Al Lord on Corbett, Boyle, and Penn State's divided alumni

This morning after the primary election, Albert Lord, the ex-Sallie Mae boss who has taken a special interest in his old school, Penn State, and in the Pennsylvania state government that pulls the strings up in University Park, reviewed the record of his political beneficiaries in light of the people's mandate: "I went one for two," he said over breakfast at the Four Seasons, his Philadelphia base.

Though a Republican, Lord was a large and early backer of state treasurer Rob McCord's campaign for the Democratic nomination to oppose Gov. Tom Corbett, lured in by political contacts "who said he was the most likely nominee," only to watch McCord's ship boarded and sunk by York scholar-businessman Tom Wolf, whose folksy, self- (and bank-) financed TV ads sparked a decisive victory. Will Lord back Wolf, too? He's open to that: "I still want Corbett out of there. That guy's a disaster."

But Lord also backed a winner, youthful State Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Phila., who got the Democratic nod for U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz's old seat in Congress. Though Boyle is better known for his labor-union ties, "Brendan's an old Sallie Mae guy," Wolf told me: The Hon.-to-be landed a freshman job on Lord's Washington lobbying staff, for which he was recommended by his Notre Dame professor, Rose DeNapoli. Boyle left Sallie Mae before taking his job as a state rep in Harrisburg -- but, on deciding to run for Congress,  "he found me last summer at the Jersey Shore, and he called me enough that I finally gave him some money," Lord said.

Lord waged his own successful campaign this Spring, for a Penn State alumni board seat, after Corbett turned him down for one of several the governor appoints. Lord, who says Corbett and the former trustees erred in precipitously firing football coach Joe Paterno for not stopping child abuser Jerry Sandusky, and in not challenging the scathing Louis Freeh report or $60 million in NCAA sanctions, says Corbett provoked him by pronouncing other board candidates "more qualified." The governor might more accurately have said, "More independent," and "more critical," and "more likely to lead a revolution."

But now that he's a trustee, Lord is talking like a statesman: "I have to find the middle ground on this board. The single most important thing at Penn State is to reunite the alumni. The alumni are divided, just like the board. There's a strong 25 or 30 percent who believe Joe Paterno was guilty. You can't end that division just by beating up on the other side."

At Sallie Mae, Lord says he learned to reconcile factions: "At some point, common sense and a little charm fit into the equation." He says he's met with trustees chairman Keith Masser, a potato farmer, and called himself "very pleased" with their early talks. They disagree, for example, about ousted Penn State president Graham Spanier -- Lord is backing Spanier's defamation complaint against Freeh (corrected) -- but "I heard Keith, and he heard me, and we agreed that, as long as we come by our conculsions honestly, I don't have to insult you, we can sort this out."

Lord wants to serve on the trustees' legal committee. He's interested in Penn State's continuing reaction to NCAA sanctions. Ultimately, "we want an apology from the NCAA," he says.

Aren't most people ready to forget the scandal by now? "The students are 18. Of course they want to move on. But the rest of us, who fund the university -- only 7 percent comes from the state -- we are the shareholders, we pay for it [Lord donated $5 million to Penn State Abington], it's our reputations that are on the line when Penn State's reputation suffers."

Lord says Penn State is a much better school than when he went there nearly 50 years ago -- but it still needs to resolve the attacks on its reputation, not so things can quiet down, but so the University can move toward the top ranks of U.S. schools.