The Tale of Two Dogs

The Lap Dog

University Park Undergraduate Association President Jay Chamberlin said he has faith in the [Penn State Board of Trustees]. "I think they're doing a decent job," he said. "That's not saying there's not room for improvement, but for the most part they do a good job being accountable."

[...]

Penn State has been criticized in the past for not fully disclosing its budget, a claim [board secretary] Ammerman disputes. "The budget is an open budget," she said. "It's viewable online."

Chamberlin agreed, saying the online budget gives a broad impression of the university's finances. "You can get a pretty general idea of what Penn State is spending its money on," he said. Although, he added, "you don't get to see how much a department is spending on pencils."

The Bulldog

Nick Stathes, president of the Undergraduate Student Government, painted a different picture. "My experience with the board of trustees was that it seemed as though they didn't ask the right questions to those individuals who presented things to them," he said. "They just accepted things at face value and weren't very interested in learning. Students are losing a lot of the traditional rights that we used to have, and I haven't seen a lot of debate in the board about this."

[...]

Stathes disagreed, [with Ammerman about the openness of the budget], saying the vagueness of Penn State's disclosed budget has held the university back from state appropriations. "Legislators have told me it's difficult to allocate more money to Penn State because it's difficult for their constituents to scrutinize the budge," he said. " [The university] isn't completely open with how it's
spending."

Guess which type of dog Spanier prefers as a pet.

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Shared Governance at Penn State

A new advisory council was announced today at Penn State.

Penn State President Graham B. Spanier has announced the formation of the University Health Sciences Council. The council, which will build on the work of the Health Sciences 20/20 team, will be responsible for developing, recommending and promoting initiatives across the University to advance health sciences education, research, service and outreach.

The advisory role that this council will play is supposed to be preformed by the University Faculty Senate (UFS). This is from the UFS web site.

The University Faculty Senate is the representative body of Penn State's faculty with legislative authority on all matters pertaining to the educational interests of the University and all educational matters that concern the faculties of more than one college. In addition, the Senate is recognized by the University as an advisory and consultative body to the President on all matters that may affect the attainment of the University's educational objectives.

This council amounts to an end run around the UFS.

Now consider this. The council will be chaired by Harold L. Paz, senior vice president for health affairs, dean of the College of Medicine and chief executive officer of Penn State Hershey Medical Center. Here is the list of the remaining members.

Nan Crouter, director of the Social Science Research Institute and director of the Children, Youth and Families Consortium; William E. Easterling, director of the Institute of the Environment; Davie Jane Gilmour, president of Penn College; Madlyn L. Hanes, chancellor of Penn State Harrisburg; Peter Hudson, director of the Huck Institute of the Life Sciences; Daniel J. Larson, dean of the Eberly College of Science; Paula Milone-Nuzzo, director of the School of Nursing; Carlo Pantano, director of the Materials Research Institute; Robert D. Steele, dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences; Fred W. Vondracek, interim dean of the College of Health and Human Development; Susan Welch, dean of the College of the Liberal Arts; and David N. Wormley, dean of the College of Engineering.

Do you notice anything about the make up of this council which which has usurped the advisory powers of the UFS, a faculty body? It is made up entirely of administrators. So much for shared governance at Penn State.

So dear undergraduate students, when you contemplate the fate of the USG, don't think that you are alone in having power unilaterally stripped from you. Faculty too have lost power as Spanier has gradually, over the course of his presidency, consolidated power in Old Main. Unfortunately the faculty, for the most part, are not as vocal as the students about the erosion of their power. But they should be even more vocal, because they are not transitory and consequently have far more at stake than do the students.

Florence in the Shadow of Mt. Nittany

During the Summer of 2004 Old Main revoked the power of the USG Supreme Court to approve new student organizations. This aroused suspicion amongst student leaders and former leaders that Old Main was trying to rescind powers that were once delegated to the USG. Vicky Triponey, vice-president for student affairs, responded to these concerns with the following,

The university's administration lacks the resources, domain and interest to micromanage the various social, political or service endeavors of the thousands of students who participate in extracurricular and co-curricular activities at Penn State. Students can learn valuable educational lessons from taking on their own governance of these aspects of campus life. In fact, Penn State's student governance system serves as a national model for peer leadership in student-run endeavors.

That was written in September of 2004. By November of 2004, here is what Triponey had to say about the USG,

Vice President for Student Affairs Vicky Triponey said she thinks the organization's current structure fails to give students an effective voice because internal fighting "jeopardized their credibility" in the eyes of outsiders.

What occurred in that two month period to radically alter Triponey's assessment of the USG? It would seem that the proximate cause was the impeachment of USG president Galen Foulke. Why was he impeached?

Triponey said Foulke's recently established commission to review the USG Constitution is a step in the right direction, but according to the assembly's impeachment charges, the commission is a violation of his oath of office.

He was impeached for establishing a commission to review the USG Constitution and Triponey who, in September, had praised the USG, in November, praises Foulke's efforts to change USG. The resistance to this change then becomes the reason for why the change is needed. Never mind what Triponey wrote way back in September, the spin in November was that this was not a new problem. No, it had always been such. Triponey couldn't risk being caught in a contradiction. Hence it fell to one of her assistants to make the claim.

Internal fighting in USG has plagued the organization for years, said Philip Burlingame, assistant vice president for student affairs. He said the bickering often makes students outside USG disinterested in student government.

What's going on here? I think Taylor Rhodes, former USG Supreme Court Chief Justice, hit the nail on the head in September of 2004.

Let there be no mistake, the administration's actions and policies, especially those of President Spanier and Vice President Triponey, are far from student oriented. They support a bureaucratic junta, creating problems as justification for administrative intervention. Last year they dissolved the Student Organization Appeals Board, which had appellate jurisdiction for organizational disputes. This year the administration stripped students of the ability to be governed by students within the organizational registration process.

The bureaucratic tools they use are pitting students against students and hoping that the rest are too apathetic to ever care.

Today the USG is no longer the officially recognized voice of Penn State undergraduates. The students were no match for the Machiavellian Spanier.