A business manager for a Centre County school district, a mortgage loan originator and a landscape architect are three of the latest Penn State alums to announce they’re running for seats on the university’s board of trustees.
Jef Wall, of Centre Hall, earned a bachelor’s in history from Penn State in 1974 and a master’s in public administration in 1976. He is business manager for the Penns Valley Area School District. He has also served on the board of ESB Bank in Ellwood City for more than 20 years.
Wall said two of the challenges the university faces stand out: having open leadership that includes the views of the entire university community and making the school more affordable and true to its land-grant mission.
“Continuing with an insular, top-down management structure without participation from those most affected has historically proved to be, in the long run, counterproductive,” he said.
Matthew J. Sliwa, of Selbyville, Del., earned a bachelor’s in marketing with a minor in natural science in 2001. He is mortgage loan originator at PNC Mortgage.
He said the decisions trustees made after the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal began to unfold made the situation worse.
He said his priorities will be outreach, long-term change and openness, and making the board closer to the students it serves.
“The board needs to change. However, immediate, knee-jerk change is not what is needed,” Sliwa said. “We need strong leaders and planners who can figure out where the university is now and set realistic, achievable long-term goals for the university.”
Scott K. Munroe, of Catonsville, Md., is a 1998 graduate in landscape architecture. He is the campus landscape architect for the University of Maryland and involved in a number of landscape architecture initiatives.
Munroe said he is running because the university system is “clearly broken” including the administrative culture and decision- making process.
Munroe said he thinks the board should be a transparent organization, with the exception of information related to job candidates going through the hiring process.
He said he would “work to transform the board to achieve transparency, and integrity in the mission of the institution with an underlying structure that is nimble and responsive while maintaining planning, and fiscal discipline and divorcing the trappings of power that institutional major donors have from the process of governance of our institution.”
Three alumni seats are up for election this year and according to the university, alumni have until Feb. 25 to nominate graduates. Nominees need 50 signatures to make it on the ballot.
Anne Danahy can be reached at 231-4648.
