Will Penn State’s board vote on the removal of a trustee? Centre County judge set to decide
A Centre County judge did not rule Tuesday whether Penn State’s board of trustees may vote to potentially remove one of its most outspoken members, leaving his fate unclear for at least another day.
Centre County Judge Brian Marshall said at the end of a more than two-hour hearing Tuesday he hopes to issue his decision by 4 p.m. Wednesday, but stopped short of a guarantee.
If not then, he said it would be released Thursday morning — perhaps just hours before the board’s special meeting scheduled for 5 p.m. Thursday.
Alumni-elected trustee Barry Fenchak has asked the judge to stop the board from considering his ouster, with his attorneys writing in court documents that such a move would be permanent. Removal requires at least a two-thirds majority.
“It’s welcome to be here and have the opportunity to present our case today,” Fenchak told the Centre Daily Times after the hearing. “We’ll hope for a righteous outcome so … I can continue to provide responsible, fiduciary governance to university.”
At issue is Fenchak’s potential code of conduct violation stemming from a remark he made after the board’s mid-July meeting on the Penn State Altoona campus.
According to court filings and testimony presented Tuesday, the potential violation occurred when the trustee joked he can’t wear baseball hats because his wife says he looks like the umpire in the PG-rated movie “A League of Their Own” — the one who was told by actor Tom Hanks’ character that he looks like “a penis with a little hat on.”
Fenchak made the remark to a junior female staff member who later reported feeling uncomfortable, Penn State’s attorneys wrote in court filings. The interaction was witnessed by two other staff members and the university cast it as a possible breach of his fiduciary duty.
Fenchak expressed regret Tuesday that what he described as a self-deprecating joke resulted in anyone feeling uncomfortable. He said he wished he could take it back and added that the quote is now “out of the lexicon.”
After the university launched an investigation, a board of trustees committee voted unanimously last month to recommend Fenchak be removed. The university’s attorneys said Fenchak’s potential removal is based solely on his “inappropriate reaction.”
But Fenchak’s attorneys have cast doubt on the board’s motives, arguing the investigation amounted to retaliation and is nothing more than an opportunity for them to “bootstrap their pre-conceived plan” to remove him.
“They don’t like this guy,” attorney Terry Mutchler told the CDT after the hearing. “They don’t like that he’s been asking questions since the beginning. They don’t like that he knows what he’s doing in terms of the financial components of this and they want to keep him and the public in the dark.”
What has become almost secondary in recent weeks is the original allegation that led Fenchak to go to court against the board.
An investment adviser by trade, Fenchak claimed the board has withheld detailed information about the university’s at least $4 billion endowment and a contract with a ticketing sales agency that a trade publication reported was worth up to $1 billion.
“When somebody joins the board, instead of giving them bylaws, they give them a blindfold. They want them to say yes, they want them to not question and they want to keep this insular,” Mutchler said. “It’s stunning to me and hopefully the judge will be able to see through what’s really happening here.”
The board’s nominating subcommittee is scheduled to meet Oct. 23. The next regularly scheduled board of trustees meetings, meaning outside of the virtual meeting Thursday, are scheduled for Nov. 7-8.
This story was originally published October 8, 2024 at 3:02 PM.
