PSU's Erickson thinks 'this is not a Penn State scandal.' Seriously.
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.”
Will, those who live in glass houses should not throw stones... and the Inky Building is one big glass house.— CD75- The comments: "This is not a Penn State scandal" and "Why did joe get fired?" are frightening in their delusional avoidance of the pertinent issues. Penn State is embarassing themselves at every turn of events. And now it looks like a PR battle to the death. Sad.— defiore14
- "What "due process" can ever exculpate Joe from not doing what was morally right?"
Also, while due process is a great concept, its more applicable in a court of law. Not an instituiton's decision to remove a coach.— RG - WHy is this all about Joe Paterno getting fired? What about the poor kids that were molested and the lack of true leadership at Penn State and let this awful situation go on for years. If the alumni are so upset about Joe getting fired then stop contributing to Penn State and give the money to a better cause like abuse centers for children. THE CHILDREN ARE THE REAL VICTIMS NOT JOE PA!— avmjr
- Seriously, Bill Conlin was not a scandal either. What doesn't he get covered at all? How did he get the media coverage pass?— boroughboy
- First of all, I think all PSU alumni are horrified by what has happened at PSU and do recognize the real victims in all of this. I think alums just don't understand why Joe was fired immediately while Curley and Schultz (who are accused of felony perjury charges) are allowed to be on "leave" and go back into "retirement" with PSU paying their legal fees!!— jtm224
"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" . . . TPS, I'm not sure anyone is accusing "thousands of people" of moral inferiority. The PSU campus represents a cross section of society, no worse but no better either. Institutional accountability is a function of society, so maybe we should ask how we failed PSU, not how PSU failed us.- Talking point slueth, you are entirely too level headed and well read. Perhaps, take a job at the DN/INQ and slueth your way to findin out about Conlin. One blogger said there is no scandal there. How would he know? The paper is not going to investigate itself.— boroughboy
- Good post, Will. And while I'm on the subject - I'm looking forward to reading as many posts about the Marines urinating on dead Taliban as you posted about the Abu Ghraib episode.... and the implications of our (tippy) top leaders.— michael_b
- The notion it is not a PSU scandal is the voicing of mass delusion. Georgel gets it right in referencing 'plausible deniability'. The actions taken by the university were made in an attempt to protect them, not to seek justice. The institutional cover-up remains the story. PSU is taking it seriously because the story broke. Someone right now, being paid by the university, is trying to figure out ways to spin this positively for the best outcome for the university, everything else being secondary.— Murrayman
- "The actions taken by the university were made in an attempt to protect them, not to seek justice. The institutional cover-up remains the story."
I'd agree to an extent. However, I disagree that the term university is interchangeable with Paterno, Curley, and Schultz. While high ranking representatives of the University, they don't compose the entire makeup of the organization.
— RG - "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." . . . Know your facts? What he said was, "With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more." In other words, he would have acted differently if given a second chance, not if he knew any more than he did at the time. He's testified to what he was told by the grad assistant, so what else did he need to know?
- This isnt a Penn State scandle? Let me get this straight. Didn't part of the PSU administration try to brush this Sandusky thing under the rug when it was reported to them? Sorry, this is very much a Penn State scandal.— Ralo_Larson
- MSL -
That's some heavy duty parsing you're doing there. You are technically correct, but isn't it possible that what he meant was "If I had known then what I know now, I would have done more at the time?"
===))) "He's testified to what he was told by the grad assistant, so what else did he need to know? " {{{===
Perhaps he now knows that he deluded himself at the time.
For me, the point is how can we hold on to the fact that sometimes, as humans, we avoid seeing what we don't want to see, without somehow justifying a failure to act in a situation that calls for action. My answer is that finger-pointing and smug certainty of moral superiority is not likely to prove beneficial.— Talking point sleuth - Paterno is GUILTY for looking the other way and should be ashamed...but donating more money to the campus makes it all better. It makes my blood boil seeing those alumni stand and defend him! To Paterno, football is more important than the safety of our children.— Joe152
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