The Penn State Alumni Association election for ten seats on Alumni Council is set to begin next Tuesday, so last week I tried to educate myself on the views of the candidates. There are approximately 32 candidates on the candidate list at any given time, depending on how quickly courts are ruling against the Alumni Association. On April 28th I began contacting the fourteen incumbents on the candidate list.

I learned quickly that the Alumni Council is operated like the Federal Witness Protection Program, probably for a very good reason. If more alumni realized that the Alumni Council was just a rubber stamp for the Executive Board, these silent incumbents would be in grave jeopardy of being voted out.

How good a job does the Alumni Association do at keeping these ten people hidden? There is no indication on the candidate list who is an incumbent, so I had to compare the candidate list to the current Alumni Council list. Next, the Alumni Association provides no contact information for any of the current members of Alumni Council, or the candidates. Six days before the start of the election, the webpage titled ‘Alumni Council Candidate Bios‘ is blank. The current issue of the The Penn Stater doesn’t even mention there is an election.

It was time to go to work finding Steven Wagman (member of the Executive Board), David Ulmer (member of the Executive Board), Roxanne Shiels, John Perate, Joelyn Niggel, Beverly Sobel-Redler, Martin McGann, Lynn Cruser, Shawn Hinkle, James Hummel, Karen Keller, David Cavanaugh, Wendy Braund, and Liz Bligan.

I went to the Alumni Directory and searched. And searched, and searched. Out of the fourteen I eventually found ten (sorry Liz Bligan and Martin McGann, Penn State has never heard of you). Using the blind email service, I sent them all the same email*, asking two questions**: 1) Did you vote ‘yeah’ or ‘nay’ for the revised PSAA bylaws on April 17th, 2015 at the spring Alumni Council meeting? and 2) As our representative voice, what’s the best way to directly contact you with concerns?

These emails were sent April 28th, and seven days later, as a public service to my fellow Alumni Association members (or as the Alumni Association calls us, the ‘General Public’), I’m sharing the results:

•  Beverly Sobel-Redler responded immediately, said she was sorry she wasn’t able to attend the April 17th Alumni Council meeting, and provided me with an email.

Thank you for your attention.

Wait, you might rightly say, what about everyone else? Crickets. As of writing this blog on Tuesday, May 5th, seven days later, no other incumbent has responded.

The only candidates who have taken the time to get their message out are Jim Smith, David Paterno, Susan Wilson, Elizabeth Morgan and Brad Mitchell. They are fresh faces who have banded together to form PSAA for All, and their positions are clearly laid out on their website, http://www.psaaforall.org.

I like what I read there. I liked that each has a direct email to contact them with. I like that they seem to have taken the time to educate themselves about the issues, and want to return control of the Alumni Association to the Alumni Council. I like that they are willing to speak up and ask questions. Because I don’t want my alumni association to be the fully owned fund raising arm of Penn State University.

Jim Smith, David Paterno, Susan Wilson, Elizabeth Morgan, and Brad Mitchell will have my votes next Tuesday. Please consider giving them yours.

Voting starts Tuesday, May 12th and goes to May 31st. Ballots will be emailed to the address the Penn State Alumni Association has on file for full members. For more information on how to vote, visit http://alumni.psu.edu/council/elections

A note about contacting the incumbent candidates: I purposely only used communication avenues provided by the Penn State Alumni Association. Several candidates are active in Facebook groups I belong to and I could have contacted them that way, but they are closed groups and might not be available to all Alumni Association members.