{"id":204525,"date":"2026-05-28T14:52:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T14:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/204525\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T14:52:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T14:52:07","slug":"spotlight-pa-other-newsrooms-sue-penn-state-trustee-leaders-over-gag-policy-that-silences-members-pennsylvania-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/204525\/","title":{"rendered":"Spotlight PA, other newsrooms sue Penn State trustee leaders over \u2018gag policy\u2019 that silences members | Pennsylvania News"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story was produced by the State College regional bureau of Spotlight PA<\/a>, an independent, nonpartisan newsroom dedicated to investigative and public-service journalism for Pennsylvania. Sign up for Talk of the Town, a newsletter of local stories that dig deep, events, and more from north-central PA, at spotlightpa.org\/newsletters\/talkofthetown<\/a>.<\/p>\n

STATE COLLEGE \u2014 Spotlight PA and two other news organizations are suing leaders of the Penn State Board of Trustees in federal court, accusing them of violating the First Amendment by controlling what individual trustees can say to the public and the press.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, challenges what it refers to as a \u201cgag policy\u201d embedded in the trustees\u2019 bylaws<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That policy, the filing argues, \u201cunconstitutionally restrains\u201d trustees, prohibiting them from making any negative or critical public statements about the board or the university. Instead, the bylaws state, trustees \u201cshall support majority decisions of the Board.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trustees must also get permission from board leadership and accept guidance from public relations officials before talking to the press. Those who fail to do so can face disciplinary action \u2014 a process, the filing argues, that creates a \u201cchilling effect\u201d on a trustee\u2019s ability to freely express their views.<\/p>\n

The news organizations are asking a federal judge to declare the restrictions unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe right to dissent is the lifeblood of democracy,\u201d said Heather Murray, associate director of the Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic, in an email. \u201cBlanket bans on trustees making critical statements about Penn State stakeholders and requiring trustees to get preapproval to talk to journalists about any matters that have come before the board plainly runs afoul of the First Amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawsuit names board Chair David Kleppinger, Vice Chair Richard Sokolov, and governance committee Chair Daniel Onorato as defendants in their official capacities, identifying them as the leaders responsible for overseeing and enforcing the bylaws.<\/p>\n

Wyatt DuBois, senior director of university public relations, told Spotlight PA in an email that the university \u201cdoes not comment on pending litigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spotlight PA is joined in the lawsuit by the Centre Daily Times and StateCollege.com<\/a>. The news organizations are represented by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic.<\/p>\n

Over the past two years, the Board of Trustees, which functions as the university\u2019s governing body, has adopted amendments to its bylaws, regulating how trustees communicate with the public.<\/p>\n

In July 2024, the board approved an amendment that said in part: \u201cNegative or critical public statements about the Board, the University or its students, alumni, community, faculty, staff, and other stakeholders do not serve the University\u2019s interests and are inconsistent with a Trustee\u2019s fiduciary obligation to act always in the best interests of the University.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawsuit describes that amendment as \u201cunconstitutionally vague\u201d in that it pertains to any trustee statement, \u201cwhether or not it is made in an official capacity.\u201d The filing further contends that \u201c\u2018stakeholders\u2019 is not defined and is ambiguous.\u201d<\/p>\n

In November 2025, the board approved another amendment requiring trustees to coordinate in advance all press interactions with the \u201cBoard Office\u201d \u2014 which, according to the complaint, includes Kleppinger and Sokolov. Trustees must also accept guidance from the Office of Strategic Communications, the university\u2019s public relations and marketing division, before talking to reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn other words, every trustee must seek and obtain approval of their statements to media in advance, allowing Board leadership to pick and choose what information and opinions the media is allowed to receive from individual trustees,\u201d according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Under the bylaws, board leadership can also disqualify for election any incumbent or prospective trustee whose social media and online presence is deemed \u201cinconsistent with the Code of Conduct and\/or Penn State Values.\u201d<\/p>\n

The consequences for bucking the board\u2019s rules can be severe. The bylaws detail how trustees who violate the communication policy will be \u201ccounseled, admonished, sanctioned, or removed from their position.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawsuit cites the treatment of Emerita Trustee Alice Pope, who between April and May 2025 spoke out repeatedly<\/a> and without board approval about its decision to close seven of the university\u2019s 20 commonwealth campuses<\/a>. Pope, as an emerita trustee, holds an honorary, nonvoting title typically granted to former long-serving board members. Her public dissent included a virtual news conference on May 22, 2025, alongside other alumni-elected trustees.<\/p>\n

After that conference, Pope received a letter from board leadership advising her she had violated the code of conduct. Pope said in a declaration, as part of the lawsuit, that she understood the letter \u201cto be a formal reprimand and a warning\u201d that further public speech could affect her ability to serve in leadership positions or on key committee assignments.<\/p>\n

\u201cPenn State\u2019s gag policy not only controls what members of the Board of Trustees can say but also whether they can even speak publicly at all about the Commonwealth\u2019s largest public university, which raises serious constitutional concerns,\u201d said Paula Knudsen Burke, attorney for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, in an email. \u201cTrustees who wish to share their independent insights on important issues are effectively barred from doing so, and the result is a Penn State community and broader public that\u2019s less informed about what\u2019s happening at an institution that reports almost $16 billion in economic impact on Pennsylvania.\u201d<\/p>\n

The federal lawsuit is the latest legal challenge aimed at increasing transparency by Penn State\u2019s governing body.<\/p>\n

Following a yearslong public records battle, Commonwealth Court in October ordered the university<\/a> to release internal trustee documents sought by Spotlight PA. The court ruled that government agencies and \u201caffected third parties like Penn State\u201d could not use cloud-based file-sharing services to shield public records from disclosure. The state Supreme Court solidified that victory in April by denying the university\u2019s request to overturn Commonwealth Court\u2019s decision.<\/a><\/p>\n

In June 2025, the Board of Trustees settled a separate lawsuit<\/a> brought by Spotlight PA that accused the governing body of routinely violating the state\u2019s Sunshine Act by conducting public business behind closed doors.<\/p>\n

As part of that agreement, the university was mandated to provide open-meetings legal training<\/a> for trustees and disclose more details about their private sessions.<\/p>\n

SUPPORT THIS JOURNALISM and help us reinvigorate local news in north-central Pennsylvania at spotlightpa.org\/donate<\/a>. Spotlight PA is funded by foundations and readers like you<\/a> who are committed to accountability and public-service journalism that gets results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story was produced by the State College regional bureau of Spotlight PA, an independent, nonpartisan newsroom dedicated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204526,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[214,28,30,29,9179,233,7446],"class_list":["post-204525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-_homepage_top_stories","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-school_boards","tag-schools","tag-southeastern-pa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}