Penn State Mulls Reforms to Governing Board

The Penn State Board of Trustees — much in flux and the focus of bitter election fights since the Jerry Sandusky scandal — may be about to change.

The board’s governance committee will meet Friday and consider a range of options for reform, the Centre Daily Times reports.

At its meeting last month, the committee worked through a number of suggestions for possible reform, from eliminating three alumni-elected seats to adding permanent seats for students, faculty and the alumni association group.

It hired consultant Holly Gregory to help facilitate the debate, and she’s worked with the group for several months to help steer members to a solution.

Feedback from Gregory last month showed there is no clear sense among the committee that a reduction in the size of the board is necessary to have more engaged trustees.

Trustee Anthony Lubrano has made that argument, and has been among those pushing for reductions in the size of the board.

Even if the board doesn’t alter itself, the Pennsylvania Legislature could: The paper notes, “A state Senate committee in June passed along a proposed bill that would reduce the size of the board from 30 to 23 voting members.”