Posts tagged ‘Tom Corbett’
The Penn Stater Daily — Feb. 24, 2014
Another record: THON 2014 wrapped up Sunday with $13,343,517.33 raised in the fight against pediatric cancer. There’s lots of great coverage today, including photos, video, and stories at Onward State and the Collegian, but our friends at the College of Communications shared a unique collection of images you might’ve missed: a collection of Instagram images (like the one above), taken by student journalists, of THON dancers, support staff, and families. The theme: “Who do you dance for?” Very cool stuff.
What a finish: David Taylor and Ed Ruth will go down as two of the best wrestlers in Penn Stater history. Our in-house wrasslin’ expert, Lori Shontz ’91, ’13g, was at Rec Hall Sunday to watch Taylor and Ruth in their final home matches in a dual meet against Clarion. How’d they do? Let’s just say both guys barely broke a sweat. Our editor, Tina Hay ’83, posted some great photos at that link, as well.
Board bets: Gov. Tom Corbett has nominated a pair of alumni to fill the Board of Trustees posts currently held by Ira Lubert ’73 and Alvin Clemens ’59. The nominees are Cliff Benson ’71, an executive with the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres who was instrumental in securing the nine-figure gift from Terry Pegula ’73 that allowed for the creation of Division I hockey at Penn State; and Todd Rucci ’92, a football letterman and former director of the Pennsylvania Lottery.
‘Eers to Scrap: Tom Bradley will be back on the sidelines this fall. A longtime member of Joe Paterno’s staff, Bradley ’78 was hired by West Virginia on Friday to be the Mountaineers’ senior associate head coach. Bradley, who had worked as a radio analyst the past two years, served as the Nittany Lions’ interim head coach for the final four games of the 2011 season.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
Gov. Tom Corbett Brings Antitrust Suit Against NCAA
Saying he was acting on behalf of Penn State students and alumni and the citizens of Pennsylvania who were being punished by the “unlawful and overreaching” actions of the NCAA, Gov. Tom Corbett on Wednesday announced a federal antitrust lawsuit being brought by the commonwealth against the collegiate athletic governing body for the sanctions handed down last summer in the wake of the Freeh Report.
It was an unusual scene late Wednesday morning at the Nittany Lion Inn, an on-campus location chosen despite the university having no involvement in the suit (you can read Penn State’s official statement on the lawsuit here). The governor took to a podium flanked by a few dozen people, former Nittany Lion football lettermen, local business people, and current student-athletes and student leaders among them. He praised Penn State’s role in educating the state’s citizens and providing a major economic engine, acknowledged the awful nature of the crimes committed by Jerry Sandusky and the ongoing prosecution against former university administrators, then posed the question (more…)
New Leadership for the Board of Trustees
Karen Peetz took over as chair of the Board of Trustees.
Generally, the January meeting of Penn State’s Board of Trustees is a pretty straightforward affair. There’s a lot of routine business to take care of—choosing meeting dates for the next calendar year, authorizing the president to confer degrees at commencement—and even the more notable items, such as the board electing its officers, tend to be only minimally noteworthy.
Not so Friday, at the board’s first public meeting since the Sandusky scandal.
The meeting was moved from its usual location—the boardroom on the ground floor of the Nittany Lion Inn—to the larger ballroom on the first floor. We in the media got hand-stamped at the door, assuring us entrée into the post-meeting news conference. Milling around outside the inn were alumni with signs supporting “due process for Joe Paterno,” and milling around inside was a larger-than-usual number of police officers.
And although the day started slowly—at one point, the Twitter hashtag #PSUBOT was agog over the revelation that Penn State had purchased 20,000 pounds of peanut butter in anticipation of a rise in peanut prices, interesting but hardly the key news everyone was waiting for—by the end, there was plenty of news to digest:
—Steve Garban ’59 stepped down as the chair of the board, and John Surma ’76—who made the announcement that Paterno and president Graham Spanier were gone—stepped down as the vice chair. (Garban and Surma will remain on the board; they simply gave up leadership positions.)
—The board elected new leaders. The chair is Karen Peetz ’77, vice chairman and CEO of financial markets and treasury services of the Bank of New York Mellon, who was elected by the board as a representative of business and industry in 2010. The vice chair is Keith Masser ’73, chairman and CEO of Sterman Masser Inc., a family farm, and who was elected by agricultural societies in 2008. Each ran unopposed. (more…)
Spanier Vows to “Vigorously Fight” State Budget Cut
Penn State President Graham Spanier knew the University’s state appropriation was likely to be cut. Speaking at a news conference Wednesday morning at the Outreach Building in Innovation Park, he said that because of Pennsylvania’s budget crisis, University officials had been developing contingency plans for a number of scenarios.
What he didn’t expect was what Gov. Tom Corbett proposed Tuesday morning: a 52 percent reduction, which would drop Penn State’s 2011-12 appropriation from the state to $165.1 million, down from the $347 million the University is receiving this fiscal year.
“This is beyond anything we could possibly imagine,” Spanier said.
The cut in funding to the four state-related universities (Penn State, Pitt, Temple, and Lincoln) and the 14 state schools is believed to be the largest one-year cut in the history of American higher education. Spanier called it “a devastating vision for public education in Pennsylvania.”
The potential effects of such a drop in funding—which must be approved by the Pennsylvania legislature—could include (more…)
Penn State Grad Kelly Ayotte is Now United States Senator Kelly Ayotte
Among the Republicans surging into office during Tuesday’s midterm election was Kelly Ayotte ’90, a former New Hampshire attorney general who was elected to the U.S. Senate from the Granite State. Ayotte, a social and economic conservative who won an endorsement from Sarah Palin, finished with more than 60 percent of the vote.
Dan Onorato ’83 wasn’t so fortunate. The Allegheny County chief executive and Democratic gubernatorial nominee lost to Republican Tom Corbett in the race to replace Ed Rendell as Pennsylvania governor. The statewide tally showed Corbett winning 55%-45%.
It wasn’t a great year for incumbents, but a trio of Penn Staters managed to hold onto their jobs in Congress: Veteran Democratic representative Mike Doyle ’75 held his seat in Pennsylvania’s 14th District, Republican Charlie Dent ’82 retained his job representing Pennsylvania’s 15th District, and long-time Republican representative Frank Wolf ’61 was re-elected by a landslide in Virginia’s 10th District.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
Dan Onorato, Back on Campus
Dan Onorato ’83 was back in Happy Valley Monday morning to visit RTD Embedded Technologies, a high-tech firm located in Innovation Park. It was, of course, a campaign stop for Onorato, the Democratic nominee in this year’s Pennsylvania gubernatorial race; he made the appearance to pitch his ideas for job growth. Onorato, the chief executive of Allegheny County, has his work cut out for him: With three months left until election day, he trails state attorney general Tom Corbett by 7 to 10 points in various polls.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
