tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-66768459170838127672024-03-08T14:02:49.938-08:00Jim Antoniono for PSU TrusteeJames R. Antonionohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14563054509353414901noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6676845917083812767.post-3339784346653374082012-03-28T11:29:00.000-07:002012-03-28T16:15:31.187-07:00ATHLETICS - ACADEMICSNo matter how you slice it,
athletics and academics are intertwined at the university level. Thanks to the
legacy left by Coach Paterno, the intertwining of athletics and academics has
been a blessing to Penn State.<br />
<br />
Coach Paterno was a visionary, years
ago before anyone else, he realized that an all sports conference was the way
of the future. Fortunately for Penn State, no one else in the east was able to see that
vision. Had Coach Paterno been able to create an all sport eastern conference,
we would not be part of the Big Ten and becoming a member of the Big Ten has meant
more to Penn State academically than it has athletically.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately when most people,
including most of our alumni, think of Penn State being in the Big Ten, they
think of it in strictly an athletic perspective. If we had
become a part of an all eastern conference, stayed independent or joined some
other conference, my guess is that our athletic program would not look much different than it
does today.<br />
<br />
Academically however it is a whole
different story. From the time we entered into the Big Ten, the quality of the
academics offered at Penn State has soared and continues to soar. There was
immediate pressure to compete with and reach the academic level of schools like
the University of Michigan, Northwestern University and the University of
Chicago to name a few. Being a part of the Big Ten has resulted in Penn State
becoming one of the top academic institutions in the country. It is not simply
the idea of being No 1 on the football field, wrestling mat, etc. it is being
No. 1 in the academic rankings among the various colleges and majors within the
university system.<br />
<br />
If it were not for the quality of
the many athletic teams that Penn State fields each and every year, if it were
not for the quality and integrity of the football program that Coach Paterno
built over the years, Penn State may not have been invited to join the Big Ten.
With regard to the many accolades you can bestow on Coach Paterno, putting us
in a position to be invited to join the Big Ten has to rank very high on the
list.<br />
<br />
When I wrote about the Penn State brand in an earlier blog,
I was referring to the brand as representing both academic excellence as well
as athletic excellence. Excelling in both endeavors makes Penn State a very
attractive University for the best brightest students not just from
Pennsylvania but from all over the country and indeed all over the world.<br />
<br />
Coach Paterno meant so much more to this University then
simply athletics, before I would vote to rename the football stadium or to name
the football field after Coach Paterno, I would want to want to take a hard
look at all of the ways Coach Paterno touch this university and make sure that
whatever the University ends up doing to honor this great individual, it truly reflects
all that he has meant to this University.<br />
<br />
There is no question that Joe Paterno was Penn State and
Penn State was Joe Paterno.
<br />James R. Antonionohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14563054509353414901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6676845917083812767.post-17010932236702727102012-03-27T13:51:00.000-07:002012-03-28T16:02:29.312-07:00TUITIONAnnual tuition increases have become
a serious problem, one the Board of Trustees MUST address. Penn State has the
highest in-state tuition of any public university within the Commonwealth. We
are also number one with the highest in-state tuition of any school in the Big
Ten. That is a number one ranking we should NOT be proud of.
<br /><br />
Penn State's mission states: "<b>As Pennsylvania's land-grant university, we provide
unparalleled access and public service to support the citizens of the
commonwealth.</b>" <span style="color: black;">We are failing miserably
in providing "unparalleled access" to the citizens of the
Commonwealth.</span> Working class families are finding it very difficult to
send their sons and daughters to PSU and many students are leaving PSU with
education debt in the six figures.
<br /><br />
How do we solve this problem? There
are two ways to solve this problem, we can cut cost to lower the per-credit
tuition rate or we can raise more money to cover the cost of providing a first
class education.
<br /><br />
The athletic department has set a
great example. The have not taken in the most money of any Big Ten school or
among the other universities that have reported their numbers but they have
operated the athletic department at a lower cost than those universities that
have taken in more money. The end result is that our athletic department is the
most profitable athletic department in the Big Ten and among all universities
that have publically reported their numbers. That is a first place position we
can be proud of!!!
<br /><br />
I firmly believe if we scrutinize
the University budget on a line by line basis, from the budget for the Trustees
and the Office of the President on down, we will find a lot of dollars that can
be saved without jeopardizing the quality of the education we provide. As the
Army advertisement goes we need to be "lean and mean".
<br /><br />
That is one half of the equation;
the other half is to raise more money. I believe there is a fundraising
campaign under way to raise fund to help offset tuition increases. That's a
start but there are other ways to raise money. In today's environment, many
non-profits are looking at starting for-profit business as a way of replacing
shrinking government funds. In the 1980's I was a member of an Association of Retarded
Citizens [ARC] Board that opened a Dairy Queen that served to provide operating
income for the agency and also provided employment for those we served. USA
Today recognized us as being one of first non-profits to enter into this type
of venture.
<br /><br />
With all of the brain power that
exist on our campuses from both faculty and students as well bright entrepreneurial
alumni, we should be able to be able to leverage our billions of dollars in endowments
into profit making ventures and use this money to lower tuition rates. Again as
I mentioned in an earlier blog, the Board should create a Task Force that would
tackle and solve this problem.
<br /><br />
Penn State has one of the most recognized brands in the county;
we need to make use of that brand. When I was President of the Student
Government, we fought the University to open a book store on campus. We were
opposed by the University because of some agreement they were suppose to have
with the town. We finally opened the first used book store on campus in the HUB
and now there is a great bookstore on campus. PSU owns a lot of real estate,
has some of the best agricultural experts in the country [Penn State grass
seed], a renowned School of Business, Penn State Ice Cream, I could go on.
