This story was produced by the State College regional bureau of Spotlight PA, an independent, nonpartisan newsroom dedicated to investigative and public-service journalism for Pennsylvania. Sign up for Talk of the Town, a weekly newsletter of local stories that dig deep, events and more from north-central PA, at spotlightpa.org/newsletters/talkofthetown.
Penn State kept its pledge to reduce how much it spends when convening its 36-member Board of Trustees in person, data analyzed by Spotlight PA show.
In response to a 2022 report by Spotlight PA on board expenses during a budget crunch, a university spokesperson said Penn State was exploring ways to reduce costs.
Adjusted for inflation, average meeting costs have mostly decreased over the past decade, down from a high of nearly $91,000 per meeting in fiscal year 2016 to around $51,200 in fiscal year 2023 and $52,100 in fiscal year 2024. Fiscal years begin in July and run through June.
Trustees are not paid to serve on Penn State’s governing board, but the university reimburses them for related costs such as airfare, mileage, rental cars, hotels and food, according to records obtained by Spotlight PA. The board typically gathers for five two-day meetings per year, most of which are held in State College.
Spotlight PA emailed Penn State’s Office of Strategic Communications to inquire about the steps the university took to reduce spending and request information about certain expenses. The university did not respond.
Categorized spending reports, presented by the board’s governance committee and analyzed by Spotlight PA, provide more nuance about the group’s costs. Food and lodging are often the largest expenditures per meeting, but costs for those services can vary widely depending on the meeting.
For the September meeting, the university paid $39,170 to house trustees, more than the total lodging costs of the previous three board meetings combined. One explanation for the increased cost could be the board’s decision to schedule its fall meetings to coincide with home football games, a time when hotel prices in State College are higher.
In May 2023, Penn State paid nearly $22,000 for a reception dinner for trustees. At its next meeting, in July 2023 in Erie, the reception costs totaled more than $16,000. A year later, for meetings in State College and Altoona, the dinner costs were $492 and $6,373, respectively.
Scrutiny of the board’s spending was heightened in 2022 after the university administration began working to curb an annual budget deficit that was first reported as more than $150 million. In response, Penn State implemented a partial hiring freeze, made sweeping cuts and offered buyouts to its statewide workforce. Penn State expects to balance its educational budget by summer 2025, according to university projections.
In 2017, the Pennsylvania auditor general recommended that Penn State make public “per trustee” expense reports alongside other governance and operational revisions. The university said it would consider the recommendation, but did not make the change.
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