US: PA: Penn State Trustees

Link:http://www.centredaily.com/news/local/story/1613852.html
Anne Danahy
UNIVERSITY PARK — Penn State trustees discussed efforts to curb binge drinking, elm yellows disease and other topics during their meeting at the Nittany Lion Inn Friday.

While they had planned to consider an appropriations request to the state for 2010-11, that measure was postponed because the university hasn’t received its 2009-10 funding yet. In other business …

•Chairman Jim Broadhurst said he and several other trustees will go downtown late at night over the weekend to observe the activities, in light of the ongoing discussions about binge drinking.

Student leaders, administrators and community officials have been discussing student drinking and possible ways to address it. The recent efforts follow the death of a student who had been drinking before falling to his death in a concrete stairwell earlier this semester.

Penn State spokeswoman Lisa Powers said going downtown late at night is usually “an instructive experience.”

“It’s one thing to hear about the challenges associated with high-risk drinking, but it’s entirely another thing to actually see some of the behaviors that high-risk drinking can create,” Power said in an e-mail.

“The more people (are) talking about this issue, the more likely we are to have meaningful changes in behavior,” she said.

•Trustees set the room and board rates for 2010-11, approving a 2.45 percent increase in the rate for a double room and meal plan. Students will pay $4,185 a semester, a $100 increase over this year, for room and board.

Gail Hurley, associate vice president of Auxiliary and Business Services, said the 2010-11 budget will be $172 million, an increase of 2.9 percent over this year. The department is self-sustaining, Hurley said.

It will be the smallest rate increase in more than a decade, according to PSU.

•President Graham Spanier announced the appointment of Henry C. “Hank” Foley as the new vice president for research and dean of the graduate school.

The current dean, Eva Pell, was appointed undersecretary for science for the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. The board recognized Pell, who starts the new job in January.

Foley is currently dean of the College of Information Sciences. He earned a doctorate in physical and inorganic chemistry from Penn State in 1982. He was a professor of chemical engineering at the University of Delaware in the 1990s before becoming a head of the department of chemical engineering at Penn State in 2000. From 2004 to 2006, he was associate vice president for research and director of strategic initiatives.

•Gordon Turow, director of campus planning, said the university has lost 54 elm trees to elm yellows, a fatal disease spread by elm leafhopper insects.

Turow said that “is actually very comforting news” because most of the elms on campus are safe. He said they seem to be responding to the techniques being used. Most of the elms lost were on the road to the Schreyer House off Park Avenue, along with 14 on campus. He said the trees will be safe in the winter and the university will continue to monitor them in the spring.