HARRISBURG - A Senate committee plans a public hearing later this month to examine proposals for changing how the Pennsylvania State University board of trustees operates in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child abuse scandal.
The hearing is scheduled March 18 before the State Government Committee and will feature testimony from state officials and Penn State trustee James Broadhurst, who is chairman of a governance committee.
This hearing will come several months after former state Auditor General Jack Wagner issued recommendations to make Penn State more accountable to taxpayers. It will take place as former university President Graham Spanier and two other former university officials face charges that they concealed information about suspected child sex abuse by Mr. Sandusky. A former football coach, Mr. Sandusky is serving a state prison sentence on a child sex abuse conviction.
"It will be a look at what things should be changed and what role the Legislature should play," said panel Chairman Sen. Lloyd Smucker, R-13, Lancaster.
The issue of university oversight surfaced this week at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on the proposed state aid requests for Penn State and three other state-related universities: Temple University, the University of Pittsburgh and Lincoln University.
Penn State has already made some changes in how the trustee board operates and plans to take additional steps, university President Rodney Erickson told the senators.
Mr. Wagner's recommendations include stripping the university president of his seat on the trustees board and making the governor a nonvoting board member, reducing the size of the board from 31 to 21 voting members and including Penn State under the state Right to Know Law.
The Wagner report is a starting point for lawmakers, said Sen. John Yudichak, D-14, Nanticoke.
He said boards with more than 30 members can be too big and it's important to make sure trustees are full participating partners in running the university.
Mr. Yudichak questioned having the governor as a voting member on the board with power to name appointees given his involvement with the state budget.
"I have issues with that and whether that is an inherent conflict of interest," he said.
Mr. Yudichak has an interest in higher education issues and sits on the governing board for the 14 state-owned universities.
Contact the writer: rswift@timesshamrock.com