Charges have many questioning their confidence in Penn State

Say it isn't so, Joe.

That was the sentiment on campus Monday, as students and faculty struggled to reconcile their pride in Pennsylvania State University's high ethical standards with the release of a grand jury's report that an alleged child molester - a member of the university's elite football team leadership - had been preying on children for years while his superiors knew and did little to stop him.

Even, perhaps, the revered, practically deified football coach Joe Paterno.

On a sun-dappled day, when students filled outdoor tables at the HUB student center, leaned against trees, propping laptops on their knees, few conversations managed to veer away from the dark matter of what the scandal would mean for the school and the man regarded as its greatest leader.

No charges have been brought against Paterno, who learned in 2002 that a graduate assistant football coach had reported seeing former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky assaulting a boy in a shower at the football complex.

Although Paterno reported the incident to the athletic director, students seem preoccupied with the question of whether the coach should have done more.

"It's just a tragic situation," said Laurel Petrulionis, 19, a freshman from Hollidaysburg, Pa. "I'm very proud of my university, but for it to come out that the priority of the administration was to protect its reputation over seeking justice for the children and their emotional welfare? I think all members of the administration who had knowledge that children were being raped and who didn't scream about it need to be held accountable."

Damion Gates, 22, a senior majoring in economics, said his first concern was for the victims. "My prayers go out to the families of those boys," he said.

Gates, treasurer of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity, said he was pained to think "that a man like this was employed by our university. We are going to a school that definitely enforces integrity and really values students of moral fiber."

And he could not make sense of Sandusky's work: running a nonprofit organization that helped disadvantaged children. "It's weird that a person who can do so much good has the ability to do something so despicable," he said.

Paterno, though, remains above reproach in Gates' view. "He's the face of Penn State," he said. "I believe that if he had known, he would have done everything in his power to make sure nothing like that happened again."

Rumors have started that the entire administration will be brought down over the next few weeks, and at the very least, the tawdry headlines and resignation of athletic director Tim Curley will hamper the football's team recruitment efforts.

The team was known for requiring athletes to maintain good grades, said Andrew Sonstroem, 18, from Burlington, Conn. "Now it's going to be tougher to get the better recruits."

On Twitter, Noah Spence, a hot prospect high school football player from Harrisburg, sent a chill through the school's fan base with his announcement, "Um psu might be a no no for me ewwww.";

The faculty, trying to conduct classes and remain focused, could not avoid the scandal.

S. Shyam Sundar, a professor in the university's school of communication, said he could not help thinking about his own family and how vulnerable children can be. Sundar said he had received sympathetic e-mails from colleagues across the country.

"You would think," Sundar said, "something like this should have come out earlier than it did."

Still, he said, he worries about 20-20 hindsight: "There is an inclination to see events as more predictable than when they occurred."

At the offices of the independent student newspaper, the Collegian, boxes of cold pizza piled up as the staff worked every angle of the story. Editors conferred about coverage - a Paterno news conference Tuesday, the arraignments, and details about wide receivers coach Mike McQueary, who reported one of the alleged assaults when he was a graduate assistant. Across the room, a reporter struggled with a piece about the removal of Sandusky Blitz ice cream from the menu at the college's beloved Berkey Creamery.

Outside the football complex at dusk someone draped a sign around a statue of Paterno: "May no act of ours bring shame."

Not everyone is willing to give Paterno the benefit of the doubt. Michael Dinnella, 19, a sophomore engineering major, walked by the football stadium carrying a large white poster on which he had written: "Spanier Step Down." He said he thought university president Graham Spanier was complicit in a cover-up.

"It's the old boys' club, just like the Catholic Church," said Dinnella, who attended St. Pius X in Pottstown.

And while Paterno may not have violated the letter of the law, he said, "for 10 years, he saw kids at his practice with this man. He should have gone to the police. The men who have the cuffs. . . . Penn State has built a legacy around Paterno that I hope to God doesn't come shattering down around him.