PSU's Erickson thinks 'this is not a Penn State scandal.' Seriously.
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PSU's Erickson thinks 'this is not a Penn State scandal.' Seriously.
Attytood's coverage of the Penn State alumni "town hall" in King of Prussia:
There was no unruly throng flowing through the wide parking lots of King of Prussia last night, just a orderly single-file line of well-dressed Penn State alums filing into a carpeted hotel meeting room with a stage decked out in soothing flowers and tall potted plants. Despite an air of hostility toward a news media that one questioner accused of “McCarthyism,” there was never a thought of flipping over any of the news vans lined up on the outskirts of the Radisson Valley Forge.
Yet in kinder and gentler way, the more than 650 Penn State alumni who packed a so-called “town hall” meeting with already embattled new president Rodney Erickson were animated by the same basic instincts that caused some students to riot in the streets of State College two months earlier: Anger focused much more on the firing of football legend Joe Paterno than on the child-sex-abuse scandal and cover-up that provoked it, and shock and despair over the implosion of a campus football culture with quasi-religious overtones.
And so the first two questions tossed at Erickson from the floor of largely disaffected Penn State alums – and many of those that followed – dwelled on how the university could ever make things right with Paterno and why the university board of trustees was so quick to fire the winningest coach in major college history.
“He (Paterno) is the most single important Penn Stater in the history of the university,” declared the first questioner, who said he was a 1973 graduate and the son of a faculty member, causing the room to burst out in applause.
“Our overall thing is the lack of due process for Joe Paterno – he was a scapegoat,” said Steve Tross, a 1974 Penn State grad who lives in Paoli and works in marketing, one of last night’s early arrivals. “Everybody else is getting due process except Joe…I think there was a rush to judgment.”
if last night’s town hall – the second in a series of three confabs that started in Pittsburgh on Wednesday and ends tonight in New York – showed anything, it was how difficult it will be for Penn State to come to terms with November’s indictment of Paterno’s former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky on charges of molesting at least 10 boys going as far back as 1994 and the deepening questions over the university’s handling of the matter.
No one seemed to embody the conflict – and a stunningly persistent sense of denial – than Erickson, the genteel white haired former provost at center stage. Erickson, signed on to guide Penn State through 2014, repeatedly said his goal was “the guiding principle of openness and communication” – but those communications last night ignored the overwhelming failures of Penn State’s leaders in the Sandusky case.
“It grieves me very much when I hear people say that this is the Penn State scandal,” Erickson told one questioner last night. “This is the Sandusky scandal. This is not Penn State.”
Never once did Erickson, or anyone else, even mention that two former top Penn State officials – then-vice president Gary Schultz and athletic director Tim Curley – face criminal charges for allegedly lying about their handling of Sandusky. And for all the talk last night about Paterno, concerns that the football coach should have done more when learning in 2002 about a locker room allegation against Sandusky were never mentioned.
Indeed, for Erickson and Penn State, the new and belated drive for transparency still feels like what Richard Nixon’s Watergate-era White House famously called a “modified limited hangout” – and that may be giving this tour too much credit. Just this week, Erickson revealed that trustees and top officials were briefed on the Sandusky probe months before the indictment, raising new questions about what Penn State’s leaders knew and when did they know it. Many alumni asked, and rightfully so, why top trustees are not at these town halls, or why the minutes of the Nov. 9 board meeting at which Paterno and then-president Graham Spanier were ousted have not been made public. Others, including the Penn State faculty. still seek a real independent probe conducted by outsiders.
They shouldn’t hold their breath. Not when the No. 1 man in Happy Valley is still clinging to the fantasy that this is only “a Jerry Sandusky scandal.”
