrative bonuses to CEO's as the government bailed those same institutions out of bankruptcy. 

I will be the first to admit that my contribution to Penn State is almost purely based on the personal benefit of retaining and purchasing football tickets.  I have no shame in admitting that the amount of money I would donate if I were not a football fan would be significantly less.  I have plenty of other worthy charities, schools, and organizations to support thank you very much.  And when I sit in Beaver Stadium and look around me, I am not alone in this.

What gain would there be for an empty stadium, assuming it were possible to convince every ticket holder not to renew?  Again, who is hurt?  Penn State still has their TV contract and Big Ten money.  The student-athletes would suffer.  Recruiting would suffer.  The coaches would suffer--maybe even prompting O'Brien to leave over the lack of support.  Are you willing to risk that to make a statement about the Board of Trustees????  The fans would suffer, denying themselves the stadium experience and perhaps risking their seats for future years with no restrictions and a team perhaps competing for a national title.  And if you think for one second that Rodney Erickson, John Surma, Karen Peetz or Keith Masser will suffer, then you are truly delusional and perhaps dangerous.

So what say you?  If you have donated previously, did you continue to donate?  Did you stop because of the leadership vacuum at Penn State?  If you withheld money, do you feel your voice has been heard?

Did Erickson Sell-Out Penn State?

Just when you think the whole catastrophe couldn't get any worse, you read something like this from the Sun Sentinel . . .

Ameen Najjar, the NCAA enforcement director until his May 2012 firing, sent multiple emails to Shapiro's jail account to explain why the case against UM was crumbling, according to documents obtained by the Sun Sentinel. Najjar also criticized the NCAA's handling of Penn State's unprecedented sanctions relating to the Jerry Sandusky child sex scandal, but focused on the governing body's handling of the Miami case.

An Aug. 7 email from Najjar to Shapiro addressed the Penn State sanctions.

"The Penn State deal is a travesty," he wrote. "The NCAA did not impose anything. Penn State agreed to and self-imposed the penalties, waved all due process and waived any right to appeal. The NCAA had/has NO authority to impose any penalties in that situation and PSU's president sold the school down the river!"

Granted, this is an email from a disgruntled former employee, but it does throw Erickson's actions into a new light.  I always wondered why Penn State was so quick to accept a punishment that wasn't warranted.  Maybe we didn't accept it.  Maybe we created it, and I use the term "we" loosely.  It will be very interesting to see how this new revelation plays out.

Monday Cartoon

I saw a comic strip last Saturday that made me think of the "leadership" we have currently at PSU.  As I have been prone to do in the past, I changed the words a little to make it more Penn State-y.  But given the delicate nature of the situation, I decided to ask permission from Scott Adams to use his Dillbert cartoon in this manner on my blog.

Unfortunately, he responded:

Hi Todd,
Thanks for asking. I don't approve mash ups of Dilbert but I'm glad you enjoyed the original.

I'm hurt.  I've never been turned down (by a cartoonist) before.  What's even more interesting, you can do "mash ups" of Dilbert cartoons on their site . . ."if you think you are funnier than Scott Adams."   So with that inspiration, I made my own comic strip.  My artistic abilities are exceeded only by my singing talent.  Thankfully, this is my blog and not America's Got Talent.  

Before you say it, I will:  Scott Adams doesn't have to worry about me taking his day job!

Pea-Nits Cartoon

Apology Not Accepted