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.”
Penn State get your check book out. Can't wait to see the check you are going to have to write Joe. Corbett will wrot in hell for this one! Big man trying to make a name for himself in the Bankrupt state capital. Joe was a scape goat!!!— eaglelover1979- RG - Thank you, but my point is that I'm sure the same situation applied to the some of the Conlin victims. PSU didn't even bother finding out the name of the victim who was abused on campus.— wokmaster
- "Give us another step in the plan (tax code and entitlement reform) and maybe more will buy in" ITs been suggested to the nth degree. There must be a significant increase in spending almost all at once to get us to the point where we come back into line with what would historically be full employment output, with expected wage increases in line with productivity. Until then it will be an economy stuck int he mire. This not suggesting an increase in long-term spending. Yes, it would be very much like dropping federal money orders from a helicopter, that mandate they be spent or expire worthless. For the 1000th time no one is suggesting expiration of EGRRA and 2003 Mother Hen Apple Pie Your Either With Us tax cuts would balance the budget.— Murrayman
- I for one was offended by the Queen Anne-style chair used by the president. It gave the appearance of elitism.— lgroniko
- Mr. Erickson is clearly missing some obvious stuff here. He's either following poor advice or (worse) actually believes what he's saying. This isn't an issue that will go away with a little time/patience. This isn't an issue that can be spun to minimize the university's negative exposure. This is one of the few times when it's an honest-to-god BFD. The more the PSU folks treat it otherwise, the worse it will be.— HorshamGuy
- Hwy Will Bunch, where is your article on Conlin and our opportunity to comment. Crickets . . . . .— phillynupe4
- And, by the way, where is disgraced former PSU president Graham Spanier? Erickson is acting as a Spanier clone, which should be no surprise, because Erickson worked side-by-side with the master of Penn State secrecy and arrogance for how many years? Erickson needs to resign, and Spanier needs to emerge from hiding in his condo and answer a lot of questions. Erickson is doing little more than running interference to allow Spanier to build his wall of deniability as high as possible before the trials begin. By the way, academicsatire.com posted an early draft of Spanier's alleged letter of resignation, the one he made public after he was fired, the one that allows him to collect a paycheck is both a retired president and a full professor on sabbatical even though Spanier has done no scholarship for decades.— pipenozzle
- Thanks to the editors for the "unlimited commenting".— tr88
- poorcarole, you sound like a typical name calling poster. Idiot indeed...I directed a child advocacy center for 20 years thank you, one that fostered several programs regarding child abuse and at risk children, such as a let's prevent abuse puppet program for elementary school children participated in reform legislation for at risk children including special education for children with handicaps and the creation of the state's guardian ad litem for abused children program....i'm currently senior child abuse counsel for my home county, and got my law degree at Temple. Your unjust characterizations and generalizations about me make it easy to see how you generalized and marginalized a terrible account of child abuse into a Paterno problem. And Mr. Mike, if it were my grandson, I'd make sure he had therapy, recognize that there were many people in the chain who could have intervened, and make sure his case was private and sheilded him from the circus exposure of the media.
So if I sound like an idiot what does that make you guys and gals sound like. When you work in this field everyday, you sense how trivial you all sound.— retzlaff 
"I am just questioning why JoePa is deserving of outrage yet the parents would not be. Neither took their concerns to law enforcement." . . . . Assuming the parents were made aware of Sandusky's actions, then it goes without saying. Did Paterno attempt to inform them? Keep in mind that young children are very reluctant to report abuse by authority figures unless the perp is a total stranger, fearing reprisals, because who will believe them against the adult's denials? Imagine when it's a priest, let alone a popular respected member of the community like Sandusky? Paterno isn't stupid. He would have understood that children are extremely reluctant to report abuse themselves, voluntarily. What steps did he take afterward to see if his superiors were "looking into the matter" as promised? Didn't this ever nag at his conscious?- You hit the nail on the head. Not to menion, the victim also feels that they are equally at fault. — wokmaster
-
A monster like that could not have done that much damage to so many children without a support system and Joe Pa gave that to him.
— donnar - How is this not a Penn State scandal???? It happened at Penn State didn't it???? The highest levels of administration at Penn State could have stopped the guy but didn't right????? The incident was covered up at Penn State wasn't it???? I'm an alumnus of Penn State and I realize that it is important for the school to accept responsibility for what happened so it doesn't again. The new so-called President of the University should be fired....again!— balove1977
- "Assuming the parents were made aware of Sandusky's actions, then it goes without saying."
I meant the parents in the Conlin case. A few of them were aware of the allegations.
As for PSU, it's my understnading that they still cannot find the child from the shower incident.— RG 
Paterno and anyone aware should be jailed; criminal by allowing this to continue. Or to enjoy themselves. Think about it!— Ben Fan
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