Write ups on PSU Tuition Hike, and issues addressed at last week's Board meeting:

[PSUFTG]

As promised, a couple of write ups related to last week's Board of Trustees meetings: First, one focused on the Tuition Hike issue:

Anatomy of a University Tuition Increase (substack.com)


And a summary of my votes - and the rationale for those votes - on all of the issues that came before the Board:

Penn State Board of Trustees Meeting July 21-22, 2022 – BARRY FENCHAK FOR PENN STATE TRUSTEE (barryfenchak4trustee.com)

 

[dcf4psu]

Wait a minute - tear down Oswald tower for a new Liberal Arts building? Are they out of their m-er-fin minds???

 

[ValleyForgeLion]

So the chair of the Finance committee refused to recognize anyone in the room that had a question? Even the trustees not on the committee but who wanted to know WTF they were doing combining the tuition rate hike with a salary increase for the staff? Do I have the correct?

 

[PSUFTG]

So the chair of the Finance committee refused to recognize anyone in the room that had a question? Even the trustees not on the committee but who wanted to know WTF they were doing combining the tuition rate hike with a salary increase for the staff? Do I have the correct?

Sadly. Truth be told, I thought there were a LOT of questions (and I certainly had several) even more relevant and impactful than the "separation" issue that should have been discussed. Alas.
A lot of work to be done, for sure.

 

[PSUFTG]

As promised, a couple of write ups related to last week's Board of Trustees meetings: First, one focused on the Tuition Hike issue:

Anatomy of a University Tuition Increase (substack.com)


And a summary of my votes - and the rationale for those votes - on all of the issues that came before the Board:

Penn State Board of Trustees Meeting July 21-22, 2022 – BARRY FENCHAK FOR PENN STATE TRUSTEE (barryfenchak4trustee.com)

BTW:
I post these write ups through my Substack page (the first link in the post goes to that page). Anyone who wants to receive these write ups on PSU governance topics can subscribe on the site (its FREE!, and I don't SPAM) Subscribers receive the write ups (usually about one per month) in their e-mail.

 

[BobPSU92]

BTW:
I post these write ups through my Substack page (the first link in the post goes to that page). Anyone who wants to receive these write ups on PSU governance topics can subscribe on the site (its FREE!, and I don't SPAM) Subscribers receive the write ups (usually about one per month) in their e-mail.

Free? You have a lot of learning to do if you are going to be a trustee at PSU.

 

[GrimReaper]

Free? You have a lot of learning to do if you are going to be a trustee at PSU.

There is a difference between charging for something and stealing.

 

[manatree]

No mention of the hiring freeze effective August 1st?

 

[Keyser Soze 16802]

RE: "Penn State must re-evaluate the endowment administration fees it is currently paying, which are proportionally the largest in our peer group, the Big10."

Cynical me suspects whomever is running that show is tied to the cabal that runs the university. For fun, we could call the cabal Deep State

 

[Bison13]

RE: "Penn State must re-evaluate the endowment administration fees it is currently paying, which are proportionally the largest in our peer group, the Big10."

Cynical me suspects whomever is running that show is tied to the cabal that runs the university. For fun, we could call the cabal Deep State

Same with the construction fees regularly being 20% higher than other universities capital projects.

 

[BobPSU92]

RE: "Penn State must re-evaluate the endowment administration fees it is currently paying, which are proportionally the largest in our peer group, the Big10."

Cynical me suspects whomever is running that show is tied to the cabal that runs the university. For fun, we could call the cabal Deep State

I’m sure it’s all just a misunderstanding.

 

[BobPSU92]

Same with the construction fees regularly being 20% higher than other universities capital projects.

Yet another misunderstanding.

 

[PSU12046]

Same with the construction fees regularly being 20% higher than other universities capital projects.

Hard to believe Dambly's construction fees in central PA are higher than, say construction fees in Evanston in downtown Chicago

 

[BobPSU92]

Hard to believe Dambly's construction fees in central Pa are higher than, say construction fees in Evanston in downtown Chicago

Quality.

 

[Mrdibbs]

Wait a minute - tear down Oswald tower for a new Liberal Arts building? Are they out of their m-er-fin minds???

I graduated in 1971 (51 years ago) and have been on campus several times since. Never knew of Oswald Tower or remember seeing it.
Had to find a campus map to locate and used Google Maps Street View to see this structures exterior.
It looks to me (an unknowledgable engineer) that this building (10 floors) was shoehorned into a tight space in an effort to maximize an ROI. Can anybody advise what is inside?
50 years old and being demolished. Pitiful.

 

[StamfordBridgeVikingatLeftOffensiveTackle]

I graduated in 1971 (51 years ago) and have been on campus several times since. Never knew of Oswald Tower or remember seeing it.
Had to find a campus map to locate and used Google Maps Street View to see this structures exterior.
It looks to me (an unknowledgable engineer) that this building (10 floors) was shoehorned into a tight space in an effort to maximize an ROI. Can anybody advise what is inside?
50 years old and being demolished. Pitiful.

