Penn State president Eric Barron gets three-year contract extension

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Pennsylvania State University may still face a restive alumni base in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex-abuse scandal and continuing challenges with its Greek life system. But it has stable leadership.

The university's board of trustees Friday voted by a large majority to extend president Eric J. Barron's contract for three years, through June 2022, a move that will allow him to finish the current $1.6 billion fundraising campaign, of which $660 million has been raised.

"It's great," a smiling Barron said after the trustees meeting. "I think the university is going great guns."

The extension would give Barron, 66, eight years at the helm of the state's flagship university. Formerly the president of Florida State University, he started at Penn State in 2014, less than three years after Sandusky, a former assistant football coach, was charged with abusing young boys, and several of the university's top leaders, including head football coach Joe Paterno, were ousted.

The contract extension came at the same meeting that the board said goodbye to perhaps the most vocal critic of its leadership in the aftermath of the scandal — Glenmoore businessman Anthony Lubrano. He did not seek reelection.

Barron's annual compensation will exceed $1 million, including an $834,364 base salary and a $200,000 retention payment. He also stands to collect an $800,000 "completion payment" this June for staying in the job the last four years. He would collect another $800,000 at the conclusion of his contract in 2022 under the agreement.

Barron's original five-year contract would have expired in June 2019.

Three of the 30-plus board members — Bill Oldsey, Lubrano, and Alice Pope — abstained from the vote after Oldsey complained that the board wasn't informed enough about the negotiations with Barron. Two others — Jay Paterno, the ex-football coach's son, and Ted Brown — voted no. All five of the members were elected by alumni.

Other trustees praised Barron.

"You are an extraordinary leader by all measurements," board chair Mark Dambly said, as much of the room gave Barron a standing ovation.

Barron has had to navigate thorny discussions among board members still divided over the scandal. He's also led the university's overhaul of the Greek system in the aftermath of sophomore pledge Tim Piazza's death in February 2017. Earlier this month, he co-led a national meeting of university officials on ways to improve fraternity and sorority life.

Barron said he's pleased with the improvement in Greek life and that the university's biggest challenge is financial.

"We're constantly trying to balance quality and cost," said Barron, "and we don't have a lot of financial assistance in this process."

Keith Masser, a board member who chaired the compensation committee that recommended the contract extension, said Barron had improved the university on multiple fronts.

"Eric Barron has successfully advanced many of the goals and objectives established by the board, including tackling the issues of access and affordability, student success, and diversity and inclusion," Masser said.

The board also welcomed two new members: Laurie Anne Stanell, a dentist from Buckingham, and Brandon Short, a Paterno-era linebacker for the Nittany Lions.

Lubrano, an ardent Paterno supporter who joined the board nearly six years ago, did not use his last public speaking stint as a board member to admonish or criticize the board.

"I've learned from all of you, even those of you with whom I haven't agreed," he told them.

But he ended his remarks much the same way he began when he took his seat nearly six years ago: He urged the board to give Paterno his proper honor at last.

"If we truly want to heal, we need to do now what we know is right and just," he said. "Recognize and honor the man who gave us 61 years of service or risk losing forever the loyalty of our alumni."