Yesterday, June 16th, 2025, the Penn State Board of Trustees voted to expel me from the Board. According to Board leadership, this action is necessary because of a re-telling of a self-deprecating anecdote, relayed in a casual conversation with three Penn State employees – a quote pulled from a PG rated movie, A League of Their Own, and spoken by actor Tom Hanks.
The Penn State Board of Trustees leadership has deemed this behavior unacceptable and the only remedy is permanent expulsion from the Board. I now look to the Board to vote on the other instances of unacceptable behavior we have all personally witnessed:
A current trustee who has repeatedly verbally and physically threatened other trustees, to the point of needing to be physically restrained. When several trustees submitted written concerns to Board leadership expressing fear for their safety and requesting additional security at Board functions, no action has been taken.
This same current trustee has made baseless, public allegations of racism against other trustees, and made baseless, public claims that other trustees are actively working to undermine the University. No action has been taken.
A current trustee who, at the beginning of a Board meeting, made defamatory statements laced with sexual innuendo about another colleague. No action was taken.
A current trustee stated, during a virtual online meeting “if this meeting was in person, I’d punch him in the nose” referring to another trustee. No action was taken.
Why is this behavior condoned and yet I am the only target for removal? Because I’m the only one asking for access to critical information, and the only one to have the nerve to follow the rule of law when that information is illegally withheld from us.
I am a direct threat to the Board of Trustees culture of laissez-faire, rubber-stamp governance. Yes, it is true we are told the importance of providing unanimous support for the leadership actions, and are retaliated against when we don’t.
I had the audacity to demand accurate and relevant information and expect thorough deliberation of critical decisions. I also had the audacity to call out blatantly erroneous information provided to the Board. We all know the landscape of higher education is being quickly reshaped and looks nothing like it did twenty years ago. Which is exactly where the university is still operating.
Ohio State and the University of Michigan have figured out how to have low in-state tuition, high enrollment yield, excellent academic metrics, a sustainable budget, and a national football championship. Most of the other Big10 Conference schools have adjusted to surviving in the new reality as well.
Except Penn State. We have a systemic operating budget deficit, which means a deficit not created by some unpredictable occurrence, but which is ‘baked into the cake’ through years of Board actions and in-actions.
The $3 billion cash reserve the administration claimed to have? It isn’t on any balance sheet I’ve ever seen.
They may prefer to shoot the messenger, but they’re not going kill the message.
Every trustee who has a perfect ‘yes’ voting record is responsible for the current situation. And every trustee who voted ‘yes’ to remove me from the Board will continue to vote for Penn State’s collapse. I’ll go out on a limb and predict that they will be the same trustees who were so gosh darn surprised we couldn’t save seven Commonwealth Campuses, and who will be shocked when the next administration comes in and delivers more bad news.
I can’t think of a greater act of shame.
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