Penn State’s Board of Trustees met Friday afternoon to approve planned renovations for the Holuba Hall and Lasch practice fields.

Following a few supporting trustee comments, the board passed the motion to finalize the $7.5 million plans, as recommended by the Committee on Finance, Business, and Capital Planning Thursday.

“There’s a small group of trustees that have been actively working to undermine the athletic department, openly voting against necessary spending and pushing the university forward, and quietly disparaging our administrators, questioning the character of our coaches, and even our student-athletes,” Trustee Brandon Short said. “And now it appears that some of those trustees are taking a very different public stance, the whisper campaign, to undermine our Athletic department. [It] needs to stop.”

The Holuba Hall renovations include adding a permanent videoboard with enhanced audio and video capabilities, which is intended to maximize practice time, and adding fixed cameras to help coaches with filming. The Lasch renovations will add an additional goal post, netting, and a play clock on the practice field.

Sarah Thorndike, senior vice president for finance and business, stated that at least 12 sports use Holuba Hall’s facility.

The board unanimously approved naming the building located at 2137 Research Drive in CATO Park the “Lidia Manson Building” after the first woman at Penn State to earn her master’s in engineering.

Additionally, the board unanimously approved purchasing 20.36 acres of land in Benner Township for agricultural research, as recommended by the Committee on Finance, Business, and Capital Planning Thursday. The funding for the $2.35 million property comes from the College of Agricultural Sciences.

Located at 131-151 Mendels Way, it features a 25,000-square-foot research greenhouse and a 3,324-square-foot, single-family residence. It’ll support the retention of plant scientists and students and provide additional space for field experiments.

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