BOT Election: Get out the vote

by
Dave Ketchen

Disgruntled Penn State supporters all agree that incumbents Paul Suhey and Stephanie Deviney must be defeated.  Meanwhile, only a tiny percentage of alums (about 6%) vote in the  BOT elections.  

This presents a huge opportunity. The more new reform‐ minded voters we recruit, the less chance the incumbents  have of keeping their board seats.    Therefore, concerned alumni are asking that you recruit  as voters at least 5 of your family, friends, and associates  who do not normally vote.  

Here is a template email that you could use or adapt:  

“You’ve seen the news stories. Penn State is in serious trouble. The current Board  of Trustees has done a terrible job of dealing with the Sandusky Scandal. Our  university needs 5 minutes of your time to help turn the situation around.    Please request a ballot to vote in the upcoming election of 3 trustees.

To obtain a  ballot, simply send an email to BOT@psu.edu that lists your full name (including  maiden name if you have one), your year of graduation (or last attendance), your  college and major, and your current home mailing address.

You will then receive  an electronic ballot via email on April 10.

Alumni without Internet access can  obtain a paper ballot by calling (814) 865‐2521.  

If you want to learn more about the candidates, plenty of information is available  at http://www.psu.edu/trustees/vote/2013%20Alumni%20Candidates/index.html

I have been following the election closely and will share my preferred candidates  with you if you wish.     Please do NOT vote for the incumbents, Paul Suhey and Stephanie Deviney.

Also,  please consider forwarding this message to Penn Staters within your circle of  family and friends

560,658 Alumni are far less when it comes to BOT voting and making donations

500,000 and 600,000 are numbers that are oft repeated when speaking of PSU alumni, however, when it comes to voting for the BOT and making donations to PSU the numbers are far, far less.

By 
Ray Blehar

With the vote for new alumni trustees upon us, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at how many PSU alumni do what matters most:  vote and donate money.

Voting

PS4RS provided this graphic on how many alumni voted in the last election, which stated 37,563 (about 6% of alumni).  The total votes were 101,308 or 2.7 votes per ballot.  The fact that only 6% of alumni vote in trustee elections is astonishing, but I am quite certain we will see a dramatic increase this spring.

Jay Paterno wrote in statecollege.com that PSU alumni should be wary of voting irregularities in this years election and recommended observers.  Bob Horst noted that the BOT routinely rigged the mechanical and engineering trustee elections in years past.

It may be prudent for PS4RS to hold their own "mock" election to ensure that their membership vote is not undercounted.  

My goodness, PSU has become a third world Banana Republic, where we have to be concerned about rigged elections.  Of course, we will all be labeled as dissidents in the next issue of The Collegian....so, have some North Korea with those bananas.

Donations

The 2011-2012 PSU President's Report on Philanthropy and Endowments (page 29) revealed that only 75,593 alumni donated to PSU (13.5%).  That is an eye opening number.  The inverse shows that 480,065 do not donate to Dear Old State.  I suspect the percentage will be lower in 2012-2013 given what has transpired over the last year.  I anxiously await the next report to find out.

Page 30 reveals that almost one quarter of the annual giving is to PSU Athletics ($51.4M).  However, the Nittany Lion Club Annual Report for 2011 indicated that over $81M was raised, including endowments.  The total number of donors to the NLC was 23,374, which includes students and non-alums.

Another interesting point is that donations to THON are included in the PSU donation total, thus alumni who contribute to THON are among the 75,593.  Given that THON is a special philanthropy that draws in a considerable number of small donors, one can surmise that the number of alumni donors to THON is quite large.  What is unknown (more research needed) is just how many alums donate to THON and nothing else.

Conclusion

The bottom line is for an alumni base the size of PSU's, it is surprising how few donate and vote.  In other words, the vast majority of alumni leave PSU and really don't take an active interest in the University.  PS4RS boasts a membership of around 15,000 -- a very powerful voting/donation block if it can be harnessed in the BOT election and in directing (or dare I say, withholding) donations.

Mark Battaglia: Full Transcript of Remarks to the PSU BOT

Mark Battaglia was the starting center on the 1982 National Championship Football Team.  The first of Penn State's many National Championship Teams (1968, 1969, 1973, 1986, and 1994) to be recognized as such by the AP and UPI polls.  I was fortunate enough to spend a week of fly-fishing in Montana with Mark back in 2003 and we've been friends ever since.

On March 15, 2013, Mark addressed the Penn State Board of Trustees at the meeting in Hershey.  Here are his words:


"Thank you.  And thank you for the opportunity to address the Board today.

My name is Mark Battaglia and I was fortunate enough to be on the 1982 National Championship Team.

Sadly, to date, there’s only one man who has admitted that with the benefit of hindsight that he wished he would have done more. You see Joe Paterno held us to a higher standard as players. In the classroom, in our lives, on the football field. 

And we’re here today to hold you, the Board, to a higher standard. 

More specifically, those who have already been held to a higher standard because they played for Joe Paterno or they had brothers or nephews who played for Joe Paterno. 

They knew Joe Paterno like we knew Joe Paterno.

They were in the huddle with him when the game was on the line, they looked in his eyes, they saw the man, they knew the man.

 And yet, they wouldn’t take his call. They wouldn’t make a call. 

They sat around silently. 

Worse yet, maybe they led the effort to fire Joe. 

Why? 

Was it personal? A personal disappointment?

Did they let a personal issue lead to a potentially $100 million debacle?

You know, Joe always said ‘you’re never as good as you think you are when you win and you’re never as bad as you think you are when you lose.’ 

The good news here is that we are losing, we didn’t lose, we are losing badly. 

We need to change the strategy. 

