On October 9, 2024 Judge Marshall of the Centre County Court handed down an order enjoining the defendants, the Penn State Board of Trustees, from removing Trustee Fenchak from the Board of Trustees by vote. This order comes after a three hour hearing in Judge Marshall’s courtroom on Tuesday, October 8th (read about it in the Centre Daily Times).
Read the 12 page order here.
The Penn State Board of Trustees had ordered a vote of the full Board to remove Trustee Fenchak as a trustee for Thursday, October 10th at 5 p.m. The Governance Committee, led by Chair Daniel A Onorato and Vice-Chair Robert E Fenza, had recommended that the full Board take this action.
Quotes from Judge Marshall’s order:
- “Rather than provide Plaintiff with the information that he has requested, Defendants repeatedly denied the requests and sought an opportunity like the July 19, 2024 interaction that would provide the basis to remove the Plaintiff and end his probing inquiries into the health of the endowment and other university business for which he has a responsibility.”
- “This Court concludes that Plaintiff has made an adequate showing that he is likely to prevail on the merits of his underlying lawsuit.”
- “Finally, it is clearly in the public interest to grant the preliminary injunction. Penn State is a public state-related, state-supported, land-grant research university, whose largest financial asset is it’s endowment that is valued at over $4 billion, and consists, in part, of contributions from the public to Penn State.”
- “Denying the injunction and allowing Plaintiff’s removal would re-cast a shadow over the financial operations of Defendants, to the detriment of every Penn State stakeholder except those at the very top of the Penn State hierarchy.” (emphasis added)
