Old Main as seen from "downtown" State College, circa 1880.
{ 1855 }
Penn State is chartered by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The charter names 13 individuals to serve as the institution's founding Trustees.
The Charter
The charter that created The Pennsylvania State University in 1855 also determined the nature and purpose of the institution's Board of Trustees. The University itself was the product of years of planning by the Pennsylvania State Agricultural Society, which advocated formation of a college that would promote the application of scientific knowledge and methods to agriculture--a novel concept for its era.
The charter established a thirteen-member Board of Trustees to assume responsibility for Penn State's establishment and provide overall governance of the institution. Nine of the original Board members were stipulated by name in the charter. All had participated in the effort to found the new college. The nine were divided into three groups, each group serving one-, two-, and three-year terms, respectively. As each term expired, delegates from the state and county agricultural societies elected Trustees to serve three-year terms.
The four ex officio Trustees consisted of the institution's president, the president of the state agricultural society, and two state officials: the governor, and the secretary of the Commonwealth. Although Penn State was chartered as a private entity, the state agricultural society (also a private body) had urged the governor and legislature to commit public resources in support of the new institution, since it directly benefited the public welfare. The state subsequently provided funds to help construct the original Old Main building, the first and for many years only structure on campus.
Establishing the Spirit of Philanthropy at Penn State
From Penn State's founding in 1855, members of the Board of Trustees have given generously not only of their time and expertise to help advance the University, but in many cases they have taken leadership roles as philanthropists.
When the construction of Old Main, the first building on campus, ran short of funds, Trustee Hugh McAllister stepped in with several thousand dollars from his own pocket and donations from other Trustees to keep the work going.
McAllister, an attorney and gentleman farmer from nearby Bellefonte, gave unstintingly of his energy as the "local Trustee" to look after all the practical details of founding a new school. Thanks largely to his hard work and generosity, it was up and running in time to greet the first students and faculty in 1859. Today's McAllister Building honors his dedication to Penn State.
Judge Frederick Watts.
The First Board Chairman
Attorney, business leader and gentleman farmer Frederick Watts of Carlisle was elected the Board chairman.
As head of the state agricultural society, he had been the principal advocate for a college of scientific agriculture. He led the way in working with state government officials to secure approval of the charter.
Penn State historian Wayland Dunaway has written that "more than any other man, perhaps, Watts deserves the title of 'founder' of Penn State."
Decisions with Huge Implications
Chairman Watts and the other Trustees made two decisions that had huge implications for Penn State's future.
First, they decided to accept ironmaster James Irvin's offer to donate 200 acres of land in Centre County for a campus. Trustee Hugh McAllister designed and oversaw construction of Old Main and made frequent trips to campus to make sure the hundreds of practical needs of founding a college were met.
Penn State admitted its first students in 1859.
Second, the Trustees recruited agricultural chemist Evan Pugh as the first president. Largely as the result of Pugh's urging, the Pennsylvania legislature in 1863 designated Penn State as the Commonwealth's sole land-grant institution.
Passed by Congress the previous year, the Land-Grant Act mandated designated institutions to offer instruction in agriculture, engineering and related subjects, and at a price that was affordable by citizens of ordinary means. In return, land-grant institutions would receive income from endowments created by the sale of federal lands.
The Land-Grant Act set in motion a revolution in higher education, with its emphasis on education for the masses that was geared to the nation's economic as well as intellectual needs. Pugh was one of the key architects of the act. His untimely death in 1864 created a difficult situation for Penn State, as succeeding presidents and Trustees struggled to define what a land-grant institution should be, and how to win the public's confidence in such a novel concept.
Engineering was slow to take root, while agriculture proved far less attractive to prospective students than originally anticipated. Land-grant institutions in other states faced similar struggles. Penn State's enrollment dwindled to barely a handful of students.
The appearance of Mount Nittany and environs changed little between the 1850s and the time this photograph was made in the 1890s.
{ 1875 }
Reflecting the institution's reach beyond agriculture, the charter is amended to add representatives elected by the alumni and by the state's business and industry associations, bringing total board membership to 23.
In the 1870s, the Trustees sought to define land-grant education. Despite this pastoral scene, Penn State was transitioning away from being primarily an agricultural college.
Defining Land-Grant Education
In an effort to build a broad base of support for the institution, the Trustees decided that their number should be more representative of the groups served by the Pennsylvania State College, as the institution was then known. In 1875, they obtained approval from the Centre County Court of Common Pleas to amend the charter to provide for twenty-three Trustees. The change increased state influence, decreased agriculture's voice, and gave representation to the alumni.
The amended charter specified that fifteen Trustees were to be elected: three by the alumni, and twelve by delegates from the state's agricultural societies, and mining and manufacturing associations--the latter were areas in which Penn State graduates were beginning to make their mark.
