Penn State’s board of trustees voted Friday to tighten the guidelines for its members’ interactions with the media, changing the code of conduct in the board’s bylaws.
The board's bylaws now say trustees are supposed to coordinate with the board office before talking to the press about trustee-related topics.
And, the guidelines say, trustees should “respect guidance” from the board office or the Office of Strategic Communications.
Trustee Anthony Lubrano cast the lone vote against the guidelines.
“I don’t think what we’re suggesting here is best practices particularly around the notion that our speech be limited any more than it already has been limited," Lubrano said.
Melissa Melewsky, the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association’s media law counsel, said the changes are problematic.
“It has the potential to discourage public debate about important issues, including the expenditure of millions of dollars of taxpayer money," she said.
Last year, the university got $242 million in general state support.
The revised bylaws say "while vigorous debate" by trustees is embraced during board meetings, "external communication of an individual Trustee’s views can be misconstrued to be an expression of the Board’s position as a whole and Trustees should make diligent efforts to avoid such misunderstandings."
Melewsky said public officials have a duty not just to the board they serve on, but also to their constituents and citizens. She said Penn State is a public agency in these cases.
"It is routine for reporters to keep asking questions where these policies are in effect and very common for public officials to ignore the policies," she said.
Trustees take action on coaches' compensation
In other board action, the Penn State trustees' equity and human resources committee changed the oversight of coaches’ compensation. Under the updated guidelines, approval from the HR committee is needed if a head coach’s compensation is going to be more than what the president is paid. The change follows Penn State’s decision to fire James Franklin as football coach. Franklin’s 10-year contract included a buyout of nearly $50 million dollars.
Read the changes to the Equity and Human Resources Committee Operating Guidelines section on coach compensation on page 4 of this pdf:
