PSU trustees might have violated open meetings law

Former Penn State President Eric Barron and members of the university’s Board of Trustees may have violated Pennsylvania’s open meetings law in early 2021, according to a “confidential” document obtained by Spotlight PA.

According to the document — allegedly penned by one or more anonymous trustees at the time — Barron presented his diversity, equity, and inclusion recommendations to the board on Jan. 11, 2021. 

Barron’s plan was the result of months of work by the Select Penn State Presidential Commission on Racism, Bias and Safety — a project that the president later said involved more than 6,000 employees and students — following the police killing of George Floyd in May 2020.

The trustees’ website has no record of any presentation, call, or meeting on that date. The board’s governing documents require it to provide public notice at least three days before a regularly scheduled meeting and 24 hours prior to a special meeting. 

The board is also required to make public the minutes for all public meetings, including those of committees and subcommittees.

Shannon Harvey, director of Penn State’s Office of the Board of Trustees, confirmed the date of the presentation and told Spotlight PA in an email that Barron’s presentation was not a meeting but rather a “conference” as defined under the state’s Sunshine Act.

Conferences, according to the state law, can only take place in limited circumstances, primarily as a “training program or seminar, or any session arranged by State or Federal agencies” and never to deliberate business.

Reporting by Spotlight PA earlier this year raised questions about how Penn State trustees interpret the state’s open meetings law after the newsroom learned the board’s executive committee had regularly been meeting in secret conferences for more than a decade.

The board has maintained that it is in compliance with the law, but media law experts have questioned trustees’ use of the provision. 

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—Wyatt Massey, Penn State investigative reporter