CENTRE TIMES: …Both Hintz and Junker — and the other four industrial trustees — have now guaranteed their positions as brokers in a power bloc of trustees that has controlled the governance of Penn State in recent years. There is no further need for contrived elections. The stealth maneuver is revealed on the university Web site (www.psu.edu/trustees) in recently posted minutes of the Nov. 22, 2002, board meeting. The coup was accomplished by amending the charter to eliminate the election of six trustees by engineering, mining, manufacturing, and mechanical delegates, and replace that process with a “selection group” of board members who will recommend trustee candidates from business and industry.
The selection group is a five-member subset of the current board, and three of the five will be industrial trustees. Such apostolic-like succession ensures that all future trustees from business and industry will be tainted because of the actions of their predecessors who will have ordained them. Those to be selected for 2003 will be confirmed by the total board at the May 16 meeting at University Park. While it may be perfectly acceptable and legal to amend the charter, doing it quietly and without the usual public relations fanfare begs the question on what other shenanigans or crises are under cover.
The process that improperly assigned the industrial trustee seats to non-industrial benefactors ostensibly began in 1986. Even after the scam was discovered, documented and reported to the board and university President Graham B. Spanier in 1996, the cover-up and stonewalling continued for another six years. Changing the charter is a big deal. In the past, suggesting a change to the 1855 school charter was considered almost sacrilegious, and there had been no amendments to it for the last 40 years. The first amendment in 1862 changed the school name to The Agricultural College of Pennsylvania, and there had been only a dozen amendments since then. I suspect that Hintz and Junker will attempt to put a ribbon on their successful coup by nominating their chief benefactor for a prestigious university award, such as honorary alumnus… (more)