The number of ex officio Trustees was increased to eight: the governor, the secretary of the Commonwealth, the state superintendent of public instruction, the secretary of the Department of Internal Affairs, the adjutant general, the secretary of the Philadelphia-based Franklin Institute, the president of the state agricultural society, and the college president.
The Impact of General Beaver and President Atherton
In 1882, the Trustees made one of the most momentous decisions in their history: they selected George Atherton as Penn State's seventh president.
Atherton, already a nationally recognized authority on land-grant education, also proved to be a capable administrator. During his twenty-four-year tenure at Penn State, the college became a model of land-grant education. It created one of the first agricultural experiment stations on any campus, for example, and launched an ambitious program of engineering education just as Pennsylvania was emerging as the nation's industrial power house.
Atherton worked closely with Trustee James A. Beaver of Bellefonte to solidify Penn State's standing in Harrisburg. Beaver, an attorney and Civil War hero, was active in politics—he served a term (1887-91) as governor—and enjoyed considerable esteem on both sides of the aisle.
Thanks largely to the harmonious relations the Trustees cultivated with state leaders, the College began receiving a regular series of state appropriations and special allotments for new buildings, enabling it to develop the campus beyond the single Old Main building.
Beaver also was Hugh McAllister's son-in-law. He took McAllister's place in the informal role of "local Trustee" and visited the campus frequently. He was much beloved by students, many of whom he came to know by name. When he secured state support for new athletic facilities, the students responded by naming Beaver Field in his honor. He was elected Board chairman in 1898 and held that post until his death in 1914.
Female students, late 1880s.
Growing National Prominence
Engineering students in the foundry, 1890s.
Penn State's growing importance to the state and nation in the late nineteenth century was evidenced by the election to the Board of a number of prominent business leaders, such as steel magnates Andrew Carnegie (who served 1886-1916) and Charles Schwab (1902-1930).
In view of Penn State's growth, the Trustees believed their number should be further expanded to make the Board still more representative of the varied constituencies served by the College. In 1905, the legislature approved a request to set the total number of Trustees at thirty-one.
Ex officio membership was limited to four: the governor, the college president, the superintendent of public instruction, and the state secretary of agriculture (succeeding the former state agricultural society president).
The governor was empowered to appoint six Trustees. Alumni chose nine Trustees, while delegates from Pennsylvania's agricultural and industrial societies each elected six Trustees.
The Generosity of Carnegie and Schwab
Andrew Carnegie (l) and Charles Schwab (r).
In the late nineteenth century, Penn State blossomed as a land-grant institution and graduated hundreds of alumni who met the needs of a rapidly industrializing nation for highly educated leaders in business and technology.
While the state made regular appropriations, those funds were insufficient to meet the needs for additional buildings. Carnegie and Schwab stepped forward with gifts that underwrote construction of a library and an auditorium, respectively, that bear their names and have long been campus architectural gems.
James A. Beaver, chairman of the Board of Trustees 1874-82, 1898-1914.
{ 1905 }
Board of Trustees membership is increased to 31, including 9 elected by the alumni and, for the first time, 6 appointed by the governor.
Engineering Unit F.
A Trustee Provides for Engineering
When the need for a building for electrical engineering education became critical, Trustees Chairman James A. Beaver made a donation and obtained additional private gifts to build Engineering Unit F in 1908.
It was an unadorned structure, intended to be a stopgap until state funds could be found to build a permanent home for electrical engineering. Yet it lasted for nearly a half century, serving a variety of important purposes for engineering and outreach education.
The First Campaign
In the early 1920s, Penn State was turning away highly qualified students. It simply had no room for them—residence halls, classrooms and laboratories were overflowing.
Trustees Chairman Howard Walton Mitchell '90, College President John Martin Thomas and other Trustees considered the possibility of asking the alumni and others in the private sector for philanthropic aid. There was some concern in the greater Penn State community as to whether the state's public land-grant institution should actively seek private support, but the Trustees believed that the University's physical plant needs were critical.
The Board thereupon gave its blessing to the Emergency Building Fund campaign, launched in 1922. The campaign secured $1.7 million in commitments, which combined with later state appropriations helped to make possible the construction of such landmark structures as the new Old Main, Rec Hall, West Halls, and additional classroom, laboratory and support buildings.
Trustees Chairman Howard Walton Mitchell '90, right, with President John Martin Thomas.
Governor Gifford Pinchot, standing at far left, chats with other Trustees on the steps of Old Main, circa 1924.
{ 1926 }
Governor Gifford Pinchot appoints the first female Trustee, Clara Calhoun Phillips, who serves a total of seventeen years on the Board.