There is no doubt in my mind that we can come up with new and innovative ways
to make money to lower tuition cost.
<br />James R. Antonionohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14563054509353414901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6676845917083812767.post-14881620779329203002012-03-26T20:24:00.000-07:002012-03-28T16:17:07.069-07:0021st CENTURY BOARDPenn State is no longer the "Farmers High School", it is time that
the Board resembled the 21st century in its make-up. The last time the make-up
of the Board was reevaluated was in 1952. Today’s University does not resemble
the University of 1952 let along the original Farmers High School.<br />
<br />
The alumni are the life blood of this great University. When another billion
dollar campaign is undertaken, it is the alumni who step up and meet the goal.
With that being said the alumni are relegated to electing only nine members to
the 32 member board. There is something wrong with this picture.<br />
<br />
In addition the lack of an adequate number of elected alumni on the Board,
voting faculty have no seats on the board and there are no elected students
on the Board.<br />
<br />
My ideal Board would be a number less than 32 [this makes for an unwieldy
board] total members. At least half of the Board would be composed of elected
alumni members, there would be at least two elected faculty members who would
be voting members and at least two elected student members who would be voting members [one undergraduate
student and one graduate student].<br />
<br />
The university community is composed of three main groups; students, faculty
and alumni - all three should be represented on the Board.<br />
<br />James R. Antonionohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14563054509353414901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6676845917083812767.post-82620599072078630352012-03-26T19:52:00.001-07:002012-03-28T19:37:26.729-07:00GOING PRIVATEShould PSU become a private
University? It is an idea that I would not dismiss out of hand. Both Cornell and Massachusetts Institute of Technology are land grant institutions that have gone private. Although I hold
degrees from two land grant institutions, PSU and Rutgers [the oldest school to
hold land grant status] our land grant status does not preclude the possibility of going private.<br />
<br />
The state funds less than 6% of the
Universities overall budget yet the Governor controls almost 1/3 of our Board
of Trustees, going private would free up those seats for elected alumni
members. <a href="http://jra4psutrustee.blogspot.com/2012/03/board-goverence.html" rel="nofollow">See my post on the makeup of the Board.</a><br />
<br />
There are concerns: How would going
private affect our Commonwealth Campuses? How would we be able to maintain the
Penn State Agricultural County Cooperative Extension Programs? These are two
issues that come immediately to mind, I am sure there are many others.<br />
<br />
A mistake all boards commonly make
is to believe that they must solve all problems among the board members. Being
in a University settling we are blessed with being surrounded by great minds,
both from within our faculty and student body and throughout our Alumni. When there are difficult
problems to solve or issues to explore, I am in favor of creating an ad hoc "Task
Force" chaired by a Board member but composed of board members, facility
and alumni to explore issues and help solve problems.<br />
<br />
Wisdom does not begin and end with those individuals
fortunate enough to be seated on the Board of Trustees.James R. Antonionohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14563054509353414901noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6676845917083812767.post-49472535603470618452012-03-26T18:43:00.000-07:002012-03-28T16:09:56.149-07:00BOARD GOVERNANCESince our position statements were limited to 250 words I chose to make the
failure of Board Governance the essence of my statement. You can have a great
resume and great ideas but if you do not understand and practice good board
governance, disaster can strike like it did last fall. I applaud the Board for
setting up a Governance committee recently, it was long overdue, however they
failed to understand that a board should not be run by an Executive Committee.
An Executive Committee has a role to play in all boards but that role should be
limited. All Board members should be "hands on" regarding the oversight of the University.<br />
<br />
I have over 100 years of Board experience from a medical board to a
financial board, from for-profit boards to non-profit boards. There is no
college major called Board Governance. You learn about governance two ways: the
hard way, by serving on good, well run, boards, and by serving on badly run
boards and by studying the current thinking as to what constitutes "best
practices" in board governance. I have had the fortunate or unfortunate experience
of learning through both methods.<br />
<br />
Each person who ends up being elected will have the same problem, how do you
convince the majority of the board to move in a new direction. That is why I
proposed that I would push for the Board to hire an expert to study how the
Board is currently being run and make suggestions that would lead the Board to
adopt "best practices". It will be hard for the board not to adopt
these recommendations which I believe will be the start of moving the board in
a new direction.<br />James R. Antonionohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14563054509353414901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6676845917083812767.post-70773288217155923872012-03-26T09:49:00.000-07:002012-03-26T09:49:00.789-07:00WelcomeWhile asking people to nominate me for the PSU Board of Trustees, I was asked about my position on a number of issues. I know there is a lot of interest in this year’s election as evidenced by 86 candidates. The position statement we had to submit for the election as well as the bio was limited to 250 words each. With everything that has gone on at Penn State this past year, it was hard to craft a position statement and bio limited to 250 words.<br />
<br />
With this site I will accomplish the following:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Provide my ideas on what I would like to accomplish as a PSU Trustee. </li>
<li>Respond to pertinent news stories as they appear. </li>
<li>Hear your responses to my comments, as well as your thoughts about PSU in general. </li>
</ul>
<br />
I will make every effort to post news stories related to what is unfolding at PSU so you are up-to-date with this continuing story. And to give you an additional incentive to check back here on a regular basis, I will provide links to what is occurring with regard to the football team and other PSU sports. Spring training has started and if you are not aware, Coach O’Brien has had a fabulous start with regard to the 2013 recruiting class with five verbal commitments, and a class that is currently ranked in the top 10 nationally.<br />
<br />
Please let me know if there is anything else you would like to see.<br />
<br />
Thank you,<br />
JimJames R. Antonionohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14563054509353414901noreply@blogger.com0