A Message from the Board of Trustees about election issues

All:

 As you may know, nominations are currently being accepted for individuals interested in becoming candidates for election to membership on Penn State's Board of Trustees.  It is always reassuring to know that there is strong interest and willingness of the alumni to seek election to this responsible position.

 Imbedded in the text below are the policies governing how affiliate groups of the Penn State Alumni Association may participate in the Board of Trustees and Alumni Council elections.  Please note that these policies cover both traditional print publications as well as electronic media (including e-mail, listservs, and Web sites).  Therefore, it would not be appropriate to utilize any listservs and/or mailing lists to distribute information concerning an individual's candidacy.

 GUIDELINES ON USE OF ALUMNI RECORDS

 It is the responsibility of the Alumni Association Office to maintain accurate and up-to-date records of alumni, both members and nonmembers of the Alumni Association.

 The Director of the Alumni Association is charged with the responsibility for administering the Executive Board's policy of sharing lists of alumni only for bonafide alumni or student related purposes and not for commercial or political purposes.  Among the acceptable uses are mailing alumni publications, planning class reunions, raising funds for the University, assisting with appropriate research projects, and communicating with alumni about University and Alumni affairs.

 The following guidelines are stated to assist the Director in handling requests for lists of alumni:

 1.      Alumni lists sent to groups, such as a Penn State Club, shall be accompanied by a notice that the list shall be used only for the management and operation of the Club.  The list shall not be used for commercial purposes nor shall it be provided to anyone running for any University, public, or other office.

 2.      Requests for lists from any source for University fund raising purposes shall be referred to the Office of University Development.  That office shall be responsible to see that the lists are used only for that purpose.

 3.      Occasionally, researchers ask for lists for the purpose of making studies.  In such cases, the director shall review a copy of the research design (instrument samples must be included) and determine that the research project is appropriate.  Costs for use of the list(s) shall be determined by the Director.  Consideration should be given to providing a sample population list (every tenth person for example) in such cases.

 4.      Lists may be provided to University agencies, if in the judgment of the Director, the purpose is to serve the University's general best interest.  (For example, a list of employers to solicit summer employment opportunities for students.)

 5.      Lists shall not be provided to Colleges, Commonwealth Campuses, or Departments nor outside organizations for commercial purposes, such as sending out sales catalogs, soliciting memberships in another organization, direct mail selling of projects or services, or the selling of subscriptions.

 6.      Requests for non-alumni (friend) records, which are maintained jointly by the Alumni Association and the Office of University Development, should be referred to the Office of University Development for approval and/or handling.

9/20/82

 PUBLICATION POLICIES FOR TRUSTEE AND ALUMNI COUNCIL ELECTIONS

 Alumni Association policy, reaffirmed over the years in periodic evaluations, has been to refrain from publicly endorsing, supporting, or campaigning to elect individual candidates to the University's Board of Trustees or Alumni Council. Individual political activity by employees is not prohibited, but it may not be done in the name of the Alumni Association. 

 In regards to Board of Trustees elections, the Association does take positive steps to encourage greater alumni participation in the elections. It does supplement the candidates' biographical brochures (published and disseminated by the Board of Trustees) with its own publication containing brief campaign statements written by the candidates. It does make alumni aware of when the elections occur and the process to voter.  Additionally, it does encourage alumni to become candidates by promoting petition signatures so that each year's slate has sufficient candidates of sufficient diversity to give alumni voters a choice.

 For the Alumni Council elections, the Association affords all active alumni who are members of the Alumni Association the opportunity to be nominated for Council and vote in elections. The Association actively pursues and encourages alumni from diverse backgrounds to seek election. Elections are promoted through various publications (both print and electronic).

 Beyond those positive activities; the Association has continued to decline political involvement, feeling all nominees to be worthy of consideration and being reluctant to dictate choice to its large and diverse body of voting alumni. To that end and in an attempt to limit the appearance of the Alumni Association implying endorsement, posts through official Alumni Association social networking sites such as Facebook and Linkedln are prohibited.

 Because affiliate groups (albeit to a large degree self-governing) are special interest arms of the general Alumni Association, because the publisher of all alumni publications is the Executive Board, and because the affiliate groups do receive a portion of their budgets from the Alumni Association, the political policies of the general body should prevail among these constituent societies.

 Therefore, it is specified that if any affiliate group chooses to publicize the elections in any of its publications (print or electronic), the following rules shall be observed:

 1.       Inform alumni of nomination and election dates and procedures;

2.       Introduce candidates by name, class date, curriculum, place of residence, and job title;

3.       Introduce all candidates, not just the ones from their constituency;

4.      Encourage alumni to vote;

5.      Give equal space and treatment to all candidates so as not to appear to be campaigning as an organization for any one nominee.

 Not only are such procedures consistent with Alumni Association policy, they also may protect the affiliate groups with traditionally fewer members or a sparse voting record from consistently losing elections to those groups with large memberships and numerous voters, because if one constituency begins campaigning, others will surely follow suit and it would become a case of "Your group against mine and may the biggest one win."  To this date, that has not been an obvious result in elections.

 In line with voting trends and member feedback, the Alumni Association will move to an all-electronic election process for our 2011 elections, This transition is endorsed by Executive Board of Alumni Council and consistent with the Board of Trustees' election strategy.

Revised 11/6/2009

 If you have any questions, please let me know.

Paula R. Ammerman
Director, Board of Trustees Office
The Pennsylvania State University
205 Old Main
University Park, PA  16802
(814) 865-2521; (814) 863-4631 (FAX)
pra4@psu.edu