Penn State’s Board of Trustees came under fire as a result of the Jerry Sandusky scandal two years ago.
Now, State Sen. John Yudichak (D-Luzerne) introduced legislation Friday that would shrink the size of board from 30 voting members to 23.
Under the new bill, the board would be made up of 8 elected alumni, five gubernatorial appointees, five members from the agriculture industry and five members from the business industry. The legislation would also prohibit the Governor, Lieutenant Governor and all state row officers from being on the board.
Yudichak said the board is just too big to be efficient.
“The size of the board, currently at 32 members, is much larger than any other institution of its comparable size in the rest of the country,” he said.
Trustees would typically serve a three-year term under the legislation.
Penn State has been considering board changes and has met with a consultant. The board has also adopted trustee term limits and removed the university president and state governor as voting members.
Yudichak said a smaller board would get trustees to be more involved.
“Once you get over 30 members, it’s easy for members to get disengaged,” he said. “We need to make sure that we have open transparent governing at Penn State.”
The bill has 23 co-sponsors.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
