After rehashing much of the debate on reform from last month during its meeting this morning at the Penn Stater, the Board of Trustees’ Governance Committee approved “Proposal A+” for recommendation to the Board of Trustees. If approved, it will increase the number of voting members on the board to 33 and the entire board to 38 by adding a student, faculty, and Alumni Association seat, while also adding three voting at-large trustees, selected by the board. The Proposal includes no ex officio trustees with voting status.

If approved at the board’s November meeting, this is the breakdown of what the board will look like:

38 Total members, 33 voting

Non-voting

• Five ex officio (governor, Penn State president, three cabinet members)

Voting

• Six gubernatorial appointees (1/2 must be alumni)
• Six agriculture trustees (1/2 must be alumni)
• Six business and industry trustees (1/2 must be alumni)
• Nine alumni trustees
• One student seat
• One faculty seat
• One Alumni Association seat
• Three at-large trustees

Currently, the board has 30 voting members and 32 total, with three ex officio members having voting power.

The meeting began with five proposals on the table. The fourth, D, was a compromise package brought by Chairman Keith Masser, but he replaced it with another compromise in the form of Proposal A+ at the meeting’s onset and proposed that the full committee vote on it. But Richard Dandrea moved to vote on Proposal A, causing reignited debate over the Alumni Association seat and the number of alumni seats in total.

There wasn’t much new there, but it did cause a nice little throwing of barbs between Dandrea and Anthony Lubrano. Lubrano said the number of alumni seats should either stay the same or grow because of Penn State’s huge alumni base, to which Dandrea asserted Lubrano’s “marketing firm or whatever” suggested he say. Lubrano said, “you’re gonna make this personal now?” and asked if Dandrea got help from his father-in-law to obtain his seat on the board. Great fun!

Anyway, the board called a break about halfway through. When the trustees returned, Dandrea withdrew his motion that the board vote on Proposal A, instead motioning for the compromise Proposal A+. It passed, 7-1, with Anthony Lubrano being the lone dissenter.

The changes here certainly aren’t earth-shattering, but notable that they increase the board’s size after the government’s push for downsizing. After the students got their win when the trustees were unanimous in the place of a student trustee in August, today was biggest for the Alumni Association and faculty.