Penn State trustees on Thursday reviewed the way the university's top lawyer interacts with the school's governing body, including the types of legal issues to which trustees must be alerted - both issues central to board operations in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex scandal.
 
The role of the general counsel and the office's interactions with the trustees has been under intense scrutiny amid the massive fallout from the scandal involving the retired assistant football coach and is even part of the legal defense being mounted by two former high-ranking officials facing criminal charges.
 
A trustees committee overseeing legal matters approved new guidelines for the general counsel that the full board is slated to vote on Friday.
 
The trustees began two days of regularly-scheduled meetings by gathering in separate committees Thursday. A committee overseeing governance recommended making the university president and governor nonvoting members of the 32-person board, though a vote by the full board on that issue may not occur for at least a couple months as trustees weigh other reforms.