A pledge to protect Penn State's promises

Letter to the Editor: Centre Daily Times April 20th, 2025

Penn State trusteeship is about keeping and protecting our promises. If elected as your trustee, I will focus on three areas which match my advocacy of the same as a student. Raise our academic rankings from 63rd to top tier. Reinvigorate our commonwealth campuses. Protect our land grant promise. First, I have a well-established track record in establishing a legacy of on-ramps to student success. Be it co-founding organizations dedicated to improving recruitment and retention. Or, through extensive Penn State board alumni board service. I will helm consensus-based solutions so we can raise our rankings and keep our students even more ready for the workforce.

Second, when it comes to reinvigorating our commonwealth campuses, I am the only candidate to have matriculated through one via Greater Allegheny (formerly McKeesport campus) and remained a champion of the system’s success. As a trustee, I will use diplomacy to channel stakeholder input at the table when charting our alma mater’s future.

Lastly there’s protecting our land grant promise, which is the soul of Penn State. That promise is everything you’ve read up until now, plus a pledge to use my successful career as a journalist having held world leaders accountable, protecting the first amendment, upholding transparency, deploying diplomacy, implementing risk management and facilitating strategic planning. I will do so for Penn State as your next trustee. So please go to www.allinforthesoulofPennState, read more about how I will serve you. When the ballot arrives April 21, I ask for your vote.

Jeff Ballou, Washington, D.C. The author is a candidate for alumni-elected board of trustees.