During the second day of the Board of Trustees meeting Friday, 13 trustees will be elected to the executive committee, a small committee that meets during certain circumstances when the entire board is unable to do so.
The five committees on the board will meet individually today and the Friday meeting will be a public session, including President Rodney Erickson’s report and reports from the different committees. The meetings will take place in the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.
Vice Chairwoman of the board Stephanie Deviney said that because of her position on the board, she will be appointed to the committee.
Deviney said she is member on three of the five committees of the board, including the Committee on Legal and Compliance, Committee on Outreach, Development, and Community Relations and the Committee on Academic Affairs and Student Life.
“There’s a lot of important things going on in all of our committees,” she said. “They’ve really gotten involved in doing more things with respect to the university.”
Deviney said the committee involved in outreach will be hearing about the work public relations has been doing, such as speaking with adviser groups at all the different Commonwealth campuses.
She said the legal and compliance committee will meet with the new University Ethics and Compliance Director Regis Becker, as well as the new Athletic Integrity Officer Julie Del Giorno.
Trustee Keith Eckel, who also serves as chair of the Committee on Legal and Compliance, said the committee will have an update on the Freeh Report and the progress the university has made in leading the recommendations toward compliance during today’s meeting.
“There is no question that one of the key discussions that will occur centers on our progress in proving our compliance with our goals outlying those areas where we are following the Freeh Report recommendations,” he said.
Eckel said the committee will also discuss the recently released Mitchell Report, a progress report released quarterly under the Athletics Integrity Agreement.But, he said he was not aware of any action that could be required because of the report because it was “very positive.”
He said the discussions will be informational in nature, rather than requiring any type of decision.
“Now that’s just my initial reaction at this time, and I can’t prejudge whether members of the committee, as a result of the reports, might make motions that we would consider and then take forward to the full trustee meeting,” Eckel said.
Trustee Anthony Lubrano said he expects to see recommendations for board reforms proposed by the Committee on Governance and Long-Range Planning. Lubrano said he thought the board would then be asked to consider these reforms for the next board meeting in May.
“I intend to suggest that, as the board, we take Louis Freeh up on his offer to meet with us,” he said.
Lubrano said he did not know what sort of reaction he will receive.
He said during the public comment session tomorrow, a large contingent of football lettermen will be in attendance. Lubrano said he believes many of the men are asking to speak during the public comment period.