The Board of Trustees meets in 1940. Chairman J. Franklin Shields is fourth from the right.
{ 1939 }
Legislation is enacted to add the secretary of mines as a fifth ex officio Trustee. (The secretary of mines has since been superseded by the secretary of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and the secretary of the Department of Education has superseded the superintendent of public instruction.)
{ 1969 }
H. Jesse Arnelle '55, elected by the alumni, becomes the first African American Trustee. A former Nittany Lions basketball All-American and student government president, Arnelle would later serve two terms (1996 and 1997) as Board chairman.
The Board Takes the Lead in a Tumultuous Era
The late 1960s and early 1970s were tumultuous years that witnessed widespread protests against America's involvement in Vietnam and for civil rights for all citizens. A wave of unrest swept over college campuses.
These protests often manifested themselves as antagonism toward a perceived "establishment" that was unresponsive to change.
At Penn State, several Board chairmen responded by taking the lead in changing some long-held Trustees practices, resulting in a higher public profile for the body within the University community.
The Board of Trustees in 1970.
{ 1971 }
Board Chairman G. Albert Shoemaker '23 changes the frequency of Trustee meetings from semi-annually to seven times a year, later reduced to six, a schedule the board continues to follow.
{ 1971 }
Governor Milton Shapp begins the custom of naming a Penn State student to the Board as one of the gubernatorial appointments. Undergraduate Student Government President Benson M. Lichtig '72 is the first student Trustee.
{ 1974 }
Board Chairman Michael Baker '36 opens board meetings to the public. The first such meeting is held September 20, 1974, in Keller Building with about twenty-five members of the public in attendance.
{ 1976 }
Board Chairman William Ulerich '31 opens standing committee meetings to the public. Agendas are made public in advance of meetings. A veteran newspaper man, Ulerich welcomes journalists to attend.
Meetings Beyond University Park
By the 1980s, the Board affirmed as a regular custom holding two of their meetings each year at locations other than University Park.
Typically, the March meeting is convened at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and the July meeting at one of the other twenty-two Penn State campuses throughout Pennsylvania.
Exceptions to the custom are occasionally made when the Board has met in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, or even New York City or Washington, D.C., to strengthen person-to-person relationships with influential alumni, government and corporate leaders, or philanthropists.
Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.
Gathering on the steps of Old Main as President Bryce Jordan announces the Campaign for Penn State has surpassed its $300 million goal.
Board Leads The Campaign for Penn State
In 1984, sixty years after the first capital campaign, the Board of Trustees again helped to lead the way by approving The Campaign for Penn State. Trustee William A. Schreyer '48 served as volunteer chair of the campaign, which secured $352 million over six years. The Trustees alone accounted for $16 million in gifts, far exceeding the $10 million goal set by the campaign leadership.
{ 1991 }
Mimi Barash Coppersmith '54 is elected as the first female chair of the Board of Trustees. First elected to the board in 1976, she serves two terms as chair.
Celebrating the Grand Destiny Campaign's billion-dollar goal.
Trustees Captain Grand Destiny Campaign
Trustee Edward R. Hintz '59 served as volunteer chair for the first five years of the Grand Destiny campaign, a seven-year effort launched in 1996 to secure a billion dollars in private support for student aid, faculty endowments, new buildings and a variety of other needs across the academic spectrum at all Penn State campuses.
Once more, individual Trustees, including emeritus members, showed their deep personal commitment to the University: Board philanthropy totaled $90 million and included 100 percent participation by members.
Led by Trustee James Broadhurst '65 in its final two years, the Grand Destiny campaign as a whole raised nearly $1.4 billion.
{ 2002 }
The Board convenes in Washington, D.C., for its first meeting outside Pennsylvania, to strengthen relationships with government leaders and alumni.
Board Backs For the Future
The University is now engaged in For the Future: The Campaign for Penn State Students, a $2 billion effort. Even prior to launching For the Future's public phase in 2010, the campaign received 100 percent participation from the Board of Trustees.
The Fundamental Obligation
While the Board of Trustees' composition has changed over the past century and a half, and its meeting locations have varied, its fundamental obligation to define Penn State's goals and oversee the policies and procedures that will achieve those goals has never changed.
The Trustees have participated in virtually every major decision involving the University, ranging from selecting the institution's president to setting tuition, from creating new academic and administrative units to shaping annual budgets. The Trustees by their vision and their example have helped to establish and nurture a spirit of philanthropy at Penn State.
That spirit has inspired alumni and friends to participate as well, creating a strong foundation for future generations of Penn Staters. The legacy of the Board is the legacy of the University itself.
By Michael Bezilla, author of Penn State: An Illustrated History.
Photos courtesy: Penn State Archives.