Until Friday morning came around, it had been quite a while since there was a lively Penn State board of trustees public comment session.
But the time-honored tradition of disgruntled university alumni voicing their grievances to the board returned at the Penn Stater hotel today.
The first speaker to address the board was Steve Masters, a Penn State alumnus who was particularly pleased with yesterday’s court ruling, in which a judge granted a group of alumni-elected trustees access to the Freeh Report source material.
Masters said that the lawsuit filed by the seven trustees was necessary due to the “administration’s refusal to do an objective review of the Freeh Report and the millions of dollars that have been spent based on the Freeh Report farce.”
The alumnus speaker added that it’s time to start putting the Sandusky scandal in the rearview mirror, but added that can’t happen until until an objective review of the Freeh Report takes place.
“It’s time to come clean and put the worst crisis in Penn State’s history behind us by finally doing an objective review of the Freeh Report,” Masters said.
He then launched into a laundry list of questions that need to be answered, including why Joe Paterno and Graham Spanier were fired and why the board hired Louis Freeh to conduct a review of the Sandusky scandal. Masters added that the time has come for the university to honor Paterno.
“It is also past time for the university to honor Joe Paterno and his 60-plus years of exemplary service,” he said. “He may be the winningest Division I coach in NCAA history, but his greatest accomplishments came outside of the football field in his role as a humanitarian.”
The second speaker to address the board was alumna Cheryl Fleagle, who also addressed the Sandusky scandal and the board’s need to explain their actions from four years ago.
“It is now four years later, four long years, and still no explanation or comment from this board,” Fleagle said. “There has not been one word in defense of an innocent man who gave 61 years to Penn State and who recently was honored by the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame.”
Fleagle, like Masters, opined that Penn State can’t move on from the events of four years ago until a review of the Freeh Report is completed.
Fleagle was followed by three student speakers who rounded out the public comment session, each of whom are members of the University Park Undergraduate Association.
Emily Miller, the speaker of the UPUA assembly, addressed the board on mental health issues at the university and the dire need for more funding dedicated to Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS).
“We have had so many conversations with various entities, and our constituents share the sentiment that as important as it is what we’re doing [with Mental Health and Wellness Week], it’s not quite enough,” Miller said. “Something that we always go back to is that we need more money. There’s always a need for more money everywhere, but we need to make sure we have the resources that students need.”
Miller pointed out that the need for CAPS funding at Penn State is so dire that students are suggesting funding it themselves through a mental health fee.
“The class gift this year will be an endowment for CAPS, and I think this makes a very strong statement from the student body that this is an issue that we take seriously,” she said. “Students have actually come to us proposing to look into forming a mental health fee. That in itself is a statement that the student body is interested in further taxing themselves for something.”
