Can’t wait to see if taxes go up 10% every year like tuition.

“We need to adequately fund our education system. All schools need brick plazas and cat-piss bushes in order to function properly.”

With as much time Obama and Hillary spent in State College during the primary season I’m sure Spanier had ample opportunity to rub elbows with them both. I think it’s obviously good for the university when your president takes a high level post like that. I’m not familiar enough with Spaniers political leanings to tell if this would be good for the country or not.

Since this post is Penn State related I’ll allow it to continue as long as things don’t get too ugly in which case I will shut it down. Just keep it in this post and keep it clean.

Every single hypothetical I’ve read in recent years is predicated on Spanier being our President. If he leaves, is there an obvious successor? What do we know about that person’s feelings of Joe Paterno?

What I’m getting at is this: If Spanier leaves, does that help or hurt an in-house successor to Joe Paterno? What if the next guy is best-buddies with Jay? What if Spanier’s successor is friggin Scott Paterno?!?

I thought William Perry was just the Fridge of Da Bears’ Defense….

he has the same name as me & I’m a Penn State alumni & it’s a really unusual name - Elihu Root was the Secretary of State under Teddy Roosevelt. He has no relationship to me other than the same first name.

We’re about to find ourselves in a position where we have to replace a football coach who has been entrenched for over 40 years. I would prefer that the person who makes the decision on our next coaching hire have a familiarity and understanding of the culture at Penn State. Spanier has been around for, what, 13 years now? I don’t agree with all of his policies, but at least he’s been around long enough to understand the delicate politics of the situation. If he goes, my worst fear would be the board hiring an outsider like Spanier was. I think it would be bad for Penn State football if they brought in someone who has no appreciation for Penn State football. I could see them hiring some female west coast lawyer type for the job hell bent on academics and could barely give a damn about football. When you bring in people from the outside you run the risk of having their cronies overrun your program. Or they make brash uninformed decisions like hiring Bill Callahan at Nebraska. This could be very bad.

This was brought up to Phil Grosz 2 weeks ago in a Q&A. His rsponse was that he didnt think Spanier would leave because it would be an “astounding” pay cut.

…b/c i don’t see the Trustees hiring anyone that doesn’t have Tradition and Football first and foremost on their mind. and Paterno would sure to have a huge imput…

No way PSU brings in some maverick that will change a lot of things.

I’m pretty sure that Spanier’s name gets thrown around for the Secretary of Education post every time its vacant. I could be wrong, but I think he was even mentioned as a darkhorse during the Bush years (Spanier’s a Democrat). He’s apparently been angling for that job for a while.

I guess I wouldn’t mind seeing Graham Cracker in the administration, although I’ve heard some other names for that job that seem more likely.

Regarding the head coaching job, I don’t think it would be a big worry if Spanier left. Even if they bring someone in who doesn’t care about football at all, it would be professional suicide to castrate the most popular person at the school. A new president would let JoePa have his agenda, probably moreso than Spanier (though I’m definitely in the school of thought that says it’s Joe not Spanier, who is in control of the situation).