Penn State Students Want Transparency on University Ties to Natural Gas Industry

Susan Phillips

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Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

November 11, 2011 | 5:35 PM

For all of you tired of rioting Penn State students angry that their football coach would be fired for not reporting an alleged child rape to police, take heart in another protest planned for next week in Happy Valley. This protest is more celebratory than hostile, and it likely will not result in the tipping of television news vans. These students and their environmental friends from across the state will rally to mark their winning vote in last Tuesday’s election. State College voters approved a referendum to ban natural gas drilling in the borough. The campaign was primarily led by former and current PSU students.
But they too have a beef with the PSU Board of Trustees. The group Groundswell wants the men and woman on the board to disclose all funding the school has received from the natural gas industry and “its effects on the objectivity of this taxpayer-funded state university.” That rally will take place outside the Marcellus Summit 2011 at the Penn Stater Conference Center on Friday, November 18. Unlike the Joe Pa supporters, these students promise to be peaceful and non-confrontational.