Tuesday, August 20

PS4RS Statement on PSU BOT Bullying of Peter Khoury

PENN STATERS FOR RESPONSIBLE STEWARDSHIP REACTS TO KHOURY THREAT; CALLS ON STATE LEADERS TO REMOVE TRUSTEES

The power bloc of trustees that has sought to marginalize anyone who questions their actions since November 2011 has struck again. This time, they have threatened the sole voice of Penn State students on the Board.

We understand that this power bloc has claimed that there is a conflict of interest between serving on the Board and participating in legal action against the NCAA. However, the Penn State Board of Trustees never voted to accept the NCAA Sanctions, so in fact there can be no conflict. Additionally, how does the “Board of Trustees” threaten individual trustees without taking a vote of the trustees authorizing it to do so?

The self-serving actions of the Business & Industry Trustees have brought much harm to our university, and today we are asking our elected representatives in Harrisburg to remove these trustees from the Board. These trustees are chosen through an ill-defined, opaque process -- which they refuse to explain -- and they simply do not represent any Penn State stakeholders. Their actions continue to demonstrate that their concern is protecting their own interests, rather than the interests of Penn State University.

12 comments:

  1. I posted on PS4RS that the pot is calling the kettle black. How can your company benefit from a relationship with PSU and not be a conflict of interest? WHO is leading this run away train? Bullying, I thought was reserved for middle school!

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    1. Agree, Bob. It is a "conflict" to fight what the PSU President said he was forced to sign and cost the University millions of dollars....

      ... but it's not a "conflict" to pay out millions of dollars to victims of crimes the University had no idea had occurred.

      I have to wonder when someone in the MSM will figure out how corrupt this is?

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  2. Since Karen Peetz just LOVED to use the word "transparent" I thought she might like to actually LOOK THE WORD UP. (Nod to Inigo Montoyo).

    TRANSPARENT
    2a : free from pretense or deceit : frank
    b : easily detected or seen through : obvious
    c : readily understood
    d : characterized by visibility or accessibility of information especially concerning business practices

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  3. John Surma may have left the BOT, but his spirit is alive and well within it. It has to be tough for Khoury at 23 years old and still in grad school to be threaten by someone like the CEO of Merck. Was also disappointed to hear Coach O'Brien include in his presentation to the BOT executive committee a slide that says lawsuits will not help in the university's cause to "modify" the sanctions, which would imply there was some justification for them in the first place.

    My fear is that somehow they manage to get Terry Pegula on the BOT in the Business and Industry segment and continue with this even further.

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  4. Ray and PS4RS: Wasn't Khoury a Corbett Appointee? Could they have really removed him? Wouldn't that have been a complete disaster for them? (Not that this wasn't a disaster). Why would Khoury buckle? He was in a good spot to say, "I don't think removing me is a good idea for you, BoT". He sounds weak to me. Shame. We all made mistakes in business that we kook back on...this will be one he'll review over and over again. As an aside, the BoT really needs to have a real professional approve their PR releases. Whoever is overseeing that area now really needs to be fored. The PR on the Khoury incident was horrendous, and on the settlements this weak, just simply non-existent. They just can't seem to think rationally two steps ahead. Didn't someone, anyone see that not getting ahead of the settlements with statements that at least something to the effect "this is not an indictment on our past admin, they have trials coming up and the truth needs to be reserved for those trials". Are they that afraid to say legitimate truths? Sure they may have received some backlash from special interests, and the "haters" as our youth calls them, but isn't that better than rolling over and making a jury of their peers harder to find? This is just so frustrating. I get it, that they feel behind a rock and a hard place, but making worse every week is just awful. Look, they got themselves in a place where they have to pay money. I believe that, and I know some don't. Could much of this been avoided? Yes. But, for golly sake, now that they got themselves in this position, hire a real PR expert. Maybe we'll find their PR folks will write a book about how they gave different advice and the BoT was hiding something, who knows. I guess I may believe that, because a new PR grad could think two steps ahead better than what we've been seeing.

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    1. Bob, he's 23 years old and in graduate school. When he's done graduate school, he's going to look for a job. At that age, would you really want to make enemies with people like the Governor of PA, the CEO of Merck, and the President of Bank of NY Mellon? These are powerful people who could really create problems for him as he attempts to establish himself professionally.

      I can't blame Khoury. Those BOT members are cowards and chose to bully the most vulnerable one to put his name on the lawsuit because they could. And the problem with your PR argument is the belief that those trustees want the truth. They know the truth and want nothing to do with it. They want the false narrative they created to continue. Their PR people are doing exactly what they want.

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    2. Rums, I succumb. I get it. Makes me sick, but I get it. Thus my "a new PR grad could have thought two steps ahead" comment. I think the other thing we see is how hard it is for even the new BoT members to think clearly. They need to actually invest some reflection time (time to think two steps ahead).
      When they allow the PSU PR machine to not get out in front of the settlements, and allow the "victim" lawyers to control the narrative, with no deference to upcoming trials (making it more difficult for Gary, Tim and Graham), I believe the new trustees are getting sucked in. Not purposefully or willingly at this point, but sucked in all the same. But of course I am the same guy that it took awhile to get the fact that the BoT is playing this exactly the way they want to now.

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    3. Also keep in mind that Gov. Corbett's Non-Voting Representative on the PSU BOT, Jennifer Branstetter, is a public relations executive and worked on his campaign for governor. And not by coincidence, Corbett appointed her to the PSU BOT on November 11, 2011, two days after Paterno was fired and Spanier "quit".

      Don't you think if Corbett was really displeased with the way the BOT has handled its PR, he would have replaced her, especially since that is her specialty?

      It makes me sick too.

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    4. Interesting factoid. Thanks for the insight.

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  5. ...meant to say PR folks need to be fired not fored. Maybe they need to be fored too. Whatever that means, its sounds appropriate

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  6. I don;t have a twitter account, but I just read a tweet from a Brain Harner. Its a beauty. I paraphrase basically "The BoT is proving that Joe may have actually held the University together, as upon his death there has been no integrity and no honor". Sad, but makes you smile, in a contorted way.

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