We need the leadership from those very people who played for Joe to lead us out of this thing by changing. 

You painted yourself in the corner with this Freeh report. I’m sorry Mr. Frazier… 

And this ‘move on’ thing...it's not happening. The alumnus, the alumni are not buying it. 

So Joe said, always said, ‘you have to believe deeply in your heart that you are destined to do great things.’ 

You guys can do that. There’s still time. 

There are 500,000 alumni out there hoping and praying that you accept the challenge.

Thank you."

Corbett Plans Photo Op with Former Players

Governor Tom Corbett invited former players to his mansion for a photo op this Tuesday.  All part of his plan to win back support of the PSU alumni and supporters and to deflect attention away from his failed investigation of Sandusky.  And does it on the anniversary of JVP's passing!

by
Ray Blehar

The e-mail went out on Tuesday, January 15th.  Much like he did when announcing the Commonwealth's lawsuit against the NCAA, Governor Corbett plans to use Penn State football players as props in this "Hail Mary pass"  to win back favor with PSU supporters and deflect attention away from the state's slipshod investigations of Sandusky.  And he does the most classless thing of all by scheduling it on the anniversary of Paterno's passing.

I can just hear his phony tributes to Joe now.  The lettermen need to pack a healthy supply of barf bags if they attend.

 The e-mail is below.

From: "Bernstein, Luke" <lbernstein@pa.gov>
Date: January 15, 2013 7:10:09 PM
To:  <Redacted>
Subject: Meeting with Governor Corbett

Good evening,

Governor Tom Corbett recently met with Justin Kurpeikis, Todd Rucci, Tim Sweeney and several others in State College.  During their discussion, an idea was presented to have a follow-up meeting with additional Letterman.  Thus, we would like to invite you to attend a meeting at the Governor's Residence with the Governor.  Todd, Justin and Tim will be in attendance and will try to ensure we did not exclude anyone that should be included.

The meeting will take place at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, January 22, 2013 at the Governor’s Residence (2035 North Front Street, Harrisburg, PA 17102).

Please RSVP to Bryan Troop (717-787-5825 or brtroop@pa.gov) no later than Sunday, January 20, 2013.  Please RSVP with your name, address, and phone number (preferably day of event contact number).  For security reasons, all attendees will need to have a photo ID.

We look forward to seeing everyone on Tuesday.

Best,

Luke

Luke Bernstein

Deputy Chief of Staff

Office of Governor Tom Corbett

Tom Corbett: Master of Deflection

Whenever Corbett is feeling the heat about the state's investigation of Sandusky -- and Kathleen Kane is launching it -- you can be he'll find a way to deflect the media's attention to another subject.

This is well documented.

August 2012:  Corbett, feeling the heat from child advocacy groups and others to investigate the slow roll of the Sandusky investigation, enlists his media cohorts to write a story about how Clinton County CYS failed to put a safety plan in place at the outset of the investigation.

November 2012:  In a desperate attempt to swing favor in AG candidate David Freed, the son-in-law of LeRoy Zimmerman, who would take a softer approach on the "investigation of the investigation,"  Corbett has AG Linda Kelly file the "Conspiracy of Nonsense" charges against Curley, Schultz, and Spanier to much media hype and fanfare.

January 2013:  With Kathleen Kane's swearing in and the impending "investigation of the investigation" on the horizon, Corbett announces the Commonwealth's lawsuit against the NCAA, using a smattering of former players and PSU students in the photo op.  The press conference is held at the Nittany Lion Inn even though PSU is not endorsing the lawsuit.

The Football Players Fall For the Ruse?

 No doubt, everyone that has a functioning brain (that excludes most in the media) knows the NCAA overstepped its bounds when sanctioning Penn State.  Penn State alumni, supporters, and especially the former football players want the sanctions removed.  As noted above, when Corbett announced the lawsuit, former PSU football players, including former All-American Kenny Jackson, were in the room standing behind the governor.  But Corbett wasn't done using them as props and enlisted the help of the Letterman's Club to round up more bodies for the next photo op.

From: <Redacted>
Date: January 16, 2013, 4:03:39 PM EST
To: <Redacted>
Cc: <Redacted>
Subject: Meeting with Governor Corbett

Dear Former PSU Football Player,

You may have received an email from Governor Corbett extending a invitation to the Governor's Mansion in Harrisburg at 6:30 PM on 22 January for a private meeting.  If you have not, a copy is provided below.  The Governor would like an opportunity to explain in a private setting the details involving the lawsuit against the NCAA.

It is important to note that this affair is for all former Penn State Football players and it does not involve the Penn State Football Letterman's Club nor will the Club make any official statements regarding this lawsuit in any capacity.  The email list that was used was incomplete so please forward the email from the Governor and this email to your network of former players as they are invited as well. We would like as many guys to receive the invite as possible, so please forward this on.  If you are planning to attend, please do so by responding to individual on the email below from the Governor.

Thank you for your consideration and we hope to see you Tuesday.

<3 Players - Redacted>

It is important to note that "former players" are invited and not letttermen because the Letterman's Club is affiliated with PSU.  So, can we expect a statement from "former players" offering their support of the NCAA lawsuit? Or will they see through Corbett and tell him to stick it where the sun doesn't shine.

We'll see.

The Real Reason for the Lawsuit

Corbett plans to use the NCAA lawsuit as a "club" against Kane   You can bet Corbett will blast her for the investigation of the "successful prosecution of Sandusky" instead of focusing her offices resources on more important matters -- meaning do anything other than investigating something that could roll back on him.  Corbett knows his slow-roll investigation put children in danger and he knows DPW and CYS blew it back in 1998 when they could have rolled up Sandusky.

Abe Lincoln said it best.

"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time."