Blue White Illustrated

the need for a strategic investment plan: He asks people to imagine that the uni- versity is a house that's for sale and the athletic department is the landscaping for that house. "If you see a house for sale that has bad landscaping, you're not going to want to look at that house," he said. "If the landscaping is good or even great, you're going to be eager to look in- side that house and see everything it has to o!er. Penn State has a $7 billion budget, and the athletic department budget is $160 million. Penn State is the house, and athletics is merely the land- scaping. However, great landscaping helps sell the house." There's no doubt that Penn State's foot- ball success since the late 1960s has turned a small rural enclave close to the geographic center of Pennsylvania into a thriving economic dynamo. It's a busi- ness bonanza that has stretched beyond the State College area into the surround- ing counties and beyond, as thousands of fans travel long distances to be part of the game day love fest for a football team. The pandemic, which restricted travel and caused the shutdown or permanent closure of many businesses, proved the economic impact of a successful or ultra-successful football team. "It's estimated that it cost the Centre County community $70 million because there were no fans in Beaver Stadium," Short said. "In running again for the Penn State board of trustees, I talked to a lot of those local businesses, the ho- tels and restaurants. Their rev- enues can vary 25 percent based on having a successful Penn State team that's nationally competitive in the fall versus a team that is not competitive. At the beginning of the season, everyone comes into town and spends, but if at the end of the year you're not competitive, less people show up and they spend less. So it has a negative e!ect on the econ- omy." One can only speculate on the e!ect a successful football team in 2021 will have on area businesses that are still struggling to recover from the pandemic. A good sign is that more student housing is being constructed, and some restau- rants that were tee- tering on the brink of closure like so many of their contemporaries during the pan- demic will be resuscitated. Short believes the education of stu- dent-athletes needs to be at the forefront of the university's spending initiatives. "Part of the investment in the Lasch Building goes to something called the '5th Quarter,' which is helping the student- athletes make the transition from college into their professions outside of profes- sional football," Short said. "We are an academic institution 6rst, and football is secondary to the core mission. The 5th Quarter supports that core mission." Short's family background and his ex- perience at Penn State are fundamental to his vocal support of the renovation proj- ect. He grew up in the poor section of McKeesport in suburban Pittsburgh, and football was his way out of the bleak life that awaited some of his close friends and classmates. His father and older brother wound up in jail, and he can't be certain what might have happened to him if not for his fraternal grandmother, Ozella Wilkes, a;er his mother, Andrea, died when he was 2 years old. Grandma Wilkes made sure Short stud- >> SOMETHING TO SAY Short speaks to an alumni gathering in Los Angeles prior to Penn State's ap- pearance in the 2017 Rose Bowl. He was elected to the uni- versity's board of trustees the follow- ing year. Photo by Patrick Mansell

• Cover