Drunk & Irish go together for you,2ndNlong ? Any other pairings you'd like to announce ?— Max Effort- What has always bothered me about Penn State for years is this notion of Happy Valley. Townies, local politicians, law enforcement, and the university all marching in tune and in full support of the vaunted PSU football program and Joe Pa. Besides the lying of school administrators and the possibility of police cover up, the thing that bugs me the most is how they purposely waited to arrest him after Joe Pa got his record. You ride together, you die together. Everyone deserved what they got in this, except the victims. The annoying alumni should accept it. If not, make it better. But stop complaining about a second rate state school.— beegal99
- Unless someone at the DN was covering up or hiding evidence to the allegations of sexual abuse by Conlin, then how is this a DN cover-up? Logic like this can only be derived from a state school graduate.— beegal99
- Thank you Mr. Bunch for taking on the PSU Cult. Yes, PSU, I said CULT. That's what you are. I would be terrified to see how you would react if it was one of your children affected by the molestation and the culture that enabled it. Why? Because you're so extreme, I have to wonder if you would tell your own child to keep quiet. BREAK THE PSU CULT! Thanks again, Mr. Bunch. Great and courageous article as always.— LarzNero
- Whether we call this a Penn State scandal or a Jerry Sandusky scandal is irrelevant and serves only as screaming match fodder for talk radio and philly.com comments. We can all agree that this is a scandal of disgusting misbehaviors that happened at Penn State and was even enabled to some extent by Penn State leaders. But let's also agree that there are tens of thousands of people who attend and work Penn State who have NOTHING to do with this and are just doing their work and trying to get ahead. Let's resist the temptation to blow this up as big as it can get just so that it's more fun to yell about.— CCcomment
- The taxpayers are paying $500,000 a year for this jack A?? A lot of "penn state" (no caps) management personnel knew of this and the coverup will come out some day. This is more about the lack of a real penn state mentality. Its all about the money. Keep those $20,000 a month pension payments coming.— GarnetValley Mike
- Amazing how, if you correlate the Catholic Church scandel to the Penn State scandel, one is a "Catholic Church" scandel, yet Penn State still insists this is only about Sandusky. Face it, a cover up is a cover up. Should this reflect on the whole of Penn State? No, but it certainly should Joe Paterno. Shame on him...How can he live with himself????— jpietro
- If this was a football item, don't you think the Coach would have followed up. Make a call or inquire, did we address this?
Even the coach has gone on record saying he wish he did more.
Football was the priority, and they hoped this Sandusky issue would get glazed over.
The silence and inaction shows a colossal failure at the highest levels at Penn State.
For all the good Penn State has done, and they've done plenty for a long time - the lack of action when these alleged crimes were taking place leaving children in danger for years is as bad as it gets.
What is an educational institution, if they don't do what's right when nobody's looking?— Fan74 - We Are........In Denial.— Wilhelm Von Humboldt
Frankly, this is a Joe Paterno scandal. Whether that's fair or not, that's what bothers PSU fans, students, and clearly these alumni the most, and drives the media coverage. What "due process" can ever exculpate Joe from not doing what was morally right?- ===))) Let's resist the temptation to blow this up as big as it can get just so that it's more fun to yell about. (((===
CCcomment gets it right again.
IMO, situations like that at PSU all too frequently devolve into sanctimonious contests between those who want to be the loudest voice denouncing child molestation. Child abuse is astonishingly common in our society, and what happened at PSU is reflective of the fact that no matter what we want to believe, our American fellow-citizens (not just in America, of course) have human failings. The problem is that if you stay with that instead of being the loudest child molestation hater, you open yourself up to grandstanding by the likes of bile.atkins - who seek to exploit this kind of tragic turn of events for political gains or to pump up their flagging sense of self worth by pointing the finger and saying that others are inferior because they're less loud in their sanctimonious molester-hating.
Trading protestations about who is the most offended, and who would punish the perpetrators most harshly, does absolutely nothing to address the roots of the problem or to diminish the ubiquity of child molestation. Of course, PSU needs to look hard and deep at its institutional failings that served to enable the continuation of a horrible situation. But all institutions suffer from the same protectionist tendencies, and all humans sometimes find ways to convince themselves that thinks they don't want to believe aren't happening. All these holier-than-thou explanations for what happened - assertions that what happened took place because hundreds or thousands of people at one particular institution are, of course, morally inferior to ourselves, will not help one iota.— Talking point sleuth - The fact that the people who showed up were angry should not surprise anyone. Who do you think is more likely to show up at these meetings?— mindstorms
Comment removed.- "This is the Sandusky scandal. This is not Penn State." Way to go, Erickson. By distancing yourself and university officials from Sandusky -- again! -- you maintain a status quo that led to the rape of an innocent boy on the Penn State campus. My Penn State diploma comes down from my office wall today.— iceman
- Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but at least get your facts correct. Joe Paterno did not say he wished he had done more. Another typical misinformed person taking something out of context. What he said is KNOWING WHAT I KNOW NOW i wish I had done more. That is a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT statement. Know your facts idiot.— psualum2000
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