(07-13-2013 11:11 PM)nzmorange Wrote:  

(07-13-2013 10:03 PM)Knightsweat Wrote:  Why now? This is a dead issue. All parties involved at PSU have either perished, been arrested, or been dismissed. The people still at PSU are equally victims of these individuals. The fanbase is only guilty of denial that their legendary coach could allow that element to persist at their university. I do feel that same fanbase could have been more empathetic towards the victims and their families however.

Their punishment has been determined and they're serving it. Lets move on.

Well, to answer your first question, I'm interested in it because I'm alum, and I think that my alma mater is suffering from serous problems that it is unable to fix.

To answer your question, I think that you're wrong that the problem was the result of a few bad apples who have since been removed. I don't disagree that there are/were bad apples, but I think that there are systemic problems with the general environment at Penn State. Specifically, I think that there's way too much pressure to make money, directly through game day revenue, merchandise sales, media sales, and so on, and indirectly through donations. IMO, state underfunding has a lot to do with this. PSU appropriations are what they were in the 1980's in terms of dollar amounts, and what they were in the 1960's in terms of spending power.* Think about how much bigger the school is now than it was then. That has created a substantial financial crisis. Couple that with a school that is 100,000 people big (45,000 in state college, and 55,000 in satellite campuses) and you have an organization that is very, very unwieldy and hard to lead.** Obviously that isn't the athletic department's fault, but that has created a very intense environment, where there is a substantial amount of pressure to squeeze juice from rocks so to speak. That is a very, very strong motivator to cut corners and look the other way (which is what happened). Unfortunately, because of the importance of the football team in defining the university's self image,*** I think that a disproportionate amount of that pressure falls on the AD and the football coach. IMO, that isn't healthy. The university needs to diversify its identity and spread the pressure around, or at least place the pressure on someone more suitable.

I was at PSU during the Sandusky period, so I agree that there are many members of the university who are innocent. However, to say that we are just as much victims of the scandal as the kids/adults who were inappropriately touched is simply not the case. I am not as much of a victim as they are. That said, I appreciate your sentiment that many innocent fans/students would be paying for Sandusky's actions, but if people don't pay now, I think that other innocent people will pay much more in the future.

*For example, there was a big scandal in '06(?), where the university ran out of money and resorted to using tuition to pay for current construction projects, against university bylaws. I realize that doesn't sound ground-shaking, but that's the simplified version. The complex version is a lot more devious. Also, the university has been cutting programs left and right for a while now, including significant ones. I actually got an email in '11 (?) that used the word "cataclysmic" when describing PSU's financial situation and state support. Lest you still don't believe me, the university's financial position can physically be seen by the fact that the university is in the continued process of shutting down satellite campuses in favor of consolidating in State College to reduce overhead costs.

This sort of consolidation and the financial pressures from reduced state funding are going on in every state in the country.

**I guess there is no objective way to prove this, but the last two PSU presidents were Spanier and Erickson. Ask any PSU friends what you think of them. I feel very confident that almost none of them will say favorable things. However, I can say for certain that more PSU Board of Trustees have lost seats on the PSU BoT than there have been seats up for election since the scandal, and the university elected a former football player who graduated in '06(?) in the last election. That isn't exactly reassuring.

The current board was guilty of negligence. Then they tried to shuffle all the blame on Paterno and Spanier. If they weren't getting replaced, then [i]you should be worried.

***This can be seen through the football riots/riots in response to firing Joe Paterno and through the (IMO) underfunding of the basketball program. I realize that commenting on the state of the basketball program sounds weird, but I think that is an indicator of where the university's priorities are.

As I've said on here before, I think football recruiting was the last thing on their minds. They failed because they were worried about the whole university's reputation and their own personal liability and reputation. Its the sports fans who are criticizing them who are too focused on sports.

They probably will not do the death penalty again because it hurts the other schools they play as well. There are very big collateral impacts. SMU's penalty hastened the end of the SWC.