Tuesday, May 20, 2008

The Ways of the Weasel

Last week the Board of Trustees approved a facilities fee for Penn State students over the University Park Undergraduate Associations objection, but with the accent of Council of Commonwealth Student Government (CCSG).

One reason that CCSG had no objection was that each Commonwealth Campus gets to decide how much if any fee will be paid. On the other hand, the University Park students have had the fee set by the Board of Trustees. Initially it will be $50/semester, but it will eventually rise to $100/semester. Last week that appeared to be the only reason.

Today another possible reason for the CCSG vote comes to light.

It looks like Alan Janesch of the Penn State Grassroots Astroturf Network has been cozying up to the CCSG.

I [Alan Janesch] want to thank my friends at Penn State's Council of Commonwealth Student Governments (CCSG) for honoring me last month by presenting me with their annual “Friend of the Commonwealth” award. The award is open to Penn State alumni, faculty, staff, administrators, and community leaders; it recognizes continuous contributions to Penn State's commonwealth campuses.

I feel very honored to receive this award (and also humbled), because I think CCSG has done a lot more for me and for the Penn State Grassroots Network than I have done for their group or their constituencies. (CCSG is a student government group representing Penn State's 19 undergraduate campuses.) CCSG members are smart and energetic and have lots of good ideas.[Ed:And easily flatter and duped.]

What do you think? Do you think the man charged with rallying the NittanyBots to support Old Main policy may have been rallying the CCSG for this particular policy? I know I do.

My guess is that it doesn't really matter to Old Main whether or not the Commonwealth Campuses implement the fee or not. If it did it they wouldn't have given them a choice. The whole point of including them in the fee policy was to get the patina of undergraduate student support from the CCSG and counter the almost certain objection of UPUA.

It is also worth noting that Janesch received the award from the CCSG last month, but waited until today, after most students have left town, to crow about on his blog.

Technorati Tags: , , , , ,

1 comment:

milo said...

Spanier doesn't realize the forces gathering to punish him.

Remember former Student Affairs VP Vicky Triponey? (the lady who fought with JoePA over control of judicial affairs, and tried to take over the student radio station??)

She resigned, umm, rather abruptly last fall. It seems she left some baggage behind, however. Her husband, Mike Meacham, got a made-up job on campus as part of the "trailing spouse" program.
This involves creating a new, needless position for the spouse of an incoming admin or faculty member. In this case, a near six-figure salary, just to keep hubby happy and occupied. With Vicky gone, however, her significant other baggage remains, free to roam campus (and Harrisburg) and exact revenge for the injustice done to the Mrs. (he's a former kansas local politician).

The real story here, though is the ludicrous trailing spouse program, estimated to increase payroll costs by almost 35%! This program is the single greatest factor driving tuition costs into outer space.

If you want to be a real hero to Penn State, let your legislators know about this outrageous program.