Penn State trustees add four female board members

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - Pennsylvania State University's trustees agreed Friday to add four female board members, increasing the board's gender diversity, an issue that several female members had raised.

But the way things stand, come July the state's flagship university will lose its only African American trustees.

Both Merck CEO Ken Frazier, the board's liaison to former FBI Director Louis Freeh, whose investigative report faulted university leaders for their handling of the Jerry Sandusky child sex-abuse scandal, and Adam Taliaferro, a lawyer and former Penn State football player, are leaving because their terms are up.

The board also has only one Hispanic member, acting state Education Secretary Pedro Rivera, and one Asian American, David Han, vice president of the department of surgery at Hershey Medical Center.

The changing face of the board emerged Friday during an unusually short and peaceful trustees meeting - perhaps unexpected, given that a group of alumni-elected trustees in recent weeks have filed two lawsuits against the university, including one charging a lack of information about the trustee selection process.

The nine new appointments and four re-appointments come as the board expands from 32 members to 38.

Board Chair Keith Masser touted the addition of the women, which brings their total to nine. But he acknowledged weakness in racial and ethnic diversity.

"We have to address it and keep searching," said Masser, a Schuylkill County potato farmer.

Trustee Barbara Doran, who had pushed for more women, called the new appointees a start.

"Any board should have representation which reflects society at large and their own demographics. It's about diversity of viewpoints," said Doran, a private wealth portfolio manager for Morgan Stanley.

At Penn State, women make up 46 percent of the student body. African Americans make up 6 percent, about the same as Asians and Hispanics.

A 2010 report by the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges found at that time that women occupied 30 percent of board seats at private universities nationwide and about 28 percent at public ones.

Two Philadelphia-area residents are among the new trustees: Robert E. Fenza of Chester County, a resident and recently retired executive vice president of Liberty Property Trust, and Luke Metaxas, a Penn State sophomore from Kennett Square.

Other new appointments include: Chris R. Hoffman, a Juniata County farmer; Julie Anna Potts, executive vice president and treasurer of the American Farm Bureau Federation in Washington; Mary Lee Schneider, president and CEO of the Follett Corp., an education products company in Illinois; and Matthew W. Schuyler, chief human resources officer of Hilton Worldwide in McLean, Va.

Kay Salvino of State College also joined the board as immediate past president of the alumni association, while Kathleen Casey, senior adviser to the Patomak Global Partners law firm, who had been a gubernatorial appointee, will move into one of three newly created at-large seats, opening the door for Gov. Wolf to make a new appointment.