Another Penn State graduate, former football player and Schuylkill County native has announced his intent to run for the university's board of trustees this spring.
Terry F. Rakowsky, Class of 1982, is a dentist in Doylestown and a 1976 graduate of North Schuylkill High School.
Studying pre-med at Penn State, Rakowsky later graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine in 1986.
At Penn State, he played football and baseball from 1978 to 1982, spending three years on the baseball team and four years on the football team under coach Joe Paterno.
On Thursday, Rakowsky said his reasons for running for a spot on the board of trustees is that he doesn't believe the situation with the child sex abuse scandal involving Jerry Sandusky and then the firing of Paterno were handled "very well."
"I really believe somebody needs to be on that board that can feel how Penn State feels," Rakowsky said.
He believes the Paterno situation could have been handled a in "a much more adult manner."
Rakowsky said since Paterno announced he was planning to retire at the end of the season, the trustees could have let him finish instead of firing him.
At Paterno's viewing while sitting with other former lettermen from his era, Rakowsky said there was an agreement among them that the decision was inappropriate.
"I have a little bit of experience with both sides at Penn State, from the academic and athletic sides, so it's a little bit alarming for me that the board of trustees are trying to separate the last 50 to 100 years of Penn State history from their actions," Rakowsky said. "Across the state, people believe that's the case and that was the wrong approach."
Rakowsky is also the high school girls basketball head coach at Central Bucks West High School in Bucks County, and he used to coach at Germantown Academy.
He joins three other alumni from the county who are trying for one of the three alumni seats opening this year on the board of trustees: John J. Mika, Tower City, a 1985 graduate in secondary education; Andrew Tellep, Mar Lin, a 1974 graduate in math education; and Kyle Heffner, Pottsville, a 2008 graduate in agribusiness management.
There are nine alumni seats on the board. Three are elected to the board each year, and they each serve three-year terms.
Nominating ballots are sent to all Penn State alumni who have, within two years before March 1, been either active members of the Penn State Alumni Association or contributors to the Penn State Fund. All other alumni must make a request in writing for a ballot by sending an email to BOT@psu.edu and provide their name, year of graduation, college/major, and email and home addresses.
Qualified alumni who receive 50 or more nominating votes, and who accept the nomination in writing, have their names placed on an election ballot that is sent to the alumni about April 10.
During spring commencement week, the ballots are tabulated in the presence of two trustee tellers and the three candidates receiving the highest number of votes are declared the winners.