CONTENTdm

digital.libraries.psu.edu

I know that the Department of Sociology and Criminology is in there. Not sure what else, if anything. History and Classics were in there at one time but moved to Weaver Building years ago. It's an abomination.

 

[step.eng69]

I’m sure it’s all just a misunderstanding.

NOPE

 

[step.eng69]

I’m sure it’s all just a misunderstanding.

NOP

 

[step.eng69]

Is there something wrong with this site, constantly getting duplicate posts

 

[PSUFTG]

I graduated in 1971 (51 years ago) and have been on campus several times since. Never knew of Oswald Tower or remember seeing it.
Had to find a campus map to locate and used Google Maps Street View to see this structures exterior.
It looks to me (an unknowledgable engineer) that this building (10 floors) was shoehorned into a tight space in an effort to maximize an ROI. Can anybody advise what is inside?
50 years old and being demolished. Pitiful.

Oswald Tower pictured below.
It was built early-1970s - so might have been after your time on campus. It is very close to Pattee Library.

Primary purpose is office space for some of the Liberal Arts Departments.

My brother's office was in there (that is a few years back). He really liked the accommodations (FWIW), and it was a very functional building at the time (not a beautiful architectural wonder - but a very functional building for its purpose).

As I mentioned in my write up, if the best (only?) option for Oswald is to spend $5 million to tear it down, that is one hell of a condemnation of the management of our Capital Spending (FWIW: Penn State typically refers to Major Renovations as "Capital Spending", some organizations would refer only to new construction as "Capital Spending").
That is an issue I have talked about for years, and - of course - you can read my comments to the Board regarding this project last week. Spending $100s of millions for assets that would not have been needed if even a fraction of that money had been spent taking care of the stuff we already had.

That needs to change. I will do what I can.

Alas

 

[StamfordBridgeVikingatLeftOffensiveTackle]

Is there something wrong with this site, constantly getting duplicate posts

Not a problem step. You're back on track. You only sent one of this post. If Bob's posts start coming in twos, I'm outta here!

 

[91Joe95]

Is there something wrong with this site, constantly getting duplicate posts

It's the worst.

 

[91Joe95]

Is there something wrong with this site, constantly getting duplicate posts

It's the worst.

 

[Nitt1300]

Barry, I was particularly interested in your earlier thread with the lack of any response to your attempt to eliminate the executive board or to at least to require public minutes of any meetings they have- a move which seems to me to be absolutely necessary if this mess is ever to be cleaned up.

Absent any willingness of the ruling cabal to do either, might a class action lawsuit on the part of a group of alumni have an impact?

Your willingness to make the effort is commendable, but I think you need more help.

 

[dcf4psu]

I graduated in 1971 (51 years ago) and have been on campus several times since. Never knew of Oswald Tower or remember seeing it.
Had to find a campus map to locate and used Google Maps Street View to see this structures exterior.
It looks to me (an unknowledgable engineer) that this building (10 floors) was shoehorned into a tight space in an effort to maximize an ROI. Can anybody advise what is inside?
50 years old and being demolished. Pitiful.

Oswald Tower pictured below.
It was built early-1970s - so might have been after your time on campus. It is very close to Pattee Library.

Primary purpose is office space for some of the Liberal Arts Departments.

My brother's office was in there (that is a few years back). He really liked the accommodations (FWIW), and it was a very functional building at the time (not a beautiful architectural wonder - but a very functional building for its purpose).

As I mentioned in my write up, if the best (only?) option for Oswald is to spend $5 million to tear it down, that is one hell of a condemnation of the management of our Capital Spending (FWIW: Penn State typically refers to Major Renovations as "Capital Spending", some organizations would refer only to new construction as "Capital Spending").
That is an issue I have talked about for years, and - of course - you can read my comments to the Board regarding this project last week. Spending $100s of millions for assets that would not have been needed if even a fraction of that money had been spent taking care of the stuff we already had.

That needs to change. I will do what I can.

Alas





View attachment 216290

I'm fairly certain there was work done on OT within the last 10 - 15 years. Sounds to me this is all full of corruption.

 

[ValleyForgeLion]

Absent any willingness of the ruling cabal to do either, might a class action lawsuit on the part of a group of alumni have an impact?

I like this line of thinking. But CA's are tough to get established, for good reason. There's a lot easier ways to go, and I'm thinking of Freedom of Information Act requests. FOIAs on things like meeting minutes, esp where a lawyer can't claim work product or lawyer-client privilege because they're supposed to be public. I think the requestor has to be a citizen of the Commonwealth to file a request? I could be wrong.