Madison Kwiecinski

News Editor

mvk5945@psu.edu

On September 16th and 17th, the Penn State Board of Trustees met to go over a variety of topics in subcommittee meetings and to address a list of action items that required a motion for action by the board. These issues ranged from salary changes to Behrend land originally designated for expansion being sold. The Trustee meetings were available to the public over Zoom, and are an important part of how Penn State functions.

In 1997, Penn State Behrend acquired three properties adjoining the campus in order to facilitate future expansion. Penn State’s Real Estate Task Force has directed that there is no longer a need for these properties, and therefore a motion to sell them was taken at the meeting. Prior to the sale these three properties’ residential homes were vacant. 

The Board approved the sale of 0.458-acre property, including a single-story house

located on Yale Drive for $107,000. The second of the approved sales was for the 1.98-acre worth of property, including a single-story house located on Jordan Road. This property sold for $167,500.

The final property Penn State sold surrounding the Behrend campus was a single-story house with 0.4591-acres of property, also located on Jordan Road, which sold for $102,000. Although these properties were originally intended for campus expansion, they will be sold after the recent approval at the Board of Trustee Meeting. 

Salary increases were another important item on the agenda at this month’s meeting, with President Barron actually being approved for one himself. The board’s subcommittee on compensation bases the recommended salary adjustments on the executives’ experience, performance, and areas of oversight and duties, as well as through comparative analysis. The full board approved President Barron’s new annual salary which now totals $876,612. 

Sara Thorndike, Senior Vice President for Finance and Business, and Nick Jones, Executive Vice President and provost, both also received salary increases, with Thorndike now making $448,800 annually and Jones receiving $582,828 annually. The full Board of Trustees approved the President’s salary upon recommendation from the Subcommittee on Compensation, although the subcommittee does have the authority to approve the salary for tier two executives. 

Alumni Association CEO Paul Clifford provided an overview of the Alumni Association’s overall impact on Penn State during the meeting on September 17th. 

“The Penn State Alumni Association maintains its strong position,” Clifford said during his address to the trustees. “We continue to be the most powerful alumni network in the world, with our current alumni numbers totaling 742,662 alumni worldwide.”

The alumni association at Penn State is an excellent way to network and provides a large list of benefits to Penn State students including supporting THON, funding scholarships for students, and creating a vast networking system Penn State students can benefit from before and after graduation. 

“Rolling into the fall, the Alumni Association is poised to continue our outreach work in a variety of meaningful ways – all guided by our new strategic plan,” Clifford said. 

The strategic plan in which he is referring to includes priorities organized under the following themes:

• Personalize the alumni experience.
• Lead with a member-first mindset.
• Continue to strengthen our “We Are” community through diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• And optimize organizational efficiency

Another topic addressed at the Board of Trustees meeting included the impact innovative research has across the Penn State community. The University’s $1.01 billion research enterprise allows for discovery and innovation across the commonwealth. Barron stated at the meeting that over 100 PA companies alone research Penn State. 

“As a driver of progress, Penn State is a leader among our peers in our research impact, breadth, and ability to inspire and attract innovators with diverse perspectives and talent,” President Barron said. “The scale and scope of our research activities also are important measurements of our standing among our peer institutions nationally and around the world.”

The Subcommittee meetings discussed several smaller issues on their agendas the first day and will have full meeting agendas from the meeting posted to the Board of Trustees site in the near future.